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Rebecca Cummins

Professor, DXARTS
Professor, Photomedia, School of Art + Art History + Design
Rebecca Cummins

Contact Information

206 778-7521
ART 129

Biography

PhD, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2003
MA, University of New Mexico, 1982
BFA, University of Northern Iowa, 1979

I explore the sculptural, experiential, and sometimes humorous possibilities of light and natural phenomena, often referencing the history of science and optics in installations that have included a machine for making rainbows, a photographic rifle, paranoid dinner-table devices, and a variety of sculptural and photographic approaches to marking time. Current investigations incorporate contemporary scientific and medical imaging.

Exhibitions include Hyper Design, 6th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China; Timeless — time, landscape and new media, Quay Art Gallery, Images Festival, Toronto; YOUNIVERSE, The Biennial of Seville, Seville, Spain; Interlude: 366, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; The South Australia Biennale of Australian Art, Adelaide; Performance Space, Sydney; I Space, Chicago; and ILLUSION: Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

Commissions include the Skylight Aperture Sundial, 2006 (Seattle Public Library, Montlake Branch, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs) and Lunar Drift: Sun and Moon Pointers, 2014 (Washington State Art Commission and Western Washington University, with Paul DeMarinis, Stanford University). Additional works are installed at the Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Perception, San Francisco. Ongoing commissions include the South Delridge (CSO) Artwork Project (Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and the Seattle Public Utilities) and the University of Oregon Lewis Integrative Science Building in partnership with the Oregon Arts Commission.

I began teaching at the University of Washington in 2001, following 16 years at Sydney College of the Arts, University of  Sydney, Australia. My dissertation, “Necro-Techno: Examples from an Archeology of Media,” explored the history of media and contemporary artists who use archaic media devices in their artistic practice.

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