Jen Lewin is an internationally renowned light and interactive sculptor based out of New York City, and the director of her own studio; Jen Lewin Studios. She received a BA in Architecture and Computer Aided Design from the University of Colorado, Boulder, before studying Interactive Design at the Tisch School of Arts at NYU. For more than a decade now, she and her team have been fabricating large-scale interactive models that combine light sound, and motion, to encourage community interaction. She is an artist in almost every capacity, and this is a clear translation from her upbringing, which she says was very much centered around the arts and science. Makes sense, seeing has her father was a doctor and her mother a dancer. Lewin herself also engaged in the arts from young age, she drew, painted and was even a classically trained ballerina. She even started learning to program while in the 3rd grade. She believes that an artist work often reflects where they came from, and in her introduction, describes these experiences, and growing up on Maui, Hawaii as highly influential on her as an artist. Now, she focuses on pieces that are situated within a public environment, made for public use. By moving past the traditional ideals of art hanging in a gallery she can create truly evocative pieces that mesmerize the viewers, and often blur the lines between artist and viewer, by allowing the viewer to become the artist.
She has several fantastic projects, but the three I most admire are the Laser Harp, Pool, and what I call the Dancing Butterfly. Each of these projects are evocative in their own, right and some similarities exist across the board, however, my main reason of admiration is that they represent her as an artist. Her beliefs, interests, hobbies etc. They all managed to reflect a clear aesthetic design and functional sensibility that can be connected directly back to the artist. Be it the reflection of her background in dance, seen in the butterfly which responds to the motion of the user, by recoiling or leaning in at the same speed the user approaches or retreats from the wings. Or Laser Harp and Pool, two public installations that use light sound, and human touch to generate a community feeling; once again integrating her love of music, dance, light, sound, and community engagement. She created truly evocative art, in which her aim is to have the viewers interact with the art but also each other. For example, multiple people playing with the laser harp can be noisy, but when individuals start to respond to each other’s action the result can be beautiful, and rich. In her presentation she clearly defines what she was trying to achieve with the various projects, their inspiration, how she iterated upon them, and where the project could possible go in the future.
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