welcome: Verena Friedrich


* Beginning at the KHM: What are the things you are most looking forward to and/or are excited about?
Developing a new space (exMedia Lab) together with my two colleagues; setting up a place where students can experiment with organic materials and live organisms in the context of BioArt & -Design projects; developing seminars and workshops in the field of DIY, BioArt and Ecological Art; taking students outside of the university environment and exploring the surroundings; getting our hands dirty; setting up a small SmellLab to explore scent as a medium for art and design; and last but not least – to be part of a collaborative working environment again.

* What is your artistic/scientific background? What are your main starting points in being an artist and/or scientist?
My “official” education has mainly been in the field of arts: I studied media art and “experimental spatial concepts” (experimentelle Raumkonzepte) at the University of Art & Design Offenbach before coming to the KHM as a postgraduate student. Here, my goal was to focus more on electronics and installation. In parallel, and to broaden my practice, I undertook several residencies in bioscientific research laboratories e.g. at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing or a laboratory for stem cell bioengineering in Switzerland.
In general, my work is very research-based and it takes me quite some time to come up with a specific idea which is then developed going back and forth between hands-on experimentation, associative and conceptual thinking. Projects are often inspired by new technologies and scientific developments but in the end I always seek to tranform my idea into something that can be experienced directly in the space, through its material and physical presence and on a non-verbal level.

* Which three words would you use to describe yourself or your topics?
Experiment
Installation
Hands-on

 *

The posts titled “welcome” present and welcome the new staff members of exMedia.

Further information can be read here.

photo credit: Jessica Schaefer