Bio:
Cere Davis is a science-artist, kinetic sculptor and science educator based in Berlin, Germany. She has a degree in Physics from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and early career working in scientific fields ranging from volcanic lightning to liquid crystals to research at the South Pole station of Antarctica. Her works are analog experiments in emergent dynamics which bridge new forms of media/interactive art and kinetic sculpture. As a part of her work she collaborates with scientists and artists to inspire scientific curiosity and participatory learning through interactive art and critical making. She is the artistic director at Counter Culture Labs and member of the Thingamajigs performance group. She produces, collaborates and participates in projects ranging from dance performance to science fairs and art exhibits. Her works have shown in galleries, science festivals, conferences and public outreach events internationally. She has been awarded the People's Choice award in 2015 at Oakland Aeolian Day for her acousto-kinetic sculpture and in 2018 by the Awesome Foundation for her opto-kinetic sculpture, Liquid Loom.
Statement:
Through her exhibits, lectures and exploratory research, Cere creates opportunities to inquire about the natural world through direct sensory experience, unmediated by computational tools. Her work stems from an interest in understanding natural patterns which emerge across seemingly disparate media. She invents experimental second ecologies which study motion as shaped and shared by the forces of chaos and dynamic imbalance. In her work, she foregrounds the poetic analog nature of material embodiements, revealing a world where emergent dynamics are tangible yet endlessly chaotic and unpredictable. Her work develops through an experimental relationship with inherent personality and preferences in various forms of physical media - through this, she crafts situations where material forms of umwelt are revealed. This work can be described as a form of neonaturalism, whereby familiar items are recontextualized in a way of challenges our cultural assumptions about knowledge and scientific progress, as viewed through the lens of single-use human affordances. She aims to inspire creative learning through her interactive exhibits and offer a refreshing counterbalance to our increasingly isolating and sterile urban environments.
I enjoy creating science-art works which come from repurposing e-waste and other discarded objects. For me, the benefits of “upcycling” reach well beyond conservation because the act of creating and interacting with upcycled works inherently invites a paradigm shift for the creator and partners to reconsider the ways in which our scientific knowledge is precious, meaningful and valuable beyond the scope of its current ephemeral use.
Related to this, I want to understand how the historical arc of invention and innovation is shaped by market capitalism through researching inventions which were unrealized due an unfortunate confluence of timing, geography or other economic or geopolitical market forces. Through this lens, I am interested in understanding how we can re-envision combining today’s technology with old discarded technology, to better demonstrate foundational scientific principles and re-ignite forgotten perspectives.