At the Intersection of Art and Science: A Conversation with Aly Ogasian, Assistant Professor of Art at Scripps College
I recently had the chance to sit down with Aly Ogasian, an interdisciplinary artist and Assistant Professor of Art at Scripps College. Aly is constantly dreaming up and carrying out innovative courses and workshops here at The Claremont Colleges and has received multiple Course Activity Grants from the Hive. The Hive’s Course Activity Grants have supported Aly in bringing science and technology-based skills into her art courses, often by bringing other artists and makers into her classes as collaborators and teachers.
In this interview, Aly took me on a journey through her creative practice, from the power of curiosity and crazy questions, to her experience living on an artificial island in the Kennedy Space Center, to how art acts as a cultural sponge.
Olivia: A lot of your work takes place at the intersection of art and science. Why were you interested in pursuing art and science together versus pursuing them separately?
Aly: Well, I could never be a scientist. (laughs) And I’m not really a true artist, either. I’m too all over the place; I’m interested in too many different things.
When I was in grad school, I did an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design called Digital Plus Media. We were encouraged to produce research-based artwork. So I started reaching out to people in other areas, like Geology, and just saying, “Hey, I’m really interested in this. I’m an artist, I have no clue what I’m doing. Will you meet with me and talk to me about your research?”
RISD is close to Brown University, so I worked with a lot of people through the Planetary Data Center, which is NASA’s northeast repository for planetary imagery. I met a lot of people through that, and I realized that people are really open to talking about crazy ideas if you are just enthusiastic.
Whenever I do a project now, I look for people from other disciplines to talk to and collaborate with. I find that there’s a lot of overlap between the disciplines of art and science. You have to be curious in both fields. You have to be driven while also staying open and flexible. I’ve found a lot of kinship in speaking to people across other disciplines. Most of my current work is collaborative.
Olivia: How did it come to be that collaboration is central to your practice?
Aly: I like collaborating because you have a built-in critic, and you have someone else to talk to instead of trying to be some kind of a lone genius.
In undergrad, I did this ridiculous project with someone I was in school with, where every other day, we emailed each other a sentence about something that had happened to us that day, and the other person had to imagine what it looked like and draw it. We did that back and forth for three months.
I find collaborating to be more fun. For me personally, I feel emboldened to do much crazier work than I would be comfortable doing on my own. For instance, I lived on an artificial island in Kennedy Space Center, which I wouldn’t have done by myself because it was an insane thing to do. (laughs)
Olivia: Wow, tell me more about that project!
Aly: My collaborator and I got a grant to study NASA facilities that are impacted by sea level rise, which is pretty much all NASA facilities because they’re almost all on coasts or underwater, because you can’t launch rockets over land. We got most interested in Kennedy Space Center because it’s inside a wildlife refuge, so there’s this really interesting mixture of very complex technology with extreme biodiversity.
We visited a bunch of facilities that simulate various factors of either space travel or environmental conditions in preparation to send people on various missions. We looked at these little training facilities and designed our own campsite and tools based upon some of the things that we saw. And then we tried — (laughs) attempted — to live on this island, while also studying it.
Read more about that project, entitled Another Final Frontier.
Olivia: What led you to teaching?
Aly: I never wanted to be a teacher. (laughs) And here I am. In grad school, we had the opportunity to teach and design our own class. I actually co-taught a class with someone who is a visiting lecturer at Scripps currently, Vivian Charlesworth. The class was called The Truth Is Out There, and it was about myths and science fiction and what we’ve placed veracity in. We explored how we interpret images, especially images produced by technology, and how images and footage work as evidence. I really enjoyed teaching that, because you learn when you teach. I also really like critique. I’m always learning new stuff from my students, and it keeps you current. Sometimes, you get corrected, and that’s a good thing. You’re not held accountable in the same way if you’re not engaging with younger people who are more up-to-date.
I’m interested in students finding their voice and producing artwork informed by some form of research. In my classes, we’ll talk about artists, but also people who developed things in forensic science, which then informed a lot of art. Because art is really like a cultural sponge. New technologies and new advancements are sort of absorbed into it.
Olivia: What inspires you, both in your teaching and personal practice?
I read a lot, and that’s where I get a lot of inspiration. I’ll find a tiny kernel in a book, and then I’ll just be going off on some weird tangent. Also, talking to people. When we found out about these artificial islands, we found this architect who had written a book about them, and then we were like, “Hey, we’re in Florida, you want to come hang out with us?” And he did, he came down and hung out with us, and that kick-started the whole thing.
Right now I’m really interested in weather. My dad’s research was all about studying what happens to planes when they get hit by lightning. So I’ve gotten really fascinated with thunderstorms. I think that’s going to be the next thing for me.
Olivia: What is next for you in your time at Scripps?
Aly: I’ve been working with my colleagues in Art and Media Studies at Scripps on the rollout of a new digital fabrication space. Once that’s up and running, it will really change what I’m able to teach, because my practice moves in between analog and digital. In the future, I’d like to teach classes that are a hybrid of digital and physical, so maybe a mixture of digital technology and sculpture, or installation and expanded media.
Sounds like you might need another Course Activity Grant for that, Aly! We’re excited to see what you dream up next.
You can learn more about Aly via her website, alysonogasian.com. Interested in applying for your own Course Activity Grant? Learn more about them here.
