Deborah Robinson, Artist in Residence

Contact: d.c.robinson@exeter.ac.uk

Funded by Arts Council England

Deborah Robinson was Egenis's Artist in Residence from April to September 2004 and in 2007. As an Associate Fellow she continues to be closely associated with Egenis, including as a co-organiser of the Centre’s ‘Art in the stocks, science in the dock’ series of public events.

The 2004 Artist in Residence appointment was a temporary post that attracted many applications from artists throughout Britain and beyond. The brief was to interpret and translate the work of the Centre in visual form. Deborah produced an online diary which is an illustrated guide to the journey towards her work, and gave seminars, including an online video seminar. She has written articles for academic journals as well as the Genomics Network magazine. Three of her mixed media pieces, (using lightboxes and illustrations from Darwin's original 'Origin of Species' superimposed over images of DNA marks on an electrophoresic gel) are exhibited at Byrne House, home of Egenis.

Professor Steve Hughes received a substantial grant from Arts Council England to support Deborah to continue her work in 2007. Her project was to develop imagery based on recording the overlooked - a kind of 'underside' - of science. Working in various laboratories (including Sanger) Deborah used a pinhole camera over long exposure times. The resulting images incorporate chance elements such as the trace of human labour in increasingly mechanised spaces. The work was exhibited in March 2007 at the ICIA. A further exhibition followed in August 2007 at the Exeter Phoenix.

About Deborah and her work