Kathryn High (born 1954) is an American interdisciplinary artist, curator, and scholar known for her work in BioArt,

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

Background

Kathy High graduated with a BA from

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

in 1976 and an

MAH ''Mångha'' (') is the Avestan for "Moon, month", equivalent to Persian ''Māh'' (; Old Persian ). It is the name of the lunar deity in Zoroastrianism. The Iranian word is masculine. Although Mah is not a prominent deity in the Avestan sc ...

from the Center for Media Studies at

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

in 1981 where she studied with media pioneers

Tony Conrad Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both ...

Hollis Frampton Hollis William Frampton Jr. (March 11, 1936 – March 30, 1984) was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer, theoretician, and pioneer of digital art. He was best known for his innovative and non-linear structural films that def ...

, and Steina Vasulka. High was a founding member of The Standby Program in New York City and initiated the video exhibition program at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo, NY in the 1980s. In 1991, she founded
FELIX: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication
' produced in conjunction with The Standby Program''.'' She is co-editor of ''The Emergence of Video Processing Tools: Television Becoming Unglued'', with Sherry Miller Hocking and Mona Jimenez. She has been a professor of video and new media at

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

since 2002. Since the early 1980s, High has been creating and exhibiting art in the form of videos, photographs, performances and installations. High's work intersects art, technology and science (often collaborating with scientists) and addresses topics including gender and technology, empathy, and animal sentience. Her work has appeared in the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: * The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Ne ...

, Catalyst Arts,

MASS MoCA The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ...

, and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

among others and she has received grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

, and

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) serves to foster and advance the arts, culture, and creativity throughout New York State, according to its website. The goal of the council is to allow all New Yorkers to benefit from the contribution ...

. High's video works are distributed through

Video Data Bank Video Data Bank (VDB) is an international video art distribution organization and resource in the United States for videos by and about contemporary artists. Located in Chicago, Illinois, VDB was founded at the School of the Art Institute of Chic ...

and her films ''I Need Your Full Cooperation/Underexposed'' and ''Underexposed'' are distributed by

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Maria Dougherty, Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from ...

Notable works

* Animal Attraction ''-'' a video documentary about telepathic communication with animals. ''Animal Attraction'' was first exhibited at the

in New York City, and was additionally featured on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

and

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educ ...

in New York City. * Death Down Under - a video documentary, co-directed by Cynthia White, focuses on care for the dead, green burials, and the ecology of death. * Blood Wars - an interdisciplinary art and science project.
Blood Wars
is an ongoing experiment that pits human white blood cell samples against one another in a series of tournament-style battles. The project was funded by a 2010 fellowship from the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is a private foundation formed in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Gr ...

with additional support from

. * Embracing Animal - a performance involving live rats that was commissioned for the exhibition ''Becoming Animal'' at

. For this project, High purchased two rats for use in a series of biological experiments involving the artist's DNA and homeopathic medicine.

References

External links

Official Website

Video Data Bank
distributor for several of High's video works
Women Make Movies
distributor for several of High's films

media arts journal founded and edited by High {{DEFAULTSORT:High, Kathy Living people 1954 births Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty American interdisciplinary artists Bioartists American women video artists American women performance artists American video artists American performance artists University at Buffalo alumni American women academics 21st-century American women