Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist and research who reframes artifacts of posthuman landscapes to unravel entanglements of natural and built systems.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. Her multimedia artworks repurpose tools and artifacts of biotechnology to engage with them creatively and critically while searching for new possibilities. Past projects have reimagined uses for molecular visualization software, laboratory equipment, and scientific instrumentation to interrogate circumscriptions of “natural" and engineered systems while democratizing signifiers of expertise.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. She creates conceptually layered and carefully crafted artworks that explore the sublime beauty of the biological world while unraveling entanglements of natural and built systems. Her work reframes artifacts of the biomedical landscape with embodied interactions and sensory encounters that leverage tactility, light, and sound. Recent exhibitions have included immersive installations, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately scaled objects created with poetically considered materials. Her research-based studio practice and collaborations with scientists culminate in multimedia exhibitions that engage audiences with complex science through relatable experiences. Her companion lectures and workshops unpack timely posthumanities themes while providing insight into the laboratory techniques, specialized software, and textiles methods that she uses in her work.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of science, technology, and culture. Her research-based studio practice culminates in multimedia exhibitions that reframe artifacts of biotechnology to unravel entanglements of natural and built systems. Splan's artworks and exhibitions combining poetic materialities and sensory experiences have been presented at Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science. Her work is represented in the collections of Thoma Art Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and has been commissioned by the CDC Foundation and Bruges Triennial. Her work has been featured on Science Friday and included in "Life Eternal" published by The Nobel Prize Museum. Splan’s research has been supported by the Jerome Foundation and Simons Foundation and she was an NEA Digital Arts Fellow at AS220. She advises artists through Plexus Creative, her studio practice advisory, and has taught new media art courses at Stanford University.
Laura Splan is an artist working at the intersections of science, technology, and culture. Her research-based studio practice culminates in multimedia exhibitions that reframe artifacts of biotechnology to unravel entanglements of natural and built systems. Splan's artworks and exhibitions have been presented at Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science. Her work is represented in the collections of Thoma Art Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Commissions include projects for the CDC Foundation and Bruges Triennial. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and on Science Friday and was included in "Life Eternal" published by The Nobel Prize Museum. Splan’s research has been supported by the Jerome Foundation and Simons Foundation and she was an NEA Digital Arts Fellow at AS220. As a frequent speaker, Splan has contributed to events at Brooklyn Museum and Google. She advises organizations and artists through Plexus Creative, her studio practice advisory, and has taught interdisciplinary art courses at numerous institutions including Stanford University.
Laura Splan is Brooklyn-based artist and researcher working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. Her transdisciplinary practice reframes artifacts of the posthuman landscape to unravel entanglements of natural and built systems. Her internationally recognized artworks and exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Musea Brugge (Bruges), Museum of Arts & Design (NYC), Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Pioneer Works (NYC), and The Nobel Prize Museum at Liljevalchs (Stockholm). Her work is represented in the collections of Thoma Art Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and has been commissioned by the CDC Museum in association with The Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC), the Vanderbilt Museum Planetarium (Centerport, NY), and Bruges Triennial. Her research has been supported by the Simons Foundation, NEW INC at the New Museum, Jerome Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Pollock-Krasner Foundation. As a speaker and educator, she has been a National Endowment for the Arts Digital Arts Fellow and a lecturer at Stanford University. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Beall Center for Art + Technology for the 2024 Getty Pacific Standard Time exhibition Future Tense: Art, Complexity, & Predictability.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. She creates conceptually layered artworks that explore the sublime complexity of the biological world while unraveling entanglements of natural and built systems. Her research-driven projects reframe artifacts of the biomedical landscape with embodied interactions and sensory encounters. Her exhibitions that range from large scale immersive installations to intimately scaled objects have been commissioned by the CDC Foundation and the Bruges Triennial. She has exhibited at Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science and is represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation and Berkeley Art Museum. Articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Discover, and Frieze. She has been profiled in interviews on Science Friday and Voice of America. Her work has been published in “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture” and The Nobel Prize Museum’s "Life Eternal". Her interdisciplinary research and collaborations have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Simons Foundation, Institute for Electronic Arts, and Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She is currently and a NEW INC Artist-in-Residence at EY (New Museum) and an Artist-in-Residence at the Beall Center for Art+Technology.