This site represents my 25 year journey developing  arts practice based on my experience as a scientist.   My art has a non-human centred focus; particularly insects, plants and microorganisms.  I have an ongoing collaboration with my long term partner Prof Fernando Genta based in Oswaldo Cruz, Rio, Brazil where the focus is on public engagement about insect borne human diseases using the arts. Fernando has his own arts blog.

Play is an important part of our creative approach to arts production. We have also found that our playful approach has led to surprising and novel scientific research projects. We are not trained in the arts; we are perhaps considered as ‘outsiders’ in the arts world. But as scientists we spend a lot of time in creative thinking; the buzz that I get from thinking up new research is similar to when I am thinking of new arts-related ideas.

I had a number of joint commissions with professional artists and also collaborated extensively as ‘the scientist’. Some of these joint collaborations have spanned several years and   produced wonderful things. They present different challenges and surprising narratives as the arts and science research/production worlds are very different.  They also, in some cases, probably harmed my scientific career progression! But I feel the personal benefits outweighed the negative effects. More recently I have started to produce my own projects such as the Lady Liverwort ‘plant blindness’ project.

Some of my past and present projects are given below. Click on the arrow in righthand margin to go back to some older projects.