ecoarttech, founded by Leila Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint, is a postdisciplinary collaborative whose work spans art, music, performance, theory, criticism, and creative writing. Leila and Cary met in 1996 and have been collaborating on life and art ever since. Much, but not all, of their work together explores experiences and philosophies of modern ecological life within networked environments, from biological systems to industrial grids and digital networks. Merging primitive with emergent technologies, their projects investigate the overlapping terrain between “nature,” built environments, mobility, and electronic spaces. Leila earned her PhD in literature from Columbia University and was Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow of Environmental Humanities at Wellesley College in 2010-2011. Cary is Assistant Professor of Digital Art at the University of Rochester, where Leila also teaches humanities courses in the sustainability and digital studies programs.

Leila and Cary’s research has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Franklin Furnace, as well as numerous university fellowships. Their performances, exhibitions, and lectures have taken place at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Postmasters Gallery, 319 Scholes, Smackmellon Gallery, Exit Art, U.C.L.A., M.I.T. Media Lab, ISEA 2012, Banff New Media Institute, European Media Art Festival, Parsons The New School for Design, and the Neuberger Museum of Art. And their work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, Rhizome.org at the New Museum, Turbulence.org of New Radio & Performing Arts, Inc., and the Cornell University Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art. This past summer, ecoarttech was in residence at Joya: Arte+Ecología, an off-the-grid eco-art residency program located in eastern Andalucía, and while in Spain collaborated with Joya on performances at Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga and AlhóndigaBilbao.

For Leila’s work as writer/editor, click here.
Cary’s work from restlessculture, 1997-2003

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The following publications recently interviewed us about our work: VisualMAG, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Furtherfield.org.

The brilliant people we have been working with lately

Polina Koronkevich Hamje (left) is the software developer for both the Android and iOS versions of our urban hiking app Indeterminate Hikes+. Based in Austin, Texas, she’s been coding professionally since graduating from Colgate University in 2007. When she’s not busy on her computer or playing with her kitties, you can find her on the banked track playing roller derby with the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls or having a dance party. She is a software developer based in Austin, Texas. She’s been coding professionally since graduating from Colgate University in 2007. When she’s not busy on her computer or playing with her kitties, you can find her on the banked track playing roller derby with the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls or having a dance party.

Ian Wilson (right) has helped make possible many ecoarttech works and exhibitions, including Wilderness Collider, a real-time web app that mashes up the digital data gathered by Indeterminate Hikes participants. Ian is a musician, programmer, and artist, who works primarily as a web developer and creative programmer. He immerses himself in the ideology surrounding open source and hacker culture, and believes that openness and shared knowledge are crucial to fostering the creative spirit in any discipline. He works in languages and platforms like Python and Django, PHP, Java, Arduino, and soldering irons. Having originally learned to love music on the piano and saxophone, Ian is an active drummer, composer, guitarist, and vocalist, and he makes up one third of a progressive, keyboard-driven rock band. He is always on the lookout for talented individuals from whom he can learn and with whom he can create.

Joya: arte + ecología has been collaborating with us on projects in Europe, including at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga and AlhóndigaBilbao in Spain. Joya is an arts organisation based at Cortijada Los Gázquez in the heart of the Parque Natural Sierra María-Los Vélez in the north of the Provincia de Almería, Andalucía, Spain. The guiding principle behind the activities of the organization is to facilitate, through production and collaboration, art that manifests a discourse with the environment and sustainability. Simon and Donna Beckmann (left, center) are artists and co-founders of Joya and co-directors of the Cortijada Los Gázquez creative retreat / eco-guesthouse. Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero (right), a photographer who also works in film, is Joya’s Communications Coordinator. For more info about Joya, visit http://www.losgazquez.com/en/joya/. To see the Indeterminate Hike+ that Gonzaga lead at AlhóndigaBilbao, check out this video: http://vimeo.com/54363903.