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. She creates conceptually layered artworks that explore the sublime complexity of the biological world while unraveling entanglements of natural and built systems. Her artworks have been commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control Foundation and the Bruges Triennial. Her work has been exhibited at Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science and is represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and NYU’s Langone Art Collection. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, BOMB, Discover, designboom, and Frieze. She has been featured in artist profiles and interviews on Science Friday and Voice of America. Publications featuring her artwork include "Life Eternal" by The Nobel Prize Museum. Splan’s research has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and the Simons Foundation. She has been an artist-in-residence at NEW INC, Institute for Electronic Arts, and the Beall Center for Art+Technology. She was awarded a Wave Farm Media Arts Assistance Fund Grant for production of her upcoming immersive experience “A Guided Sublimation” at the Vanderbilt planetarium.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. She creates conceptually layered and carefully crafted artworks that explore the sublime complexity of the biological world while unraveling entanglements of natural and built systems. Her research-driven projects reframe hidden artifacts of biotechnology with embodied interactions, tactile experiences, and sensory encounters. Recent exhibitions have included large-scale video projections, immersive soundscapes, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately scaled objects that are created with meaningful choices of media. Her artworks exploring biological imaginaries have been commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control Foundation and the Bruges Triennial. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science and is represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, NYU’s Langone Art Collection, and the Berkeley Art Museum. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Discover, and Frieze. Publications featuring her artwork include “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture.” Splan’s research and residencies have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Institute for Electronic Arts, Harvestworks, the Knight Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Splan has held academic appointments at Stanford University, teaching interdisciplinary Art courses. Her public workshops have been hosted by the Fredrickson Family Innovation Lab, Tang Teaching Museum, and Coalesce Center for Biological Arts. Splan was a Digital Arts Fellow supported by the National Endowment for the Arts at AS220 Industries, where she taught creative technology workshops. Her current collaboration, Sticky Settings, supported by the Simons Foundation, was recently featured on Science Friday.
Laura Splan is New York City-based artist and researcher working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. Her transdisciplinary practice reframes artifacts of the posthuman landscape to unravel entanglements of natural and built systems. She creates embodied encounters that leverage sensations of tactility, beauty, light, and sound to engage audiences with complexity through pattern, and mutability through play. Recent exhibitions have included immersive audiovisual installations, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately scaled objects. Her companion lectures and workshops unpack timely themes while providing insight into the laboratory techniques, specialized software, and textiles methods that she uses in her work.
Splan’s internationally recognized artworks and exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Musea Brugge (Bruges), Museum of Arts & Design (NYC), Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona), Pioneer Works (NYC), SÍM (Reykjavík), and The Nobel Prize Museum at Liljevalchs (Stockholm). Her work is represented in the collections of Thoma Art Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and has been commissioned by the CDC Museum in association with The Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC), the Vanderbilt Museum Planetarium (Centerport, NY), and Bruges Triennial. Articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Nature, Wired, BOMB, Discover, and Frieze. She has been profiled in interviews on Science Friday and Voice of America. Her research has been supported by the Simons Foundation, NEW INC at the New Museum, Jerome Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Pollock-Krasner Foundation. As a speaker and educator, she has been a National Endowment for the Arts Digital Arts Fellow and a lecturer at Stanford University. She is currently an Artist in Residence at the Beall Center for Art + Technology for the Getty Pacific Standard Time exhibition “Future Tense: Art, Complexity, & Predictability” opening at the Beall Center for Art + Technology in August 2024.
