About Carrie

Artist-researcher. Areas of focus: astronautics, planetary science, chemistry, philosophy, narrative medicine, bonsai.

My background is in literature theory, cultural criticism, and sculpture. I make intertextual and multi-sensory artwork at the nexus of science, art, philosophy, and engineering. Through research, papers, lectures, models, and prototypes I engage with the sciences and attempt to facilitate broad interdisciplinary thinking about pressing issues, including the roles of art and science in shaping public discourse. Over the last twenty-five years, I have looked at 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); the University of Bristol; the New School; the SETI Institute; and several California universities. I have won over a dozen grants through my art and publishing activities, and in addition to my art, writing, and editing, I have taught visual culture classes, sculpture lab, introduction to contemporary art, master's level thesis classes, and undergraduate writing classes. Over the years I have collaborated with several scientists and engineers for artworks, papers, and presentations.

In August of 2013 I was awarded a US utility patent for an integral storage container comprised of multiple, concentric, but independent glass spheres that was fabricated by my co-inventor, Bob Maiden.

My essays, art reviews and critical articles have been published in Sculpture, Flash Art, X-TRA, Artillery, and Artweek. Essays have been included in a few books, which I link to elsewhere on this site. My publishing company, DoppelHouse Press, specializes in art, architecture, music, and memoir and also publishes The Nomadic Journal.

contact: carriepaterson@gmail.com