2018 Winter Artist-in-Residence Announced
Justus Harris
January – March 2018
The International Museum of Surgical Science is proud to present our Winter 2018 Artist-in-Residence: Chicago-based artist Justus Harris.
Justus Harris (US, b. 1990) combines medical data visualization and 3D modeling to understand health trends. His work is inspired by using continuous monitors for his type 1 diabetes. The 3D printed Diabetes Data Sculptures and public health data projects that come from his research have been featured internationally at venues including the Stanford School of Medicine, Theorizing the Web (New York), the Harold Washington Chicago Public Library where he was the inaugural Maker in Residence, and at the European Commission’s Internet of Things exhibit ‘Adaptation’ (Berlin). He is a portfolio reviewer and alumni of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BA, Visual & Critical Studies). Justus has participated in five artificial pancreas research studies and is currently using a DIY artificial pancreas system. He is currently developing his projects at mHUB, Chicago’s premier prototyping innovation center.
Justus Harris: Artist-in-Residence Objective
The saws, ocular devices, and prosthetics showcased at the International Museum of Surgical Science express a tangible language of attempts at human healing. I will synthesize this archive of ‘healing’ objects with my own biological data archive gathered from the monitors I use to treat my medical condition (Type 1 diabetes).
After 3D-scanning select objects that are relevant to my medical condition I will modify them digitally to relate their forms with my own body as well as with my ongoing Diabetes Data Sculptures series. The resulting works will be digital animations and site-specific sculptures. I will position this work in the Hall of Immortals to insert the patient as a healer in the court of idolized medical figures.
The tools that have healed, mangled, and modified the body are part of the lineage of the high tech pharmaceuticals and medical devices I use as a patient. My time at the Museum is a chance to bridge the past and future of medical philosophy informed by my participation in DIY medical and maker communities, which combine technologies not initially intended to heal.
Learn more about Justus Harris’ current work at http://www.justusharris.com/.
