This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Professor Emerita Catherine Richards | |
|---|---|
| Richards with her work "Virtual Body" | |
| Born | 1947 (age 78–79) |
| Education | Honours Bachelor of Arts in English (York University), Honours Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts (University of Ottawa) |
| Alma mater | York University, University of Ottawa |
| Known for | New Media, Virtual reality artist |
| Notable work | Virtual Body, Shroud/Chrysalis, L'Intrus, Curiosity Cabinet at the end of the Millennium, Charged Hearts |
| Movement | New Media Arts |
| Awards | Individual Fellow Award, World Technology Network (2006), Canada Council for the Arts, Petro-Canada Media Biennial Arts award for outstanding and innovative use of new technologies in media arts (1993), Canadian Conference of the Arts Corel Prize for innovative projects in arts and new technologies (1992), High End Computer Graphics and Grand Prize Computer Graphics prize (1987) |
| Elected | Invited member of a Selection Committee, 2018 National Doctoral Awards competition, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) |
| Website | catherinerichards |
Catherine Richards (born August 4, 1947) Catherine Richards is a Canadian visual artist who utilizes information technologies and electronic media, both antiquated and state-of-the-art, to create mixed media installations and performances. Through her practice, Richards investigates the boundaries of the human body and its volatility, especially as electromagnetic fields and networked technologies render these boundaries increasingly permeable and uncertain. Her work makes visible the invisible infrastructures that surround contemporary bodies, from wireless signals to high-voltage currents.
Richards is recognized internationally for her groundbreaking contributions to new media art, particularly her pioneering exploration of embodiment and the interfaces between technology and the human body. [1] Her work has been discussed by major theorists including N. Katherine Hayles and Frances Dyson, and featured in key surveys such as Art & Science Now (Thames & Hudson), edited by Stephen Wilson. [2] She has exhibited at prominent venues including the 2004 Sydney Biennale and the National Gallery of Canada. [3]
Her career has been distinguished by significant awards and fellowships. In 1993, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded her the Petro-Canada Award in Media Arts for Spectral Bodies (1991), recognizing it as an "outstanding and innovative use of new technologies in media arts." [3] From 2002 to 2005, she received the Artist in Residence for Research Fellowship (AIRes) at the National Research Council of Canada, where she collaborated extensively with scientists—a hallmark of her practice. Notably, in 1991, together with Nell Tenhaaf, Richards co-organized the Virtual Seminar and residency on the BIOAPPARATUS at the Banff Centre for the Arts, one of the first public art events in Canada to examine virtual realities and technological-biological interfaces. [4] [1]
Born and raised in Ottawa, Catherine Richards earned a B.A. (Honours) in English from York University (1971) and B.A. (Honours) in Visual Arts from the University of Ottawa (1980). She was granted an equivalent of a doctorate pursuant to University of Ottawa Article 23.4.2.3 in 1997. [5] [6]
Richards' practice is rooted in Research Creation and collaborative projects that bring together interdisciplinary teams to investigate the human body in relation to science technology. She is concerned with agency and connection, immersion and isolation. In a world that increasingly insists on "plugging in," what might it mean to assert boundaries between the self and electromagnetic field humans are becoming increasingly entrained with. [3] Richards explores human emotions, as well, attempting to model the slippage between physiology and emotions in her work. [3]
Her practice is informed by her earliest influences in media theory, philosophies of technology, the technologized body early concepts of post-humanism. The philosophical grounding of her work is in the scholarship of Marshall McLuhan, Harold Innis, and George Grant. [5] [7] During her tenure with the Canadian Government she worked in various positions at the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, Federal Department of Communications, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, providing access to some of the earliest developments in computer graphics. [8] She also had access to the National Film Board of Canada, which was also transformative, under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau. Paul Virilio's writing on the philosophy of technology and aesthetics played an important role. [7]
Richards' also cites the historical Avant Garde as an important influence on her work. [5]
