Lecturer

Jenn Karson is an interdisciplinary artist, producer, curator, and educator.

Her current work is focused on intermedia artist-made datasets.

At the University of Vermont, she is the director of the UVM Fablab and on the School of the Arts faculty. She founded the UVM Art and Artificial Intelligence Research Group, an initiative funded through National Science Foundation projects and UVM grants.

Karson received an MFA in Design and Technology with honors from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BA in Political and Environmental Sciences at the University of Vermont.

Research and/or Creative Works

Selected Exhibitions, Visiting Artist Talks and Curated Programs

  • Remote Batam Tools Artist Residency,  January 2023 - present.
  • Praxis: Recent Work by  Studio Art Faculty at UVM, Fleming Museum of Art, September 12 - December 8, 2023.
  • Center for Machine Arts residency and exhibitions. Peekskill, N.Y.  June 11 – 17 and July 16 – 23, 2023. 
  • Why are Culture and Creativity Powerful Assets for a Vibrant Economy? Research, Innovation, and Sustainability Summit and Entrepreneurship (RISE) Summit, UVM, Burlington, VT, June 21, 2023.
  • Curator, Situated Language: Local Constructions of Time, Space, and Action, Colburn Gallery, March 31 - April 6, 2023
  • #OwnYourDataset artist talk, Panel: Embodiment and Datafication, New Media Caucus of the College Arts Association, Blacksburg, VA, September 30, 2022.
  • Liquid Architectures and Leaky Territories, Francis Colburn Gallery, Williams Hall, University of Vermont. March 15 – 25, 2022.Link to story.
  • Roxham Road, Francis Colburn Gallery, Williams Hall, UVM, Burlington, Vermont. Collaboration with Photographer Bill McDowell, October, 2022.
  • Novak, Alison, An Artist Finds Inspiration in Leaves Chomped by Spongy Moth Caterpillars, Seven Days Newspaper, June 15, 2022.
  •  Repatriation/Restitution/Reparation: African Art at the Fleming Museum, Artist Workshop: Using Artificial Intelligence to Imagine Alternate Pasts, Presents & Futures, Workshop with Minne Atairu, Fleming Museum of Art, UVM, Burlington, VT. 2021
  • SuperComputing21, Panelist, Northeast and CAREERS Cyberteams: Supporting Research at Small and Mid-Sized Institutions with Student Research Computing Facilitators. 2021
  • Aquela Que Eu Queria Ser (The One I Wanted to Be), selected for Los Angeles International Film Festival Indie Short Fest (2001), ARFF Berlin (2001, Festival Genders and Performances (2001), Diorama International Film Festival, nukhufest (2022).
  • Alife2020. New Frontiers in AI: What Alife can offer AI. Montréal, Canada/virtual. 2020
  • Small File Media Festival. School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada/virtual. 2020.
  • Virtual Visiting Artist Talk and Generative Art Performance; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT/virtual; December 17, 2020.
  • Curator, Behind the Schemes: When Helen of Troy Came to UVM. Fleming Museum or Art, UVM, Burlington, VT. 2019

Awards and Recognition

Recent Awards

Faculty Development Grants in the Arts, UVM, 2023

NSF Track-2 (EPSCoR) Artificial Intelligence Enabled Advanced Manufacturing, 2022.

Damaged Leaf Dataset, Small Grant Research Award, College of Arts and Sciences, UVM, Burlington, VT. December 2021.

Writing and Research Across the Curriculum In An Age Of Disinformation, Faculty Resource Network Seminar, New York University, NY, NY/virtual. June 7-11. 2021

UVM Art + Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Research Group Funding from Northeast Cyberteam, Funding from the National Science foundation (NSF) under award No. OAC-1659377. Computations were performed on the Vermont Advanced Computing Core supported in part by NSF award No. OAC-1827314.

Lattie Coor Collaborative Fellowship, UVM Humanities Center. Funding for collaborative intermedia project with choreographer and dancer Paula Higa. 2020.

 

Associations and Affiliations

  • College Arts Association
  • Peer Reviewer. Leonardo journal, MIT Press.
  • Leonardo, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology.
Jennifer portrait shot in a gallery setting

Areas of Expertise and/or Research

Design and Technology, Artificial Intelligence

Education

  • B.A. University of Vermont, Political Science
  • M.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute, Design + Technology

Contact

Email:

jkarson@uvm.edu

Office Location:

412 Williams Hall

Website(s):
  1. UVM FabLab
  2. https://jennkarson.studio/
  3. Art and AI Research Group at UVM

Courses Taught

  • ARTS 2620 and CIS 2460 Digital Fabrication
  • ARTS 2410 Graphic Design
  • Special Topics Courses in Digital Fabrication and Intermedia
  • ARTS 4994 Teaching Assistantship
  • ARTS ARTS 3995 Undergraduate Research