Machine Language: Sophie Kahn

Sophie Kahn works with electronic new media such as 3D scanners and printers in a hybrid format mixing traditional figurative forms with the intrinsic glitchy, error-prone processes of her unique approach to technology use. Pushing her tools into non-standard uses she explores digital/physical territories that “misunderstand the notions of the body”.

Sophie Kahn is a Brooklyn-based Australian new media artist. She earned a BA (Hons) in Fine Art/History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London; a Graduate Certificate in Spatial Information Architecture from RMIT University, Melbourne; and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was awarded a full tuition Trustee Scholarship.

She has exhibited her artwork and given talks in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul. Her video work has been screened in festivals including Transmediale, Zero1 San Jose Biennial, Dance Camera West, Trampoline, Frequency, Currents New Media Festival and the Japan Media Arts Festival.  Sophie has taught in the Department of Digital Arts at Pratt Institute as a Visiting Associate Professor, and at Columbia College, Chicago, as a visiting instructor. She has recently completed residencies at the NARS Foundation and at the Museum of Arts and Design, both in New York City. Her work has been supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic, and other private funding bodies. Her work is held in public and private collections in the United States and internationally. Sophie is a 2011 New York Foundation for the Arts Digital and Electronic Arts Fellow.