Cynthia Beth Rubin

Most Recent Affiliation / Department / Job Title:

• University of Vermont and Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Art, Artist

ISEA Bio(s) Available:

• ISEA2016

  Cynthia Beth Rubin is a new media artist whose works frequently evoke cultural memories and the imagined past by intertwining photographic elements in complex layers of representation and abstraction. Recently, Rubin’s work has shifted from explorations of the vestiges human history into conversation with Nature. She is interested in how Nature affects our built environment, and how both the microscopic plankton and the macroscopic landscape are part of our world. Rubin began experimenting with digital media in the early 1980’s. The transition from painting to the electronic arts prompted new experimentation in both subject and formats of presentation of her imagery. Working in still images, moving images, and with inter-activity, Rubin now works independently and in collaboration.

  Rubin’s work has been exhibited and screened in such diverse venues as the Jewish Museum in Prague, and opening night of the both the San Francisco and the Boston Jewish Film Festivals, the Pandemonium Festival at the ICA in London, the Lavall Gallery in Novosibirsk, the DeLeon White Gallery in Toronto, and numerous editions of ISEA, ArCade and SIGGRAPH. Winner of the first award in New Media from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, she has been awarded this grant three times. Other awards and residencies include the New England Foundation for the Arts, Videochroniques in Marseilles, CYPRES in Aix-en-Provence, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. As believer in artist-organized-art, Rubin aslo organized the Cultural Heritage Artists Project for the Orchard Street Shul in New Haven, Connecticut. .

  Rubin’s work has been written about in publications throughout the world. Her 1988 digitally designed mural, created under the Arts in Public Spaces program of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, was featured in an article by Martin Rieser in Printmaking Today. Other articles and television interviews have been appeared in Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, France, and Brazil. Her work is discussed extensively in The Computer in the Visual Arts by Anne Morgan Spalter, and is among the artists featured in The Art of the Digital Age by Bruce Wands, Painting the Digital River by James Faure Walker, and several other publications.

  Rubin is a native of Rochester, NY and holds degrees from Antioch College and the Maryland Institute, College of Art (BA and MFA). She has been on the faculty of Frostburg State College, Connecticut College, and the University of Vermont, and currently is affiliated with the Rhode Island School of Design. An active member of the Digital Arts community, she Chaired the Committee to develop the Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Ar tfor ACM-SIGGRAPH, and is also a member of the SIGGRAPH Digital Art Committee. She has served as vice-president of ISEA, the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts, and was a member for the CAA Committee of Electronic Information, as well as co-author of the CAA Guidelines for Faculty in New Media.

  ISEA2014

  Cynthia-Beth Rubin, Rhode Island School of Design, US, is a new media artist working in still imagery, video and interactivity. Trained as a painter, she began working in digital imagery in 1984, before the days of easy scanning and digital photography. While still enmeshed in the thinking of abstract expressionism, her search for new influences led her first to Islamic Art and eventually to Hebrew and then Christian manuscripts and the historic sense of place. Recently, this sense of place has led to an exploration of the hidden microscopic life in our waters and she became an honorary artist in residence in the Menden‑Deuer lab of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.

  ISEA2011

  Cyn­thia Beth Rubin is a new media artist whose im­agery evokes mem­o­ries of cul­ture, place. Dig­i­tal for over 25 years, Rubin’s prints, mov­ing im­agery, and in­ter-ac­tive in­stal­la­tions  have been shown in the Jew­ish Mu­seum in Prague, open­ing night of the both the San Fran­cisco and the Boston Jew­ish Film Fes­ti­vals, the Pan­dae­mo­nium Fes­ti­val in Lon­don, Lavall Gallery in Novosi­birsk, and di­verse venues around the world. Awards in­clude  mul­ti­ple Con­necti­cut Com­mis­sion fel­low­ships, the Memo­r­ial Foun­da­tion for Jew­ish Cul­ture, and the New Eng­land Foun­da­tion on the Arts, as well as a res­i­dency at Vidéochroniques in Mar­seilles and other in­ter­na­tional res­i­den­cies, . Rubin works in­de­pen­dently and in col­lab­o­ra­tion, and teaches part-time at the Rhode Is­land School of De­sign, US.

  ISEA1997

  Cynthia Beth Rubin is an independent computer artist working in Providence, where she teaches part-time at the Rhode Island School of Design.Trained as a painter (MFA 1975, Maryland Institute, College of Art/ BA 1972 Antioch College), she began the transition to electronic media in 1984. She attended her first ISEA in 1990 as an exhibitor, and since then has exhibited at a variety of international venues including subsequent ISEAs, SIGGRAPH, Imagina, ARCADE, and other exhibitions in Brazil, Israel, Canada, the Netherlands, and France, Inherited Memories, her most recent animation„ screened at SIGGRAPH 1997, and her previous animation, les affinites recouvrees, screened at ISEA95, the CODE show (New York City), the Pandemonium Festival (London), Jewish Film Festival (San Francisco), Vue sur les Docs (Marseille), Candid Camera (Lodz), and Festival Art Video (Casa Blanca), among others. Working with photo­graphic sources as a point of departure, her animations and still images recall cultural legacies from times and places beyond her personal experience, merged with references to her own life. Focusing on Jewish cultural history, she uses the computer to layer, morph and fuse image fragments together, replicating the subjective experience of memory.

  ISEA1995

  Cynthia Rubin is on the faculty of the University of Vermont, was trained as a painter and today works with a computer, creating images which focus on cultural retrieval.

  ISEA1994

  Cynthia Beth Rubin is on the faculty at the University of Vermont, USA, where she is responsible for the computer area within the Department of Art. Working in fixed imagery and animation, she uses the computer as a means to engage in cultural dialogue, integrating images from diverse epochs and cultures. Her work was shown most recently at the Rendezvous d’Imagina in Paris and Marseilles, the Kalisher computer art show in Tel Aviv, and Imagine 94 in Utrecht.

Website:

• http://cbrubin.net/

Last Known Location:

• United States of America

Moderator:

• 2011 Overview: The Big Bang of Electronic Art: Merging Abstraction and Representation in the Age of Digital Imaging

International Programme Committee:

• ISEA2016
• ISEA96
• ISEA2012