Kathy High
{{Infobox artist
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| name = Kathy High
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| image = Kathy High (cropped).jpg
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| birth_name = Kathryn High
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1954}}
| birth_place = Bryn Mawr, PA{{cite book|last1=Thompson|first1=Nato|title=Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom|date=2005|publisher=The MIT Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=0-262-20161-5}}
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| education = State University of New York, Buffalo
Colgate University
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| known_for = BioArt
video art
performance art
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Kathryn High (born 1954){{cite web |title=MoMA Collection - Kathy High |url=http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/35537?locale=en |website=MoMA |access-date=8 March 2015}} is an American interdisciplinary artist, curator, and scholar known for her work in BioArt, video art and performance art.
Background
Kathy High graduated with a BA from Colgate University in 1976 and an MAH from the Center for Media Studies at University at Buffalo in 1981 where she studied with media pioneers Tony Conrad,{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalo.edu/atbuffalo/article-page-fall-2016.host.html/content/shared/www/atbuffalo/articles/Fall-2016/features/tony-conrad.detail.html|title=University of Buffalo Magazine, Tony Conrad's students remember him|website=university of buffalo magazine}} Hollis Frampton, and Steina Vasulka.{{cite web|url=http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm196.shtml|title=Kathy High|website=Women Make Movies|access-date=27 January 2016}} High was a founding member of The Standby Program in New York City and initiated the video exhibition program at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, NY in the 1980s.{{Cite web|url=http://www.vdb.org/artists/kathy-high|title=Kathy High {{!}} Video Data Bank|website=www.vdb.org|language=en|access-date=2017-03-04}}
In 1991, she founded [http://www.e-felix.org/welcome.html FELIX: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication] produced in conjunction with The Standby Program.{{Cite web|url=http://www.e-felix.org/info.html|title=FELIX :: Info|website=www.e-felix.org|access-date=2017-03-04}} She is co-editor of The Emergence of Video Processing Tools: Television Becoming Unglued, with Sherry Miller Hocking and Mona Jimenez.{{cite book|url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/E/bo15981361.html|title=The Emergence of Video Processing Tools|website=University of Chicago Press|publisher=Intellect |access-date=8 March 2015}} She has been a professor of video and new media at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York since 2002.{{cite web|url=http://www.arts.rpi.edu/pl/faculty-staff/kathy-high|title=Kathy High Faculty Bio|website=Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Department of the Arts|access-date=4 March 2017|archive-date=29 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429053457/http://www.arts.rpi.edu/pl/faculty-staff/kathy-high|url-status=dead}}
Since the early 1980s, High has been creating and exhibiting art in the form of videos, photographs, performances and installations. High's work intersects art, technology and science (often collaborating with scientists) and addresses topics including gender and technology, empathy, and animal sentience.{{cite web|url=http://arts.gov/art-works/2011/symbiotic-art-science-part-5|title=Symbiotic Art & Science|last=High|first=Kathy|website=NEA Art Works Blog|publisher=National Endowment for the Arts|access-date=8 March 2015}} Her work has appeared in the Guggenheim Museum, Catalyst Arts, MASS MoCA, and the Museum of Modern Art among others and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts.
High's video works are distributed through Video Data Bank and her films I Need Your Full Cooperation/Underexposed and Underexposed are distributed by Women Make Movies.
Notable works
- Animal Attraction - a video documentary about telepathic communication with animals. Animal Attraction was first exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum{{Cite web|url=http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/education/sackler-center/design-it-shelter/view-shelters/project/689|title=Film Series|website=www.guggenheim.org|access-date=2016-03-19}} in New York City, and was additionally featured on PBS and WNET in New York City.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm196.shtml|title=WOMEN MAKE MOVIES {{!}} Kathy High|website=www.wmm.com|access-date=2017-03-04}}
- Death Down Under - a video documentary, co-directed by Cynthia White, focuses on care for the dead, green burials, and the ecology of death.{{Cite web|url=http://vampirestudygroup.com/death-down-under/|title=VSG: Vampire Study Group: Death Down Under|website=vampirestudygroup.com|access-date=2017-03-04}}
- Blood Wars - an interdisciplinary art and science project. [http://vampirestudygroup.com/bloodwars/about/ Blood Wars], is an ongoing experiment that pits human white blood cell samples against one another in a series of tournament-style battles. The project was funded by a 2010 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation with additional support from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.{{Cite web|url=http://vampirestudygroup.com/bloodwars/about/|title=About the Project {{!}} Blood Wars|website=vampirestudygroup.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-04}}
- Embracing Animal - a performance involving live rats that was commissioned for the exhibition Becoming Animal at MASS MoCA.{{cite journal|last=Aristarkhova|first=Irina|date=2010|title=Hosting the animal: the art of Kathy High|url=http://www.aestheticsandculture.net/index.php/jac/article/view/5888|journal=Journal of Aesthetics & Culture|publisher=Co-Action Publishing|volume=2|page=5|doi=10.3402/jac.v2i0.5888|access-date=8 March 2015|doi-access=free}} For this project, High purchased two rats for use in a series of biological experiments involving the artist's DNA and homeopathic medicine.{{Cite book|title=Becoming Animal: Contemporary Art in the Animal Kingdom|last=Thompson|first=Nato|publisher=The MIT Press|year=2005|isbn=0-262-20161-5|location=Cambridge, MA}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://kathyhigh.com Official Website]
- [http://www.vdb.org/artists/kathy-high Video Data Bank] distributor for several of High's video works
- [http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm196.shtml Women Make Movies] distributor for several of High's films
- [http://www.e-felix.org/welcome.html FELIX: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication] media arts journal founded and edited by High
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Category:Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty
Category:American interdisciplinary artists
Category:American women video artists
Category:American women performance artists
Category:American video artists
Category:American performance artists
Category:University at Buffalo alumni