"Curiosity Cabinet at the End of the Millennium (1995) inverts the historical logic of the curiosity cabinet, transforming the viewing subject into the viewed object. Rather than containing fragments of the world as demonstration of imperial mastery, Richards' copper mesh cabinet contains the human participant, offering temporary sanctuary from the invisible electromagnetic spectrum that permeates contemporary existence. The participant climbs inside and closes the door, completing a circuit that transforms the cabinet into what Richards terms a "safe house,” a Faraday cage that conducts radio frequencies, microwaves, television signals, cellular transmissions, and other elements of the upper RF spectrum through its copper surfaces and into the earth via a thick braided ground wire. Inside this refuge, the participant becomes simultaneously protected and displayed: visible through the copper screening to outside viewers, yet electromagnetically isolated, unplugged from the perpetual bath of human-generated frequencies." [5]
"Charged Hearts (1997) consists of three principal types of objects: the central Terrella, two anatomically correct glass hearts, and an online game. The Terrella orb contains phosphorescent charged gases, alluding to the original use in the nineteenth century to replicate Aurora Borealis, while also simulating the earth’s magnetic poles. Within the Terrella is a cathode ray, the technological basis for television and computer screens. The pair of glass hearts glow within their bell jars (themselves classic vessels that allow observation), being electrically charged by the Terrella. For viewers to safely handle the hearts and lift them up, the organs are encased in glass and loosely tethered by a copper coil at their bases. Embracing the domes evokes changes in the Terrella and hearts, prompting pulsations in light intensity, as viewers become material participants in the electrical current. The fragile components elicit greater carefulness with proximity, paralleling human vulnerability to desire systems, affect, and intimacy. The glass hearts are charged both literally and figuratively; the human heart remains the symbolic seat of emotions and is also a very real electromagnetic field. The excited electrons flutter and pulse within the vacuum sealed hearts and activate changes in the Terrella. When touched, a shadowy heart appears in the phosphorescent gases." [5]
Source unless otherwise cited: [8]
2014
When Objects Have Agency. Open Gallery, OCADU. Toronto, ON.
Objects That Make Us. The Manitoba Museum. Winnipeg, MN.
2007
Health Care, Technologies and Places (HTCP): Contributions and Provocations fromHumanists and Artists. University of Toronto. Toronto, ON.
2000
Excitable Tissues. Ottawa Art Gallery. Ottawa, ON. [9]
Art, Science, and Creativity. National Research Council of Canada. Ottawa, ON.
Creativity 2000. National Research Council of Canada. Ottawa, ON.
1999
Curiosities. Dunlop Art Gallery. Regina, SK. [10]
1998
Charged Hearts. Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University. Detroit, MI. [11]
Charged Hearts. Powerplant Gallery. Habourfront, Toronto, ON. [12]
1997
Charged Hearts. Commissioned, National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, ON.
1980
Sites. Warehouse Wellington Street. Montreal, PQ.
c1970s
Closed Circuit Pieces. Pestalozzi College. Ottawa, ON.
Source unless otherwise cited: [8]
2024
Art School Confidential. Ottawa Art Gallery. Ottawa, ON. [13]
2019
24/7. Sommerset House. London, UK. [14]
Carbon and Light. Ottawa Art Gallery. Ottawa, ON. [15]
2018
Àdisòkàmagan / Nous connaître un peu nous-mêmes / We’ll all become stories. Ottawa Art Gallery. Ottawa, ON. [16]
2017
Corpus. New Media Gallery. Vancouver, BC. [17]
Great and North. Istituto Veneto Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Venice, Italy.
2016
The Body Electric. Virtual Exhibition. Royal College of Physicians and International Conference on Residency Education. [18]
Hybrid Bodies. Kunstkraftwerk. Leipzig, Germany. [19]
2015
The Age of Catastrophe. Actual Contemporary & Video Pool Media Arts Centre, Winnipeg, MN. [20]
Hearts and Minds. Hannah Maclure Centre, University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. [21]
Flesh of the World. Doris McCarthy Gallery. Toronto, ON. [22]
2014
Still Lives. PHI Centre, Montreal, PQ.
2013
Transitio_MX 05 Biomediaciones. New Media Art and Video Festival. Mexico City, Mexico.
Patent Pending. ZERO1 Garage. San Jose, CA. [23]
Heart of the Moment: Selections from the Permanent Collection. 25th Anniversary. Ottawa Art Gallery. Ottawa, ON. [24]
Hybrid Bodies. PHI, Concordia University, Montreal, PQ. [25] 2012 SPLICE: At the Intersection of Art & Medicine. Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, ON. [26]
L’intrus. YYZ Gallery, Toronto, ON.
