Incubator People
Dr. Jennifer Willet
Director, Incubator: Hybrid Laboratory at the Intersection of Art, Science and Ecology.
Jennifer Willet is an internationally successful artist in the emerging field of BioArt. Her work explores notions of representation, the body, self and subjectivity, in relation to biotechnological and digital technologies with an emphasis on social and political criticism. She has exhibited, and presented her research extensively across Canada and internationally. From 2000-2007 Willet and Shawn Bailey collaborated on an innovative computational, biological, artistic, project called BIOTEKNICA.
She taught in the Studio Arts Department at Concordia University from 2000-2007, and completed her PhD in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program at the same institution. Willet also taught “BioArt: Contemporary Art and the Life Sciences” for The Art and Genomics Centre at The University of Leiden in Spring 2008, and now works as an Assistant Professor in the School of Visual Arts, at The University of Windsor. In 2009 she opened the first biological art lab in Canada, called INCUBATOR: Hybrid Laboratory at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Ecology at the University of Windsor. In 2011 she designed and directed an art/science performance called BioARTCAMP where 20 artists, scientists, and students worked at The Banff Centre to build a portable bioart laboratory in the Canadian Rocky Mountians.
www.jenniferwillet.com
http://bioartwindsor.blogspot.com/
http://leidenbioart.blogspot.com/jswillet (at) gmail.com
Current Team Members:
Lauren Divito
Assistant to the Director
In 2011 Lauren DiVito was the first to graduate from the University of Windsor with a BSc [honours] in chemistry and visual arts, a program created unique to her dual interests in art and science upon her entrance into the school. In her first year as a combined major she treated both subjects as individuals assuming there was no overlap, but as she continued on, found that one cannot survive without the other, or rather she as an artist cannot survive without the scientist, nor the scientist without the artist. The meaning of her artwork as well as the medium varies as her two roles grow and change representing both its frustrations as well as joys. It is an evolution, a constant struggle between artist and scientist- the breaking down of a barrier that seems to so often divide the two worlds from one another and allowing them to coexist.
In 2011 Lauren began working as an Artist and Research Assistant to Dr. Jennifer Willet her duties involving the upkeep of the laboratory, performing experiments for Dr. Willet’s research, etc. She also volunteers her time at the Schulich School of Medicine & Denistry at the University of Windsor, photo-documenting/Illustrating cadavers and specimen for research purposes.
Amanda White BioART Class Graduate Teaching Assistant
Joshua Babcock Website Maintenance
Adam Boylan Accounting
Past Contributors:
Tokio Webster Assistant to the Director, and Researcher Project Manager BioARTCAMP
Otto Ritosa Accounting and Budget Planning
Billie McLaughlin Artist Assistant
Victor Romao BioART Class Graduate Teaching Assistant
Amanda White, Jodi Vanderbeke, Moira Robertson, Nasseme Albonaimi BioARTCAMP Project Assistants
Justin Langlois, Joshua Babcock Website Design and Maintenance
