Biopolymer Workshop
with Betty Sargeant
This event has finished.
Explore the emerging sustainable art practice of biopolymer sculpture with Experimenta Life Forms artist Betty Sargeant. Learn how to make biopolymers, how to use biopolymers to create small sculptural artefacts and find out how organic materials, such as algae, can be an alternative to plastic-waste consumption.
As part of their on-going research, Australian artist-duo PluginHUMAN (Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer) have been conducting extensive research and experimenting with compostable biopolymers, their aim is to establish carbon negative creative materials and working practices.
acilitated by BettySargeant, this in-person workshop at Plimsoll Gallery (Hobart, TAS) investigated how biopolymer materials can be moulded to create unique sculptural forms. Participants explored the emerging sustainable art practice of biopolymer sculpture – learning how to use biopolymers to create small sculptural artefacts and how organic materials, such as algae, can be an alternative to plastic-waste consumption.
See PluginHUMAN’s artwork ‘PULSE: The Life Force of Trees’ as part of Experimenta Life Forms: International Triennial of Media Art, presenting at Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, 19 March – 9 May 2021
Photos by Jane Barlow
About the Artist
Betty Sargeant
Dr Betty Sargeant is a multi-award-winning, internationally recognised media artist. She is co-creative director and artist with the art-technology duo PluginHUMAN. Betty creates multi-sensory immersive art installations that socially and physically engage audiences.
Betty Sargeant
Dr Betty Sargeant is a multi-award-winning, internationally recognised media artist. She is co-creative director and artist with the art-technology duo PluginHUMAN. Betty creates multi-sensory immersive art installations that socially and physically engage audiences.
Betty has exhibited internationally (Asia, Europe, North America, Australia). She has won Good Design Awards (2020 and 2018) and a Premier’s Design Award (2017) for her progressive artworks. She has created media art installations for institutions such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan, 2018), Questacon (the National Science and Technology Museum, Australia, 2018) and the Asia Culture Centre (South Korea, 2016 & 2017). Betty’s current series of work investigates carbon neutral and carbon negative materials and working practices.
PluginHUMAN
PluginHUMAN is a multi-award-winning art duo led by Dr Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer. PluginHUMAN are at the progressive edge of their field, providing audiences with new cultural, environmental and scientific perspectives.
PluginHUMANVictoria, AU
PluginHUMAN is a multi-award-winning art duo led by Dr Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer. PluginHUMAN are at the progressive edge of their field, providing audiences with new cultural, environmental and scientific perspectives. Their artworks address the leading questions and concerns of our times.
PluginHUMAN’s work centres around the art of illumination. They create projection mapping, LED and video artworks; and sculptural immersive multi-sensory environments. They use the medium of light to translate complex data into meaningful audience experiences.
PluginHUMAN has created commissioned artworks for institutions such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), the Asia Culture Centre (South Korea) and the Melbourne Museum (White Night Festival, Australia). They have exhibited in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. They were awarded the Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Art Fellowship (2019/20); they’re developing new carbon neutral and carbon negative materials and working methods. They have also won two Good Design Awards (2020, 2018), and a Victorian Premier’s Design Award (2017).
PluginHUMAN has an acute understanding of the role that technology plays in contemporary society. They reimagine new technologies to produce artistic innovations, creating meaningful large and small-scale audience experiences for indoor spaces and outdoor public arenas.
