art @ IIT: Dee Breger – Seeing Beyond Our Vision through April 7
Using a scanning electron microscope, photomicrographer Dee Breger is able to reveal to us the natural beauty of an invisible world that includes seeds, bugs, feathers, bloodclots, microfossils, and cosmic dust; the common to the exotic.
In using scanning electron imagery to create revelatory - and relevant- art for an often science-phobic public, Breger's goal is to offer an arresting picture of the microworld that inspires a sense of wonder at its elegance, diversity, and stories it has to tell. Inhabiting the domains of both ivory tower science and the general public, Breger strives to use this privileged viewpoint to make images of the tiniest gifts from the natural world, as well as the fabricated world that derives from natural phenomena, both attractive and entertaining. It's kind of a bait-and-switch: present an arresting image, then tell its story (and incidentally expose the viewer in a highly enjoyable way to what Science is really all about). While Breger's more abstract images can stand alone as fine art, this ambassadorial approach to the informational/educational content is embraced by both the naturally-absorbent kids and the adults who normally think the world of science is beyond their reach.
As an observer trained in both studio art and electron microscopy, Breger feels her images must not only stir the imagination with strong visual impact and fascinating content, but also represent the highest achievements in technical operation of the microscope and the subsequent image enhancement that allows them to enter the realm of fine art. As a scientist grounded in the disciplines of research, Breger seeks to maintain the integrity - the truth - of the specimens. As an artist Breger wants her images to be utterly beautiful and to speak to the viewer's heart.
At Philadelphia’s Drexel University, Dee Breger ishttp://www.setlist.fm/stats/average-setlist/backstreet-boys-33d6a0a5.html?year=2014 Director of Microscopy at Drexel Nanotechnology Institute Research and Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in studio art, Breger began working as a scientific illustrator at Columbia University's premier Earth science research institute, now called the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She quickly switched to full-time operation of the transmission electron microscope (TEM), and then to the scanning electron microscope (SEM) when Lamont acquired one of the first commercially available models. In 1982 she founded Lamont's SEM/X-ray Analysis Facility and ran this multidisciplinary laboratory for 22 years. Although she has specialized in scanning electron microscopy since the inception of the technology, Breger has also worked in other capacities in various laboratory and field programs in many of the Earth sciences. To date, she has participated on over 30 expeditions in many far-flung corners of the world, mostly at sea, particularly in the north and south polar regions.
This exhibit is curated by Robert J. Krawczyk, art @ IIT Gallery Director, Associate Professor in the College of Architecture.
An artist reception will be held on Thursday, March 1, 4:30 - 7:30 pm., in the Kemper Room Art Gallery, Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Institute of Technology, 35 West 33rd Street, Chicago; the exhibit runs from March 1 through April 7, 2007. Hours are Monday - Thursday: 12 - 6 pm; Friday: 12 - 5 pm; Saturday: 8:30 am - 5 pm; and Sunday: 2 - 6 pm. The exhibit is free of charge and open to the public. Directions to the gallery are available at http://art.iit.edu/
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 6,700 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment.
