Paul Vanouse

Paul Vanouse is an artist working in Emerging Media forms. Radical interdisciplinarity and impassioned amateurism guide his practice. Since the early 1990s his artwork has addressed complex issues raised by varied new techno-sciences using these very techno-sciences as a medium.  His artworks have included data collection devices that examine the ramifications of polling and categorization, genetic experiments that undermine scientific constructions of race and identity, and temporary organizations that playfully critique institutionalization and corporatization.

Paul Vanouse has took part in many workshops and events throughout his time at the Sanctuary. He came to speak to the community about DNA imaging and the issues surrounding this topic. He also held a workshop that was part of “Be the Media!” called North Troy Subject Inversion Center, which guided the participants through the process of DNA extracting, amplification, and photography.

Vanouse also was a part of the Sanctuary’s “Bioart in An Industrial Wasteland,”funded by the National Endowment of the Arts, which served as a visual metaphor for refiguring abandoned post-industrial sites. The project was situated in a neglected block of post-industrial upstate New York.  In a neighborhood that has seen an exceptional shift in community engagement through arts, the series directly engaged citizens in an exploration that links art, science and technology to develop do-it-yourself ecological ingenuity and collaboration.