Nicola Rae
My art practice has been based at the Art in Perpetuity Trust, APT Studios and Gallery, Deptford since 1995. More recent studies have included an MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths (2009-11), and an MA Art & Design Education at the Institute of Education (2006-8). As a member of the Digital Maker Collective, I co-developed collaborative workshops at TATE EXCHANGE: Tate Modern during 2017, 2018 and 2019.
My art practice engages with scientific processes explored in installations that include digital technologies, analogue equipment and physical computing. Since 2008, a series of installations visualising the sonic have responded interactively to a variety of acoustic sources and microphones picking up co-produced sound as well as site responsive experimentation. Other sound frequency installations have responded to online recordings of electro-acoustic phenomena as well as interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists and their research data.
ARCTIC GLACIER SONIC FREQUENCIES
2015
An artist/scientist collaboration that engaged with the effects of climate change on rising sea levels. The visualised sound frequencies of recorded melting ice from the Arctic were projected onto the incoming winter tide at Birdham. This area is part of the Manhood Peninsula and forecast to be one of the worst affected areas for flooding in the future.
SUBMERGED
2021
Submerged reacted to Climate Central's data concerning forecasts for the flooding of two areas that I am connected to: the Manhood Peninsula in West Sussex and Deptford Creek, SE London, where my studio is based as well as the gallery visualised in this online work.
CHLOROPHILIA FREQUENCES
2020
Chlorophilia Frequencies engaged with the substantiation of sunlight into greenery through photosynthesis. The near live footage of the sun was shown at an active time for solar flares during a particularly hot year. Plants became instruments through the use of pickups responding to human touch. This exhibition, which I co-curated, proposed a love of foliage and a fascination with the process of its becoming through sunlight.
RAFT FOR SELF SEEDERS, MIGRANTS AND LOCALS
2021
Raft for Self Seeders, Migrants and Locals is a work in progress initiated for an APT Art Yard event in July 2021. A raft structure made from salvaged palettes and wood was floated in Deptford Creek, SE London beside our studios. Self-seeding plants recorded as growing in the creek during 1997 were planted on the raft as a hydroponic system. The creek has a very large tidal drop and safe nesting and resting sites are much needed. An Egyptian Geese family immediately inhabited the raft and other visitors have included more geese, a duck family and a red-eared slider turtle. The raft has twice been ravaged by flood water after extreme rain and twice it has been rebuilt and quickly inhabited again by wildfowl.
