About SciArt Magazine

SciArt Magazine, a publication of SciArt Initiative,
is based in Boston, MA.

Meet the SciArt team

Julia Buntaine Hoel
Founder, Editor-in-Chief

In addition to founding and running SciArt Magazine and its parent organization SciArt Initiative, Julia is a science-based artist, creating conceptual art with neuroscience as her subject matter. Fascinated by everything brainy from neurotransmitters to small world networks to qualia, Julia holds a BA from Hampshire College, a Five-College certificate in Cognitive Neuroscience, a post-bac certificate in Studio Art from MICA, and an MFA of Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. You can view her work at www.JuliaBuntaine.com.

A note from the Editor:

Art and science have long shared a common ground; the ground of boundless inquiry about the nature of our existence. It has only been for the past few decades, however, that artists have turned their creative gaze towards the sciences as their sole source of artistic information, inspiration, and conceptualization. SciArt, or science-based art, is the avant-garde of the art world, with an increasing number of artists who hold doctorate degrees in the sciences, who are funded by the NSF, and who hold artistic residencies in scientific institutions such as CERN.

While science-based art has a growing presence, the movement at large remains scattered. I want to fix this. As a science-based artist myself, I see community as essential to our success because the methods, challenges, materials and goals of science-based art are new and unique, lying in uncharted art historical territory. It is through this publication, featuring science-based art events, spaces, artists, and conversations that I want to bolster science-art at large.

~ Julia Buntaine Hoel

Joe Ferguson works and lives in San Francisco. His writing has appeared in several national and international publications. He is interested in the biological basis of aesthetic appreciation and the unique skew scientists and the science-inclined bring to the artistic encounter. He holds a doctorate degree in chiropractic from Life Chiropractic College-West, a masters degree in exercise science from California University of Pennsylvania, and a graduate certificate in sports psychology from John F. Kennedy University.

Neel Patel is a freelance writer based in New York City, whose work has appeared in several print and web publications, including Inverse, Popular Science and IEEE Spectrum. He writes primarily about science, ranging from environmental issues to biological research to technology breakthroughs. He also dabbles in personal narratives, culture writing, poetry, and art (obviously). Patel earned his M.A. in journalism from New York University, and his B.S. in biology from Virginia Tech.

Danielle McCloskey has completed her BFA in Fine Arts and a minor in Art History at the Fashion Institute of Technology and is shown and collected by various venues around New York City. She’s looking to get her MFA in the near future.

Michal Gavish is a freelance art writer and multi-media artist, based in Washington DC. She received her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. Previously, she had earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry, which continues to influence her art practice. She creates painting installations and videos inspired by her ongoing collaborations with biologists and chemists from Stanford University, UC San Francisco, and CUNY. Her work can be viewed at www.michalgavish.com .

Riley McGowan is a first-year student at the Rutgers Honors College majoring in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. She is interested in studying the connections between art and science and how art influences neural activity. Following her undergraduate education, Riley hopes to attend medical school and one day become a pediatric neurosurgeon.

Allison Palenske is a creative practitioner working across the fields of art, ecology, and urban design. Her primary focus is the relationship between humans and natural systems, and her research manifests through collage, installation, written works, and environmental design. Allison holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, and an MFA in Art, Space and Nature from the University of Edinburgh. More of her work can be found at www.allisonpalenske.wordpress.com.

Sarah Allen Eagen is an artist and writer based in New York City. She received her MFA in fine art from Parsons School of Design in 2013 and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto. She was the Communications Director for ArtFile Magazine from 2013-2016 during which time she published seventeen articles. She has co-authored three book chapters, and her work has been presented at numerous conferences and appeared in academic journals. Eagen’s artwork examines the intersection of art and science by exploring how interpersonal relationships in the twenty-first century are impacted by technology. She has exhibited her artwork extensively in the United States and Canada and has had work featured at Art Toronto and Nuit Blanche. Her work can be viewed at http://saraheagen.com/.

Raphael Rosen is a freelance writer based in New York City. He specializes in the intersection of art and science, and he loves examining how science affects society. Having worked for eight years
at the Exploratorium, he is also interested in museum and exhibition design. Rosen holds an M.A. in science journalism from the University of Southern California, and a B.A. in philosophy from Williams College. Read more of his work at www.raphaelprosen.com.

Photo by Jo Sittenfeld/RISD

Stephanie Muscat is a first year MFA candidate in the Digital + Media program at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and earned her bachelor’s in human biology with a neuroscience concentration from Stanford University. Intrigued by the tools we use to observe the world, she works with microscopy and 3D scanning resources as an imaging technologies assistant in RISD’s Nature Lab. A strong proponent for fusing science education with the arts, Stephanie is on the leadership team for the biology-oriented subgroup of RISD’s STEAM initiative. Visit Stephanie's website at http://stephaniemuscat.com/.

Jenna Florio is a Research Assistant based at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco, CA. Here she studies insects (specifically ants) and is working on creating Citizen Science projects that work with members of the community to monitor insect diversity in their own backyards. She is passionate about science communication and using art as a tool to help remove the "ick-factor" around insects. She holds an B.A. in Organismal Biology and Human Biology from Pitzer College where she studied spiders. More info about her work can be found at www.backyardbiodiversity.org