Biography

Allison Kudla, PhD (U.S.), is an artist and designer who creates novel experiences at the intersections of science, art, technology and design. Since 2012, she has been working at the Institute for Systems Biology. Previously, she was an artist-in-residence and faculty member at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, India. In 2011, she was awarded her Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Washington’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS). Her practice-based PhD focused on creating art for the purpose of looking at the universe as an operating system. With that lens, she pursued finding and accentuating “algorithms” embedded in living biological systems and processes within an artistic framework. In doing this, she creates time-based systems for experiencing biology working in hybrid with technology. Prior to her PhD work, she earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2002, with an emphasis on art and technology studies. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Highlights

Her work, The Search for Luminosity, was published in “Art + Science Now” by Stephen Wilson. She received Honorary Mention in Hybrid Arts at Ars Electronica 2010 for her artwork Capacity for (urban eden, human error). She has received Honorary Mention in the Vida Competition for Art and Artificial Life three times for three of her works. Her work, Growth Pattern, was included in the group shows ”Alter Nature: We Can” at Z33 in Belgium, “When Process Becomes Paradigm” at LABoral in Spain, and “Bio Design” at the Het Nieuwe Instituut in the Netherlands. Her artwork Growth Pattern was included in a book authored by William Myers called “Bio Design: Art + Science + Creativity”. This book, and her work, was also featured in the New York Times in January of 2013. From 2012-2014 her work was part of a national touring exhibition, curated by Andrea Grover, titled “Intimate Science”.  Capacity for (urban eden, human error) was acquired by the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2018, and debuted in their Mutations/Creations 3 exhibit, “La Fabrique du Vivant.”