ARTIST STATEMENT
My art practice examines perception and behavior, primarily through questions about agency, free will, consciousness, embodiment, and computational intelligence. More specifically, I am interested in the different ways to computationally model patterns of behavior that are reminiscent of living organisms, investigating what it is about computational patterns of movement that leads to the perception of agency and free will. I further investigate agency through our sensorimotor systems, primarily that of the sense of touch, and how this affects our perception, emotion, and subsequently, behavior, not only within an individual but in interactions with others. Of particular interest is in how this relationship changes when pairing living agents with computational or mechanized agents. Through my work, I investigate the complex nature of these relationships, illustrating organic patterns of behavior and synthesizing new digital and physical experiences.
With 2D media, I am fascinated with exploring color and mark-making. Reflective of my digital installation work, each mark “plays” within a space, producing a final output that is indicative of this anthropomorphic exploration. For me, a successful artwork moves.
ABOUT STEJARA IULIA DINULESCU
Stejara holds bachelors degrees in Psychology, Studio Art, and Creative Computation from Southern Methodist University. She is currently in the second year of her PhD at UC Santa Barbara studying Media Arts and Technology and is a 2021 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. Her doctoral research is on developing wearable haptic guidance technologies for artists to use in their creative making practices, with a specific focus on drawing. Through her work in the Re-Touch lab at UCSB, She is constantly learning more about the field of haptics, social touch, and wearable soft robotics. Her overarching research drive is building wearable technologies that enable people (and artificial agents) to share touch experiences, in addition to how these shared experiences affect creative production.
All work is the intellectual property of Stejara Iulia Dinulescu.