Laura Splan is a New York City based transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. Her research-based studio culminates in multimedia exhibitions that reframe artifacts of the posthuman landscape to unravel entanglements of natural and built systems. She creates embodied encounters that leverage sensations of tactility, beauty, light, and sound to engage audiences with complexity through curiosity, wonder, and play. Recent exhibitions have included immersive multisensory experiences, interactive installations, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately scaled objects—all constructed with poetically considered materialities.
Splan’s internationally recognized artworks and exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum (NYC), Musea Brugge (Bruges), Museum of Arts & Design (NYC), Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona), Pioneer Works (NYC), SÍM (Reykjavík), Galerie FOFA (Montréal), and The Nobel Prize Museum at Liljevalchs (Stockholm). Her work is represented in the collections of Thoma Art Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Her thematic art commissions include projects for the CDC Museum in association with The Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.), Vanderbilt Museum Planetarium (NY), and Bruges Triennial. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Nature, Wired, BOMB, Discover, and Frieze. She has been featured in artist profiles on Science Friday and Voice of America. Publications featuring her artwork include "Life Eternal" published by The Nobel Prize Museum. Her contributions to new media art have garnished numerous awards including Best Female Director (Toronto Indie Filmmakers Festival), Best Experimental Film (Seoul International Short Film Festival), Wave Farm Media Arts Assistance Fund for Artists Grant, and the Herringer Prize for Excellence in Art. Her research has been supported by the Simons Foundation, NEW INC at the New Museum, Jerome Foundation, Institute for Electronic Arts, Harvestworks, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Pollock-Krasner Foundation and a National Endowment for the Arts Digital Arts Fellowship.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist expanding intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. She creates conceptually layered and technically crafted work, exploring the biological sublime while unraveling its entanglements with infrastructure. Her work reframes biomedical artifacts through embodied interactions and sensory encounters that amplify tactility, light, and sound. Splan’s interpolations shuttle between technological and organic systems, constructing an integrated posthuman landscape through translational acts. Recent exhibitions include immersive installations, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately-scaled objects assembled from resonant materials. Her research-based multimedia practice and scientific collaborations allow audiences to engage with complex science through familiar entrances–wallpaper, muscular pulses, doilies and household appliances are among many. Her companion lectures and workshops unpack urgent themes while providing insight into the laboratory techniques, specialized software, and textile methods applied in her work.
Laura Splan's artworks and exhibitions have been presented at the Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science and her work is represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, NYU’s Langone Art Collection, and the Berkeley Art Museum. Her art commissions for thematic exhibitions include projects for the Centers for Disease Control Foundation and the Bruges Triennial. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Discover, designboom, and Frieze. She has been featured in artist profiles and interviews on Science Friday and Voice of America. Publications featuring her artwork include “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture,” and "Life Eternal" published by The Nobel Prize Museum. Splan’s research and residencies have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Institute for Electronic Arts, Harvestworks, the Knight Foundation, Simons Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She is currently a NEW INC Artist-in-Residence at EY where she is collaborating with creative technologists to create materially liminal experiences with extended reality (XR) technologies.
Laura Splan is a New York City based transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. Splan’s research-based studio practice includes collaborations with scientists that culminate in multimedia exhibitions that engage audiences with complex science through relatable experiences and sensory encounters. She creates conceptually layered artworks that explore the sublime beauty of the molecular world while unraveling entanglements of natural and built systems. Recent exhibitions have included immersive installations, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately scaled objects created with poetically considered materials.
Her artworks have been commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control Foundation and the Bruges Triennial. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science and is represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and NYU’s Langone Art Collection. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Discover, designboom, and Frieze. She has been featured in artist profiles and interviews on Science Friday and Voice of America. Publications featuring her artwork include “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture,” and "Life Eternal" published by The Nobel Prize Museum.
