About Carrie

Artist-researcher currently working in space habitability through models, papers, lectures, prototypes and collaborations.

My background is in literature theory, cultural criticism, and multi-media. I engage with the sciences, philosophy and engineering to facilitate interdisciplinary thinking and question the roles of art and science in shaping public discourse. My focus has been on olfactory systems and memory, popular culture around space exploration and space technologies, bioinformatics, technology and desire, and narrative machines. My current and recent artwork engages the disciplines of astronautics, planetary sciences, organic chemistry, and bonsai design.

I have presented research and artwork at various space-related conferences including the International Astronautical Congresses in Glasgow (2008), Toronto (2014), and Milan (2024); GLEX (Washington DC, 2012); KOSMICA (Mexico City, 2014); Bio-Futures (University of Innsbruck, Department of Experimental Architecture, 2025); the University of Bristol; the New School; and the SETI Institute. I hold a US utility patent for an integral storage container comprised of multiple, concentric, but independent glass spheres with my co-inventor, glassblower Bob Maiden. Several of these prototypes are in public collections and were featured in a 2024 solo show at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles.

I am also a writer, editor, and publisher (DoppelHouse Press). My essays, art reviews and critical articles have been published by, among others, Sculpture, Flash Art, X-TRA, Artillery, Artweek, and in Whitechapel’s Documents on Contemporary Art (Science Fiction). At various universities in Southern California from 2001–2013, I taught visual culture classes, sculpture lab, introduction to contemporary art, master's level thesis classes, and undergraduate writing classes focusing on the narrative architecture of graphic novels, film sets, and video games. In 2013, I founded the online magazine The Nomadic Journal.

contact: carriepaterson@gmail.com