Artist Spotlight

Artist Spotlight:

Georgia Rhodes

Hometown: Kingsley, MI

College: Michigan State University

Graduate school: University of Georgia, Athens (MFA in Studio Art)

Current position: Imaging Lab Director, The Nature Lab at Rhode Island School of Design

The following information has been adapted from an interview between Kiley and Georgia.

Q: What is your job?

A: My day-to-day job is at a place called The Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design. It's kind of like the science arm of an Art and Design School. The Nature Lab started as a place in which students could come and have unmitigated access to the natural world. So, just like a library, we have a lot of natural history specimens that students can check out and take to their dorms and use for any kind of Investigation that they want.

My job there is twofold. I manage the imaging lab which allows students to use scientific technology in any way they find most beneficial to their practice. I keep all of the equipment up and running and show people how to use it. The other half of my job is to do research into art and science collaborations and write grant proposals which fund projects like the one that it making it possible for me to be on this ship right now!

Q: What is your role on this cruise?

A: Along with my collaborator, Stuart Copeland, I have been running a program at RISD called Vis-a-Thon for the past several years. It's an NSF-funded Hack-a-thon model program which brings artists and scientists together to turn data and scientific concepts into artworks.

I am running a version of Vis-a-Thon with our research team aboard the NBP. I have now conducted several workshops on board to get everyone thinking artistically about the science they do and the instruments they use. Everyone will make project proposals here on the ship, and over the next year, I will connect them with possible collaborators at RISD and support them in creating their artwork. The artworks from our NBP Vis-a-Thon will culminate in an exhibit at a local art museum in the fall of 2025.

Q: What are some examples of past projects that have come out of Vis-a-Thon?

A: There's been a lot! One of the very first projects that we made was with someone who was working on modeling the ocean currents within Narragansett Bay. They were thinking a lot about microplastics, so we made these series of drawings that were running the lines from their models. It allowed us to see how a speck of plastic would start from places like Providence and eventually make its way into the open ocean made. It made these beautiful swirling patterns. But it also made the viewer dig into how pollutants are getting into the water and ecosystem.

We have had some really cool and funky outdoor sculptures come out of research on the food web.

Another collaboration was between a glass artist and a PhD student studying stress on corals from bleaching.

I could go on and on, but those are just a few examples.

Q: Can you describe your educational journey that led to you having the really cool job you have now?

A: When I finished high school, I went to Michigan State University and I studied journalism, particularly photojournalism. I was working as a photographer for the large school newspaper. But I was doing college kind of slowly, like leaving and coming back often.

I did some journalism internships right around the time of the 2008 recession. The outlook didn't look great for newspapers, so I decided to shift gears. I really wanted to pursue something art-related, but I thought that I couldn't draw, so I took art off the table for myself.

I was also interested in education, so that's what I eventually ended up getting my degree in. Even though I had this mental block about not being able to draw, I was still really into other art forms and decided to apply for graduate programs in art. I found out a nice perk about state schools, in that their MFA (Master of Fine Art) programs are fully funded. So I went to grad school basically for free and got my Master's degree in studio art.

I was looking for jobs and eventually the position at The Nature Lab came up, which seemed perfect for me since a lot of my own artwork was about nature. I started out part- time and kind of worked my way up to the position I have now.

Q: Why is it important for art and science to be interconnected?

A: It reaches different people and allows for broader participation in science. It gets people interested in complex scientific concepts even if they're not scientists themselves. It also makes people question things in different ways. Artists in general are the people asking "why" all the time, and so are scientists, so there's a natural sort of kinship there.

Artworks that were studied in Vis-a-Thon module 1 aboard the NBP.

Georgia (red coat) capturing under-water footage with her GoPro near Palmer Station, Antarctica

Q: How are you here right now? Like, what did you have to do to be a part of this cruise?

A: I found out about the opportunity through Becky (Chief Scientist aboard the NBP). She had a PhD student working on a project at the Nature Lab, so that's how we got acquainted.

When Becky was writing the proposal for this cruise several years ago, she was wanting to include more public outreach and she thought of me. She asked if I would be willing to run my Vis-a-Thon program in the Southern Ocean for two months aboard a research vessel with scientists and I said yes!

When I was a kid, I self-selected out of science because I can't memorize anything. Yet here I am, getting to be part of all of this amazing science happening. I get to be part of it in my own capacity.

Q: What do you like to do outside of work for fun?

A: I like to make art whenever I get a chance. I've recently been collaborating with my husband, who's a photographer on some projects that have been really fun.

We like to go to our daughter's softball games. Oh, and when I get back, we are getting a dog!

Links to Georgia's projects and more:

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