Mirror Neurons: AV Festival. The National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK. [27]
2010
PROTOTYPE, Electric Fields: Festival of Electronic Art and Sound. Karsh-Masson Gallery. Ottawa, ON. [28]
2008
SPECTROPIA. 10th International festival for new media culture, Art+Communications. Riga City Exhibition Hall. Riga, Latvia. [29]
Imagining Science: An Exploration of Science, Society and Social Change. Art Gallery of Alberta. Edmonton, AB. [30]
2007
e-art, Les vases communicants. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Montreal, QC.
Global Eyes. ACM SIGGRAPH. San Diego, CA. [31]
Science in Art. Virtual exhibition Galerie de l’UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal), Virtual Museum of Canada. [32]
2006
Resonance: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project. V2/TENT. Rotterdam, Netherlands. [33]
Resonance: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project. Ludwig Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art. Budapest, Hungary. [34]
Resonance: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project. Centro Cultural Conde Duque Medialab. Madrid, Spain. [35]
Resonance: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project. Maison européenne de la photographie (MEP). Paris, France.
2005
Resonance: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project. ZKM: Center for Art and Media. Karlsruhe, Germany.
Resonance: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project. Oboro. Montreal, PQ. [36]
Digital Discourse. St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity. Valletta, Malta.
The Art Formally Known as New Media. Walter Phillips Gallery. The Banff Centre for the Arts. Banff, AB. [37]
2004
As yet unnameable. Bard College. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. [38]
Sydney Biennale 2004. Sydney, Australia. [39]
2000
Engaging the Virtual. Dalhousie Art Gallery. Halifax, NS. [40]
1998
Aurora. Interaccess Gallery. Toronto, ON. [12]
Cyber Heart. Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts. Banff, AB.
1995
Curiosity Cabinet, at the End of the Millennium. International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA), Montreal, QC. [41]
Self Determination / Body Politic. Gemeentemuseum. Arnhem, Holland. [42]
Time, Space and Realities. A Space Gallery. Toronto, ON.
1994
The Body Obsolete. SAW Gallery. Ottawa, ON.
Arte Virtual. Metro Opera. Madrid, Spain.
15 years of Ars Electronica. Landesgalerie, Museum of Contemporary Art. Linz, Austria. [43]
The Virtual Body. The International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA). Helsinki, Finland. [44]
1993
State of the Image. Eldorado Museum. Antwerp, Belgium.
Teckno Viscera. Institute of Modern Art. Fortitude Valley, Australia. [45]
1981
Circuit + -. Galerie Motivation Cinq. Montreal, PQ.
1979
Recent Work and Work in Progress. SAW Gallery. Ottawa, ON.
1973
Multi-monitor Installations and Performance pieces. [46] First Women and Film International Festival. Ottawa, ON.
“Hearts and Agency." Jill Scott (ed) TRANSDISCOURSE 3: Gender in Art, Science and Body Politics. Vienna: De Gruyter, 2019.
“Hybrid Bodies: Rethinking Heart Transplantation.” The Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University. (Montreal, Quebec) pp 40-49, 2016.
“Excitable Tissues and Virtual Worlds: Art, Science, and Technology”. Inno’va-tion: Essays by Leading Canadian Researchers. (Canadian Foundation for Innovation, 2002) www.innovation.ca Republished: Judith Miller (ed), Reading & Writing Canada. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company). Approximately pp 4, 2005.
"Tactical Zones: Collapse of the Visual”. Cartographies: The General Assembly on New Media Art / Cartographies: Les États généraux de nouveau médias: Conference Proceedings. Montreal: Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts / L’Inter-Société des arts électroniques. 2000.
“Body Boundaries”. Paul Hertz (ed). YLEM.19.2, Jan/Feb. pp 15-24, 1999.
“Fungal Intimacy: The Cyborg Trope in Feminism and Media Art.” in Lyn Hershman Leeson (ed), Clicking In: Hot Links to a Digital Culture. (San Francisco: Bay Press) pp 258-263, 1996.
“It's Déjà Vu All Over Again: Virtual Reality.” Canadas. (New York: Semiotext(e)) pp 264-267, 1994.
“Virtual Bodies: What a Blow that Phantom Gave Me”. Angles of Incidence: reflections of multimedia artworks. Proceedings of the Multimedia Communications ’93 Conference, International Council or Computer Communications, Banff, April, 1993. Banff: Media Arts Program – Banff Centre for the Arts, pp 15-22, 1993.
