Julie Freeman
Founder / Artist
Julie Freeman works with natural systems and emergent technologies. Her large scale installations and online artworks have, since the early 1990s, pioneered her conceptual and critical approach to working with real-time data as a living and malleable art material.
Julie translates data from natural sources into kinetic sculptures, physical objects, images, sound compositions and animations. She considers data the foundational element that enables communication between the natural world and ourselves, while digital technology interprets that data to allow humans to experience and understand phenomena that exist beyond our own sensory perception. Her work explores this relationship between science, technology and the living world; questioning the use of networked technology in how we perceive and connect to nature.
Julie’s focus is the investigation of data as an art material. A mix of artist and computer scientist, she often works collaboratively and experimentally with organisations, scientists and curators to curate, develop and produce works, projects and exhibitions around the concept of data and the impact it has on us and the environment.
Over the past 20 years, her work has been shown at leading institutions including; the V&A, London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, The Lowry, and the Science Museum, as well as internationally. Julie has won awards from the Wellcome Trust, Arts Council, and is a TED Senior Fellow. She holds a PhD from Queen Mary University of London and founded the Open Data Institute’s art programme ‘Data as Culture’ in 2012. Julie is co-founder of Fine Acts, and leads the Translating Nature studio.