GUEST LECTURE: JAE RHIM LEE

 

The University of Maine Intermedia MFA program is pleased to announce Jae Rhim Lee, Research Fellow in the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, for their Fall 2012 Visiting Artist series sponsored by the Cultural Affairs. The artist will present the third University of Maine Correll Lecture Series address on Tuesday October 2nd at 7pm in Lord Hall on the University of Maine campus in Orono.

Jae Rhim Lee is a visual artist, designer, and researcher whose work proposes unorthodox relationships between the mind/body/self and the built and natural environment. In 2008 Jae Rhim founded and directed the MIT FEMA Trailer Project.  The Project examined the environmental, social and political history of FEMA Trailers deployed in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and transformed a single surplus FEMA Trailer into the “Armadillo,” a mobile composting center with vertical gardens and rainwater catchment system, permaculture library, and indoor multipurpose space.

Her current work, the Infinity Burial Project, (presented in a TED Talk in 2011, pictured above) proposes alternatives for the post-mortem body and features the training of a unique strain of an edible mushroom to decompose and remediate toxins in human tissue, the development of a decomposition ‘kit,’ and a membership society devoted to the promotion of death acceptance and the cultivation of decomposing organisms.

Jae Rhim Lee studied psychology and the natural sciences at Wellesley College, received a Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT, and holds a certificate in permaculture design. Her work has been exhibited in Europe and in the US. She is a recipient of a 2009 Creative Capital Foundation Grant, a 2010 Grant from the Institut fur Raumexperimente/Universitaet der Kunste Berlin, and a 2011 MAK Schindler Scholarship and Artist Residency in Los Angeles, CA.  Lee is a 2011 TED Global Fellow and a Research Fellow in the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology in Cambridge, MA.

The Masters of Fine Arts in Intermedia at the University of Maine provides substantial advanced study for individuals interested in interdisciplinary study in the arts. The program emphasizes intensive development of students’ creative and innovative abilities through a diverse engagement with multiple research processes, critical thinking skills and creative production tools and technologies. The visiting artist series supports and reflects the wide variety of disciplines represented by the program including but not limited to, Art, New Media, Theater, Dance, Philosophy, Art History, Engineering, Communications, Media Studies, Music, Psychology, Natural Sciences, and others.

For more information about the artist go to www.zonezerozerostudio.com

This event is sponsored by the Intermedia MFA Program, the University of Maine, the New Media Department, the University of Maine Cultural Affairs / Distinguished Lecture Series, the Alston D. and Ada Lee Correll Professorships in Education, Engineering and New Media.

For more information contact Bethany Engstrom at Bethany.engstrom@umit.maine.edu