Richards, Catherine and Nell Tenhaaf eds. Virtual Seminar on the Bioapparatus. Banff Centre for the Arts,120 pp, 1991.
“Virtual Reality: The Rebirth of Pure Art?”. Woman's Art. 41: 4-6, 1991.
“Virtual Worlds, Digital Images”. American Film Institute Video Festival. Los Angeles, CA: American Film Institute, pp 66-67, 1987.
“Mapping a Sensibility: Computer Imaging”. SIGGRAPH’ 83: Exhibition of Computer Art. Chicago, IL: Siggraph - Special Interest group for Computer Graphics and Animation, pp 21, 1983.
“Computer Culture”. Agenda. 5.1:17-21 (Spring) 1982.
Arozqueta, Claudia. Heartbeat Art. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2025.
Asselin, Olivier. Art School Confidential. Ottawa: Ottawa Art Gallery, 2024.
Heeyoung, Kim. “Media Archaeology Methodology and Artistic Practice.” Public Art, Volume 20 (2023): 38.
Century, Michael. Northern Sparks : Innovation, Technology Policy, and the Arts in Canada from Expo ’67 to the Internet Age. 1st ed. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2022.
Langill, Caroline Seck. Carbon + Light: Juan Geuer’s luminous precision. Ottawa: Ottawa Art Gallery, 2019.
Cumming, Laura. “24/7: A Wake-Up Call for our Non-Stop World Review – in search of lost time”. The Guardian. 2019. Online publication. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/10/24-7-a-wake-up-call-for-our-non-stop-world-review-comerset-house-london
McIver, Gillian. “’What does it mean to be humans?’ Biotechnologies, Ethics and Art”. The Art Traveller. 2018. Online publication.
El- Sheikh, Tammer. “The Body Which is not One: four artists’ responses to the culture and experience of heart transplantation” Hybrid Bodies. Rethinking Heart Transplantation. Canada: Concordia University, 2016.
Bruneau, Jaclyn. “The Body’s Freedom in Restriction” Canadian Art. 2015. Online publication.
Tofts, Darren. “View in half or varying light: Joel Zika's neo-baroque aesthetics” Digital Light. Sean Cubitt, Daniel Palmer and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds). Open Humanities Press, 2015. 193-203
Cook, Sarah, & Diamond, Sara (eds). The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues: Euphoria and Dystopia. Banff: Banff Center Press, 2011. 490-97.
Mura, Gianluca (ed.). “Case Study: Catherine Richards.” Metaplasticity in Virtual Worlds: Aesthetics and Semantic Concepts. Igi Global, 2011. 61-63.
Dyson, Frances. “Enchanting data: body, voice and tone in affective computing.” Emotion, Place and Culture. Liz Bondi, Laura Cameron, Joyce Davidson, Mick Smith (eds). Aldershot, Hants, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2009. 247-266.
Dyson, Frances. “Atmospheres”.Sounding New Media: rhetorics of immersion and embodiment in the arts. California: UC Press, 2009. 1-246.
Langill, Caroline. Shifting Polarities: Exemplary Works of Canadian Electronic Media Art Produced Between 1970 and 1991. Montreal, QC: La fondation Daniel Langlois, 2009.
Tuer, Dot. “The Heart of the Matter: the Mediation of Science in the Art of Catherine Richards.” Mining the Media Archive. Essays on Art, technology, and cultural resistance. Canada: XYZ Books, 2005. 25-33.
Sawchuck, Kim. “Charged Heart: The Electronic Art of Catherine Richards.” Horizon 0.6. Banff New Media Institute, 2005.
Hayles, N. Katherine. “Supersensual Chaos and Catherine Richards' "Excitable Tissues".” Catherine Richards: Excitable Tissues, edited by Sylvie Fortin, The Ottawa Art Gallery, 2003, pp. 9–24.
Morse, Margaret. “The Poetics of Interactivity.” Women, Art & Technology. Judy Malloy (ed). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003. 17-31.
Sawchuk, Kim. “Charged Heart: The Electronic Art of Catherine Richards.” Horizon Zero. Issue 06. Banff New Media Institute, 2003.
