Andrea Ackerman

Andrea Ackerman is an artist living and working in New York. At Yale she studied physics and biophysics; afterwards she graduated Harvard Medical School, with a concentration in Neuroscience, and trained and practiced as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She gradually turned though, to a career as an artist. She has used digital technology since the mid 1990's. Ackerman does all the creative and technical work on her projects. Her work is created at the intersection of technology, nature, aesthetics and ethics. She imbues objects with qualities not ordinarily occurring in nature, creating a synthetic nature. Specific aspects of 2D and 3D still and animation software are applied in subtle ways like using effects meant for fluids on rose petals or skin. The images are visually genetically engineered and animated with cross species qualities. Ackerman believes finding meaningful ways to use these cross category effects is essential to the evocation of a seamless transformation - digital to human. Her first series, largely 2D, is Synthetic Landscapes, which are meant to function as portable gardens for use in the extreme denatured urban environments we inhabit. The current works are 3D computer animations, using Maya (3D animation soft...

Education
Yale College B.S., cum laude, 1974, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Harvard Medical School, MD, 1978, Concentration Neuroscience
Trained and practiced as child psychiatrist/psychoanalyst 1980 to 1992 (Advanced Candidate at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute)
New York University, School for Continuing and Professional Studies, Center for Advanced Digital Applications, Maya (3D Computer Animation) - February/March 2001, Pixars Renderman (3D Computer Animation) - May 2001.

Academic Experience: Visiting Instructor, 3D Computer Modeling, School of Art and Design, Computer Graphics and Interactive Media, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Fall, 2004

Upcoming Events
1. Panelist on Can Geeks be Humanists?, College Art Association (CAA) 95th Annual Conference, New Media Caucus Panel, moderated by Marcia Tanner, February 14-17 2007, New York, New York. http://conference.collegeart.org/2007/ http://www.newmediacaucus.org/ .

Selected Group Exhibitions
1. Instant Gratification, Like the Spice Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, January 12th- February 17th 2007, curated by Marisa Sage, www.likethespice.com .
2. Rose Breathing featured at the Live Box Gallery, Nova Art Fair htt...