Floor van de Velde
Vibrant Divide (2015), Cast acrylic and black light
Floor van de Velde is an artist and educator whose work explores the reciprocal relationship between art and technological innovation, as well as materials and new techniques. Originally trained as a classical musician, Floor works with sound, sculpture, and installation to create immersive art forms which activate space.
Her work focuses not only on the autonomous sculptural object, but also questions the spatial positioning, and points to the phenomenological experience and embodiment of space. Floor draws much of her inspiration from sound, language, and science, and explores the limits of structures and systems of spatial logic and the juncture at which they break down to open up new visual and poetic possibilities.
Floor’s most recent research and practice investigates the use of emerging technology as an extension of the artist’s hand by building CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machines that allow for a merging of hand and machine.
Floor received her MS in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT, and currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in the Sculpture Department.
Statement
As an artist I’m deeply engaged with questions about technology and how the language of technology can shape creative work and intuitive thinking. Can human creativity co-exist with technology? And how do artists begin to understand the role of technology as it redraws the realm for creativity and cultural imagination?
If we begin to approach technology as a tool, we can start making connections to more traditional tools of craft. I think it’s important for artists today to have at least an elemental understanding and familiarity with technology. The more we learn about these systems, the more freedom we have to break open the prescribed function of these tools, push against the protocols of the language of technology and create work that engages with tools of innovation in new and unexpected ways.
A central question in my practice remains: how do I collaborate with these machines? And how do I allow the hand to still have a role in making? I think it’s an extremely exciting time to be an artist: the pace of innovation in emerging technology means that there are endless possibilities for artists to engage, discover, ask questions, and ultimately find ways to collaborate and co-create with these systems and machines.
Education
2014 Mit, Cambridge, Ma: Ms In Art, Culture & Technology (Smact)
2012 Massachusetts College Of Art & Design, Boston, Ma: Bfa, Sculpture
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Mcininch Gallery, Southern New Hampshire Univ., Manchester, Nh: Variations On Colorfields
2016 Gallery Zhulong, Dallas, Tx: Future, Past, Perfect
2015 Wisconsin Science Museum, Madison, Wi: Luminous Scores: Reflections Of Light In Art & Science
2015 Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, Ma: A Curious Symphony
2014 Mit Media Lab, Cambridge, Ma: Lime Intervals
2013 17 Cox Gallery, Beverly, Ma: Score For A Color Field
Group Exhibitions
2017 Carpenter Center For The Visual Arts, Cambridge, Ma: Futurefarmers: De-Bugging
2015 Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, Ca: Artists In Residence: Year Of Technology / Field Of Prayers
2014 Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Prize, Mit Wiesner Art Gallery, Cambridge, Ma
2013 Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Prize, Mit Wiesner Art Gallery, Cambridge, Ma
2013 Olafur Eliasson Design Studio, Mit, Cambridge, Ma – Little Sun Group Show
2013 Souzy Tros Gallery, Athens, Greece: Wandering Nighthouse
2013 Ellipsis: Massachusetts College Of Art & Design 2013, Boston, Ma - Alumni Award Show
2012 The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
2012 San Francisco Academy Of Sciences – Night Café At Night Life Group Show
2012 Gallery Kayafas, Boston, Ma – On Display
2010 Shadow & Light Festival, Lövestad, Sweden – Group Show
2010 Mills Art Museum, Oakland, Ca – Group Show, Site-Specific Sound Installation
2010 Sf Arts Commission, San Francisco, Ca – Chain Reaction Xi
2010 Triple Base Gallery, San Francisco, Ca – Wandering Nighthouse W. Elaine Buckholtz
2010 Deborah Slater Dance Company, San Francisco, Ca – Men Think They Are Better Than Grass.
2009 Triple Base Gallery, San Francisco, Ca – Wandering Nighthouse
2009 The Luggage Store, San Francisco, Ca – Group Show
Teaching
2016 – Present School Of The Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston, Ma – Professor Of The Practice, Sculpture
2014 – 2016. School Of The Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston, Ma – Visiting Artist Faculty
2014 Massachusetts College Of Art & Design, Boston, Ma – Visiting Lecturer
2014 Mit Program In Art, Culture & Technology, Cambridge, Ma – Teaching Fellow
2013 Mit Program In Art, Culture & Technology, Cambridge, Ma – Teaching Fellow
Awards
2020 Tisch Faculty Fellow
2019 Faculty Research Award: Building A Large-Scale Ceramics 3d Printer
2018 Daynard Faculty Travel Fellowship
Lectures & Workshops
2019 Jingdezen University: School Of Ceramic Art & Design – Ceramic Technology And 3d Printing Workshop
2018 J. Irwin Miller Program In Architecture, Columbus, In – Emerging Technologies In Creative And Critical Practice
2018 Fhnw Academy Of Art & Design, Basel, Switzerland – Friction: Transcending Learned Mechanisms
2016 Brown University, Rhode Island, Ma – Spatial Logic: An Interdisciplinary Practice
2015 Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca – Metapiano Ii: Experiments In Sound Sculpture
2014 Mit, Cambridge, Ma – Metapiano I: Experiments In Sound Sculpture
2014 Northeastern University, Boston, Ma – Visiting Artist Lecture
2013 Gsd, Harvard, Cambridge, Ma – Visiting Artist Lecture
2011 Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca – Aspects Of Sound In Sculpture Summer Workshop
2011 Massachusetts College Of Art & Design, Boston, Ma – Artist Workshop, 3d Sculpture
2010 Stanford University, Palo Alto, Ca – Summer Workshop, Ccrma
