The internet is often described in abstract, intangible ways, yet is actually facilitated largely by physical infrastructure, particularly the submarine cables that wrap around the world, carrying our messages between continents. These systems are both built in and with materials from the environment, within ecosystems where more-than-human kin that are affected. The media used to capture and document these ecosystems influences how we view nature and the narratives we tell (Parikka, Jussi. A Geology of Media. University of Minnesota Press, 2015). How can we better understand the interrelationships between media and nature, its meaning and materiality? In other words, technology's ecology? (Bridle, James. Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines : The Search for a Planetary Intelligence. Farrar, 2022)

In this presentation Katherine will share her expanded media research-creation practice that looks at the physicality of telecommunication infrastructures and our relationship with the Internet through eels as a metaphorical guide. By exploring more-than-human perception and intelligence we can find new ways of understanding and relating to technology in the world. 

Katherine Rae Diemert is a visual artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia making interactive mixed media work exploring our relationship with natural and digital environments. Katherine completed her BA Honours Illustration in 2015 at Sheridan College, and later returned as an instructor to teach Illustration Concepts and Disciplines and Contemporary Illustration and Commentary among others. In 2019 Katherine attended The School for Poetic Computation in New York where she studied art, code, hardware and critical theory. Katherine recently graduated from NSCAD University's MFA program, with a focus in Expanded Media. She has been artist-in-residence at Factory Media Centre, Roundtable Residency, and exhibited across North America. In her research and studio practice, Katherine is interested in material experiments, art with science, and reimagining our relationship with technology.