Projects from Broad > Field Notes

I began tracing scientific writings on the whiteboards shortly after I arrived at the Broad Institute in the spring of 2016. I came to think of my tracing activity as data gathering or “preserving” data because the whiteboards got erased once a week at the Broad. I had no idea what I was tracing, however. These marks existed purely as visual forms to me. Even though I didn’t understand them, I felt that I was visually witnessing someone’s ideas forming into some sort of shape.

Each line represents dialogues between scientists’ hands (and their thinking) and my hand. To create these digital drawings, I scanned six sheets of traced drawings in layers, and played with different drawings and variations on a scanner bed. Though they end up as a digital drawing, there was a lot of the artist’s “hand” in the process.

These images became my field notes, a collection of my observation from walking around the Broad.


Installation
In 2020, I created an installation using prints from Field Notes for the Bell Gallery at the Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts.

Field Notes, II was created by placing many layers of 10ft long digital prints on Tyvek and vellum on the floor, and hanging a 18ft long scroll from the wall.

View the exhibit.