Mary Neubauer has shown her work widely. Her sculptures and prints are in a number of public
and private collections, and she has completed many public art projects in the western states,
including several interactive sculptural works involving light and sound. In the past five years,
her sculptures and digital images have appeared in national and international exhibitions
including New York, Paris, Beijing, and Adelaide. Working at the intersection of art and science,
she exhibits with organizations including Ars Mathematica/ Intersculpt, TeleSculpture, and Art-
Science Collaborations, Inc. She has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, a
Fulbright Fellow in Cambridge England, and a Ford Fellow at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Recent residencies include the Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, the Tyrone Guthrie Center
at Annaghmakerrig, Ireland, the Vermont Studio Center, and the John Michael Kohler Arts and
Industry Residency at the Kohler Foundry. She is Head of Sculpture at the Herberger Institute
for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, where she is involved in the Partnership for
Spatial Modeling and serves as an affiliate to Arts, Media, and Engineering.

 

 

Statement

My artistic processes focus on the hidden aspects of our surroundings, emphasizing artistic and tactile way of understanding global and metropolitan functions based on data visualization. New ways of seeing our natural and built environments are made possible through the dimensional, visually appealing expression of the many streams of numbers that constantly input from our environment. An expanded awareness of systems, cities, timelines, and the rhythms of the larger world is evoked. It is my hope that these data-responsive images will serve as an aid to a more deeply felt deeper understanding of the complex attributes of the environments in which we live today.  My work is designed to provide a highly visual interpretation of the behavior of data through time, while remaining true to the underlying input driving the visuals.
 I have had the opportunity to work with municipalities, corporations, environmental agencies, individuals, and industry in a number of data visualization projects. I have visualized rainfall and water usage, river and tidal flows, geophysics, environmental pollutants, decibel levels, metal stream variations, air traffic, pedestrian flow, solar storms, telecommunications data, and many other topics in an ongoing series of exhibitions and projects. As well, I have collaborated with composer Todd Ingalls, on sonification of data, and have completed several public art projects involving these data flow topics both individually and as part of a team. My work allows me to engage directly with the community and interact with specialists from many different disciplines.
My data visualization work has a broad capability for variation.  It responds to incoming data through textural variation, color, feeling tone, and illumination. The work can be produced as 2D imagery,  sculptural form, surface maps, animations, and responsive public art.   I am working creating visualizations that are accessible anywhere, and are adaptable to many new media, including websites and portable digital formats. Projections of the work allow viewers to travel around in an experiential way,  through brightly colored numeric worlds and ongoing virtual flybys. 3D models and prototypes of the data make long-term cycles and variations tactile and tangible, while prints and renderings offer a more contemplative view. The artworks are meant to express long-term patterns in global phenomena, enhance sensitivity to the invisibly functioning aspects of our surroundings, and offer an expanded definition of sculpture. This work lends clarity to the grand cycles of nature and human activity, while revealing fresh perspectives on day-to-day metropolitan life. The results are amazing and beautiful, often echoing forms and patterns found in nature.