Mapping and Connectivity

Conversation between Nathalie Meibach and Yu-Wen Wu

Moderated by Deborah Davidson

Catalyst Conversation’s Advisory Board Member, Yu-Wen Wu and past Catalyst Conversations speaker, Nathalie Meibach are in conversation about their most recent work displayed at the Broad Institute. View recording here.

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For centuries, we have used maps to chart the world — from the body to the stars and everything in between. Both foreign and familiar, we can both lose and find ourselves. Mapping is a way of using spatial reasoning. Many contemporary artists use maps to inform their work: Google maps, imaginary maps, mind maps, genome mapping, historical maps, and especially data visualization. The results are often reflective and personal. How do we discover the way to each other and back to ourselves?

We have become accustomed to reading maps, which show us the many changes and problems in our country and around the world: climate change, weather tracking, voting districts, COVID illnesses and deaths. Nathalie Miebach and Yu-Wen Wu reveal, translate, and manifest data and its interpretation in their work. This narrative impulse pervades their respective practices, as they seek to understand the world for themselves and to inspire us to see a way forward.

About the Artists

Nathalie Miebach explores the intersection of art and science by translating scientific data related to meteorology, ecology, and oceanography into woven sculptures and musical scores/ performances. Her main method of data translation is basket weaving, which functions as a simple, tactile grid through which to interpret data into 3D space. Central to this work is her desire to explore the role that visual and musical aesthetics play in the translation and understanding of complex scientific systems, such as weather. Since March 2020, Miebach has been focusing on the integration of COVID-19 data into her translation work with weather data. The purpose of these 2D weavings, which are entirely made up of data, is to both document this extraordinary period of human history we are going through, while also commenting on how the abundance of scientific data can facilitate or complicate our sense of resilience during the face of these global threats.

Yu-Wen Wu is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Boston. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Wu’s subjectivity as an immigrant is central to her artwork. Arriving in the United States at an early age, her experiences have shaped her work in areas of migration—examining issues of displacement, arrival, assimilation, and the shape of identity in a new country. At the crossroads of art, science, politics, and social issues, her wide range of projects include large-scale drawings, site-specific video installations, community-engaged practices, and public art. Wu’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in several private and public collections.