Splan’s research and residencies have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Institute for Electronic Arts, Harvestworks, the Knight Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. In a collaboration supported by the Simons Foundation, she is exploring technological and computational representations of the biological world with theoretical biophysicist Adam Lamson for a full-dome immersive experience that will be presented at the Vanderbilt Museum Planetarium in 2023. As an Artist-in-Residence at the Beall Center for Art + Technology, she is collaborating with epigenetics scientists at the University of California Irvine to explore environmental influences on gene expression for an installation that will be included in The Getty’s PST: Art x Science Series in 2024. Previous sciart residency positions and collaborations include NEW INC’s Creative Science Incubator at the New Museum (New York, NY), Bioartist-in-Residence at Integral Molecular Laboratory (Science Center, Philadelphia, PA), and Bioartist-in-Residence at the Coalesce Center for Biological Arts (University at Buffalo, NY).
Splan’s artist talks and lectures have been presented by the Frontiers of Science Institute, the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, the International Symposium on Electronic Art, Concordia University, and the Anderson Endowed Lecture Series at Pennsylvania State University. Her artist talk, “Syndemic Sublime,” was co-presented by the New Museum and Science Sandbox for NEW INC’s “Radical Evolution.” Splan has been a featured guest on MicrobeTV, hosted by Dr. Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University and SciArt Initiative hosted by Julia Buntaine. She has participated in panel discussions and roundtables at the Brooklyn Museum, SciFoo at Google’s Headquarters in Silicon Valley, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona. Splan has held academic appointments at Stanford University, teaching interdepartmental Art courses to Engineering, Computer Science, Biology, Math, as well as Art majors.
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. She creates conceptually layered and carefully crafted artworks that explore the sublime complexity of the biological world while unraveling entanglements of natural and built systems. Her research-driven projects connect hidden artifacts of biotechnology to everyday lives through embodied interactions and sensory experiences. Recent exhibitions have included immersive installations, networked devices, and tactile sculptures. Her artworks exploring biomedical imaginaries have been commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control Foundation and the Bruges Triennial. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts & Design, Pioneer Works, and New York Hall of Science and is represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the Berkeley Art Museum. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Discover, designboom, and Frieze. Publications featuring her artwork include “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture.” Splan’s research and residencies have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Institute for Electronic Arts, Harvestworks, the Knight Foundation, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
As a collaborator, Splan explores artifacts of the expanded biotechnological landscape through research-based co-creation. She was a member of the New Museum’s NEW INC “Creative Science” incubator imagining creative applications for science and technology. As a Bioartist-in-Residence at the Philadelphia Science Center, she collaborated with scientists to interrogate interspecies entanglements and invisible labor in biotechnology. She is currently exploring virtual representations of molecular systems with theoretical biophysicist Adam Lamson for a project supported by the Simons Foundation. As a NEW INC Artist-in-Residence at EY, she is collaborating with engineers to develop hybrid VR installations that reveal “virtual residues” persisting in the physical world while exploring possibilities for new materially liminal experiences.
As a speaker, Splan’s artist talks and lectures have been presented by the Frontiers of Science Institute, the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, the International Symposium on Electronic Art, Concordia University, and the Anderson Endowed Lecture Series at Pennsylvania State University. She was the keynote speaker for the Digital Fabrication Symposium at the University of North Texas presenting her lecture “Bits & Pieces: Material Epistemologies & Digital Fabrication”. Her artist talk, “Syndemic Sublime,” was co-presented by the New Museum and Science Sandbox for NEW INC’s “Radical Evolution.” She has participated in panel discussions and roundtables at the Brooklyn Museum, SciFoo at Google’s Headquarters in Silicon Valley, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.
As an educator, Splan has held academic appointments at Stanford University, teaching interdisciplinary Art courses. Splan was a Digital Arts Fellow supported by the National Endowment for the Arts at AS220 Industries, where she taught creative coding and physical computing workshops.
As a curator, Splan has produced new media art projects, including “Stimulus Transmit”, a moving image series that premiered on San Francisco public access television in 1997. Her recent curatorial projects have included interdisciplinary programming and exhibitions for Creative Tech Week, as well as her experimental project space Plexus Projects.
