Kathy High and Jennifer Johung in Conversation

Kathy High is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator/scholar. She collaborates with scientists and activists to consider living systems, animal sentience, queer ecologies, and the ethical dilemmas of biotechnology and medical industries. She exhibits her videos, performances, and conceptual works focused on issues of gender and technology and pursues works of bioscience/bioart and waste studies. She is committed to environmental justice and do-it-together collaborative action. High is full professor in the Department of Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York; an affiliate faculty member at Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS); and director of the BioArt and Technology Laboratory at CBIS. 

Jennifer Johung is director of the Center for 21st Century Studies and professor of contemporary art and architectural history at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is the author of Vital Forms: Biological Art, Architecture, and the Dependencies of Life; Replacing Home: From Primordial Hut to Digital Network in Contemporary Art; and coeditor of Landscapes of Mobility: Culture, Politics, and Placemaking. She has published articles on a wide range of topics across performance, visual, and urban studies as well as bioart and technology. In addition to her research, she has curated exhibitions in Milwaukee, New York, and Los Angeles in the US, as well as in Australia.