Rutgers University

projects 2024

Soil:P2

MAKEDA SMALLS, CELESTE RODRIGUEZ, TRACY TSE, ELENA WHITEMAN

Soil:P2 is a microbe testing, non-profit database and living library. Allowing urban dwellers to test and support local soil health, Soil:P2 also proposes soil in plants to introduce and support microbial activity in the urban landscape.

Elizabeth Demaray programs listening stations for birds that play human music, cultures lichen on the sides of skyscrapers in New York City and creates floraborgs, AI supported robotic supports that allow potted plants to move freely in a domestic space. Demaray is the recipient of the National Studio Award at NY MOMA/PS 1, the Skowhegan Fellowship, the Art Omi Fellowship, the Aldrich Emerging Artist Award, and the Welcome to the Anthropocene Award from the Association of Environmental Science Studies. A professor in the Department of Visual, Media and Performing Arts at Rutgers University-Camden, Demaray is head of the concentration in sculpture and the concentration in intermedia and electronic arts. At Rutgers-New Brunswick, she an advisor in the Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which is a platform for artistic practice in the fields of computer vision and machine learning. Demaray’s artwork can be viewed at https://elizabethdemaray.org