** link to the event https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84711795547

The University of Wolverhampton is delighted to host an online talk with artist Dr Camille Baker, Professor in Interactive and Immersive Arts, University of the Creative Arts.

Inspired by her own experience with the health care system to treat a post-reproductive disease, interdisciplinary artist and academic Baker created the project INTER/her, an immersive installation and VR experience exploring the inner world of women’s bodies and the reproductive diseases they suffer. The project was created to open up the conversation about phenomena experienced by women in their late 30’s (sometimes earlier), their 40’s, and sometimes after menopause. Working in consultation with a gynaecologist, the project features interviews with several women telling their stories.

The themes in the work include issues of female identity, sexuality, body image, loss of body parts, pain, disease, and cancer. INTER/her has a focus on female reproductive diseases explored through a feminist lens; as personal exploration, as a conversation starter, to raise greater public awareness and encourage community building. The work also represents the lived experience of women’s pain and anger, conflicting thoughts through self-care and the growth of disease. Feelings of mortality are explored through a medical process in male-dominated medical institutions and a dearth of reliable information. https://inter-her.art/. In 2021, the installation was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize.

Join us for a talk and Q&A with the artist to discuss her work and its future development.

Camille Baker is a Professor in Interactive and Immersive Arts, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham Surrey (UK). She is an artist-performer/researcher/curator within various art forms: immersive experiences, participatory performance and interactive art, mobile media art, tech fashion/soft circuits/DIY electronics, responsive interfaces and environments, and emerging media curating. Maker of participatory performance and immersive artwork, Baker develops methods to explore expressive non-verbal modes of communication, extended embodiment and presence in real and mixed reality and interactive art contexts, using XR, haptics/ e-textiles, wearable devices and mobile media. She has an ongoing fascination with all things emotional, embodied, felt, sensed, the visceral, physical, and relational.

Her 2018 book New Directions in Mobile Media and Performance showcases exciting approaches and artists in this space, as well as her own work. She has been running a regular meetup group with smart/e-textile artists and designers since 2014, called e-stitches, where participants share their practice and facilitate workshops of new techniques and innovations. Baker also has been Principal Investigator for UCA for the EU funded STARTS Ecosystem (starts.eu) Apr 2019-Nov 2021 and founder initiator for the EU WEAR Sustain project Jan 2017-April 2019 (wearsustain.eu).

https://camillebaker.me/