Phelan, Peggy. Art and Feminism. Reckitt, Helena (ed). New York: Phaidon Press, 2001. 171-172, 292.
Sawchuk, Kim. “Catherine Richards.” Parachute: Contemporary Art Magazine. 89, Jan/Feb/March (1998): 49-50.
Dyson, Frances. “Charged Havens.” World Art. March (1996): 42-47.
Hayles, Katherine N. “Embodied Virtuality: Or How To Put Bodies Back in the Picture”. Immersed In Technology: Art and Virtual Environments. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996. 1-28.
Huhtamo, Erkki. “Excavation Area: A Virtual Gallery of Archaeological Art.” InterCommunication. 14, Autumn (1995): 147.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2002 - Present | Academician, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |
| 2016-2026 | Research-Creation, SSHRC Insight Grant, Principal Investigator, "ObjectACTS" |
| 2012-2014 | GRAND (Graphics, Animation and New Media), Investigator, 3D Stereo Imaging, "MOTIVA" |
| 2012-2013 | Research-Creation, "Hybrid Bodies" SSHRC Project, Toronto and Montreal |
| 2011-2013 | Research-Creation, SSHRC Research and Creation in Fine Arts Grant, Principal Investigator, "Shivering" |
| 2011-2013 | Research-Creation, SSHRC Research and Creation in Fine Arts Grant, Principal Investigator, "Hybrid Bodies" |
| 2009 - 2019 | University Research Chair, University of Ottawa |
| 2009 | Canadian Foundation for Innovation co-investigator, high resolution still, moving and stereo image capture, IMG lab |
| 2008-2013 | Research-Creation, PITH, "Hybrid Bodies" SSHRC Project, Toronto |
| 2006 | Individual Fellow Award, World Technology Network |
| 2006 | Canada Council for the Arts New Media and Audio Production Grant, "Excruciatingly Slow, Exceedingly Fast" |
| 2004 | Banff New Media Residency, rapid prototyping |
| 2004 | Canada Council for the Arts with the Saidye Bronfman Centre, Visual Arts production grant |
| 2004 | Canada Council for the Arts with the Saidye Bronfman Centre, Media Arts production grant |
| 2002 - 2005 | Artist in Residence for Research Fellowship (AIRes), The Canada Council for the Arts / National Research Council of Canada |
| 2001 | Artist in Residence, National Research Council of Canada, Principal Investigator, In-kind funding |
| 2000 | Artist in Residence, National Research Council of Canada, Principal Investigator, New Media and Audio Artists |
| 1999 | Canada Council for the Arts, Millennium Arts Fund, Principal Investigator |
| 1999 | Langlois Foundation for the Arts, Science and Technology Research and Production Grant |
| 1999 | DAÏMON Centre Grant to Media Arts Production Organizations, Department of Visual Arts University of Ottawa |
| 1998 | Canada Council for the Arts New Media and Audio Artists Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1997 | AT&T Foundation Research and Production Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1996 - 1997 | Artist in Residence, Media Art, National Gallery of Canada |
| 1995 | Canada Council for the Arts Computer Integrated Media Art Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1995 | Ontario Arts Council Electronic Media Art Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1994 | The Claudia De Hueck Fellowship in Art and Technology, Canadian Centre for the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Canada |
| 1994 | Prix ARS Electronica, Interactive Art, Honourable Mention, Linz Austria |
| 1993 | Fellowship in Contemporary Canadian Art, Canadian Centre for the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Canada |
| 1993 | Canada Council for the Arts, Petro-Canada Media Biennial Arts award for outstanding and innovative use of new technologies in media arts |
| 1993 | Ontario Arts Council Electronic Media Art Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1992 | Canadian Conference of the Arts [47] [4] Corel Prize for innovative projects in arts and new technologies |
| 1991 | Canada Council for the Arts New Media and Audio Artists Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1991 | Artist in Residence, Media Arts, Banff Centre for the Arts |
| 1990 | Canada Council for the Arts New Media and Audio Artists Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1990 | Ontario Arts Council Electronic Media Art Grant, Principal Investigator |
| 1990 - 1991 | Artist in Residence, The BIOAPPARATUS. Visual Arts / Media Arts, Banff Centre for the Arts [4] |
| 1987 | High End Computer Graphics and Grand Prize Computer Graphics prize, Video Culture International Festival |