National Science Week – Art working with Science

Three perspectives: artists Jimi DePriest, Santiago Rentería Aguilar and Makaela Rowe-Fox in conversation with Sarah Douglas

Three recent graduates from Fine Arts in the School of Design, UWA will share information about their current work and discuss the role of science in their art practices with artist and arts educator Sarah Douglas, Fine Arts Major Project Coordinator, in the School of Design, UWA.

Santiago Rentería Aguilar has been deeply engaged in the realm of sound production and interactive art for over a decade. Multidisciplinary in spirit, his most recent work delves into ecological and media-archaeological domains, unearthing the intersections of technology in the study and manipulation of animal sounds with computational systems. Within this emerging field, he employs sound art as a research methodology to investigate machine listening systems’ regenerative and creative possibilities. His goal is to advance our comprehension of automated sound-event detection systems and applications in artistic expression. His fascination with songbirds motivates a personal commitment to the scrutiny of acoustic automation in biodiversity monitoring. Santiago’s creative work has been showcased in Australia at Now Or Never Festival and in Mexico at Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, Carnaval de Bahidorá and Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Jimi DePriest is an MFA student with a bachelor's degree in Anthropology who composes Marxist and anti-imperialist analyses of military technologies and examines the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on modern warfare. By exploring the history and philosophy of computation, communications networks, algorithms and robotics through the critical lens of war, Jimi seeks to trace the rapidly evolving trajectories of these technologies in terms of military expansion propelled by the profit motives of the defense industry and imperial political agendas.  A current project involves a research based artistic practice aimed at investigating biomimicry used in autonomous weapons systems such as drones, robotic dogs and swarms. The work focuses on the ethical dimensions of integrating artificial intelligence with autonomous weapons systems engineered to asymmetrically conduct warfare.

Makaela Rowe-Fox is an emerging interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Boorloo. She has exhibited at Bus Projects (VIC, 2019), Cullity Gallery (WA, 2021-23) and has presented performance work December Project at AGWA (2020). Her writing credits include; two new plays for Black Swan (WA) and ATYP (NSW) for their Fresh Ink initiative (2024); co-writing and performing in Seven Sisters (Perth Festival, 2023); Jellyfish Business (ATYP National Studio residency in NSW, 2023); and The Pelican (WAYTco, 2022). Currently, she is also making a new film called Actional Attempt that will be exhibited by PS Art Space and Cool Change Contemporary in September 2024.

In her current artistic practice, she explores resistance and human-animal alliance in response to the crisis of the Anthropocene. In the recent speculative research project Familiar, Rowe-Fox draws on emergent scientific discoveries by marine biologists on bioluminescent signalling among the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas). Rowe-Fox identifies parallels between the deep-sea squid and the figure of the witch; both simultaneous embodiments of marginalisation and subversion. Crafting speculative concoctions and hexes, Rowe-Fox playfully envisions how the human might serve as ‘familiar’ to the deep-sea squid.

Sarah Douglas is a versatile artist, curator, and educator, originally from Aotearoa, she has traversed the globe, living and working in Ireland, France, the UK, and India before settling in Boorloo (Perth) as her long-term home. 

Fuelled by a passion for cross-disciplinary exploration, Sarah’s research is expansive often collaborating with engineers, sound designers, writers, and performers. Her extensive background includes over two decades of teaching in creative arts tertiary education. Notably, she co-founded and directed an experimental art space from 2000 to 2017, fostering innovation and pushing boundaries in the artistic community. She is the Fine Arts Major Project Coordinator in the School of Design, UWA.

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Campus Partnership: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA,

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Please note: in keeping with the University's guidelines, space is limited for this event and registration is required.

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Images: (left - right)

Makaela Rowe-Fox, Familiar #1. 2023. Photographic print; bioluminescent material (tonic water, saliva and turmeric/galangal roots) and Victoire Hemedi. 50x76 cm

Jimi DePriest, Critical Mass (detail)

Santiago Rentería Aguilar, Spectral (De​)​Compositions: Dadamining Datamining, 2023, multichannel soundscape, duration: 10 min