Ash Baccus-Clark is a Los Angeles and Berlin-based Molecular & Cellular Biologist and multidisciplinary artist who uses new media and storytelling to explore themes of deep learning, cognition, memory, race, trauma, and systems of belief.

She currently consults in virtual reality production and is working on her first feature. Ash is currently represented by Mssng Peces, is an Ida Ely Rubin Artist in Residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, an RLabs XR Beta Resident, and a 2019 United States Artist fellow in Media.

In her work with Hyphen-Labs, Ash served as the Director of Brand Marketing & Research, writing and producing an award-winning immersive installation project, NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism (NSAF), a three-part digital narrative that sits at the intersection of product design, virtual reality, and neuroscience that was originally inspired by the lack of multidimensional representations of Black women in technology. NSAF incorporates object-based design, virtual reality, and cognitive impact research that reimagines the future of Black women in STEM fields. NSAF first premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and has been shown at Sundance Film Fest, SXSW, Tribeca Film Fest (Jury Honorable Mention), Gray Area Art & Technology Festival, Primer Speculative Futures Conference, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stony Island Arts Bank & Rebuild Foundation, New Inc: Versions Festival, Refinery 29's 29 Rooms, and more.

Previously, Ash served as a brand manager on the retail brand management team of Warby Parker and worked as a molecular biologist at the University of California San Francisco researching cell and developmental biology with an emphasis on stem cell research.

The Design and Technology programs at Parsons present Cloud Salon, a Zoom webinar series that invites artists, designers, technologists, and industry professionals to present projects and to engage in direct conversations with participants.

 
This fall, DT is partnering on Cloud Salon curation with black beyond, a radical platform for artists and activists to speculate alternate realities for Blackness. black beyond interrogates understandings of Black subjectivity outside the limitations imposed on Blackness by the racist imaginary through: Afropessimism, Afronowism, Afrofuturism, Black feminist theory, and critical race studies.

This talk will begin with a 20-minute presentation by Ash Baccus-Clark, followed by a 40-minute conversation with participants, moderated by members of black beyond.

Please click "Register" above to confirm your attendance. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the webinar.