Jens Bringsjord
You're listening to Design Atlas Season four.

Megan Luedke
Have you ever wondered if art could transcend its traditional boundaries and delve into the realms of science, ecology, and environmental activism? In a world where the lines between disciplines blur, io art emerges as a captivating intersection of creativity and scientific exploration. We recently had the privilege of speaking with Elena Soto Ruckus, a Brooklyn based artist, educator and curator who is at the forefront of this innovative movement.

Megan Luedke
Elena is not only a visionary artist committed to tackling critical issues such as environmental degradation, ecology and sustainability, but she is also the founder of an avant garde gallery focusing on bio art in this dynamic space. Elena endeavors to bridge the gap between art and science, weaving narratives that speak to the pressing concerns of our 21st century global landscape.

Megan Luedke
Through her art practice, education initiatives and immersive workshops, Elena invites us to ponder the intricate connections between creativity and environmental responsibility. The essence of her work lies not only in the esthetic experience it offers, but in the profound impact it can have on our understanding of the world. To Elena, community building is at the heart of her endeavors, a testament to the power of collaboration in addressing the challenges that define our era.

Elena Soterakis
I grew up in the suburbs of New York City, on Long Island, New York, and going ahead in Nassau County. and, I mean, I was very fortunate being in a suburb of New York City. So my parents would definitely take me to museums like the met and the Museum of Natural History. And, we would go into the city, and that had a huge impact on me.

Elena Soterakis
And I just could not wait until I could go to school in the city and be an adult, growing up. You know, I never knew about anyone having, creative art practice or design practice and really, the only option that was like, shared with me was really being an educator, an art educator. But, since I was very young, I knew I wanted to be an artist. My dad, was really good at drawing and painting. And in the basement, we had a lot of supplies.

Jens Bringsjord
Elena's artistic journey began with a sensory revelation. The first time she inhales the heady scent of oil paint and felt the dance of brushes on canvas. In that moment, a profound connection was forged, and she knew that the path of an artist was her calling. Growing up on Long Island, New York, surrounded by the beauty of the Long Island Sound and immersed in its enchantment of nature, Elena's artistic sustainability were nurtured by the magical landscapes that shaped her formative years.

Jens Bringsjord
The allure of the natural world became an integral part of her artistic identity. Influencing her creative choices and inspiring a profound appreciation for the interconnectedness of art and environment.

Elena Soterakis
Growing up in the late 90s on Long Island, I felt like that's when like consumerism and like consumption is at an all time high. Seven was wearing like name brands and fast fashion. And so I think like all that kind of got like my love for nature and landscapes was in there. But then also like a distaste for this, like new kind of way of consuming. Also it was emerging around that time.

Megan Luedke
The transition to university marked a moment of both excitement and inner conflict, clash between a love for academia and a growing distaste for the emerging trends in consumption. Elena vividly recalls that turning point, a time when the allure of traditional learning collided with a new paradigm of consumption struggle was difficult for someone deeply passionate about both the arts and sciences.

Megan Luedke
The dichotomy of loving school and academia, while resisting the confines of specialization presented a tough choice in the end. Driven by her multifaceted love for art and science. Elena opted for art school, where she studied both her undergraduate and graduate studies.

Elena Soterakis
I went to the New York Academy of Art and studied various traditional kind of Renaissance painting techniques. and I also studied abroad and in Italy, and I was very obsessed with like, representational, like realism. that type of work. so for me, going to art school where I could study for six, where I'd six hour, nine hour studio classes were really important to me.

Elena Soterakis
So art school is actually like some of my happiest time. You know, I really loved and excelled at. I also like the deep dive, and long periods to focus on things. I don't know if you guys feel the same way with your creative practices, but that, 45 minute, like, art class switching. Even though I had an amazing high school art teacher who really encouraged me and inspired me.

Elena Soterakis
Her name was Eileen Wark. I felt art school was the right path. So from art school, I was I came out of art school and I was really, interested in doing, like, landscape painting and painting on site. I'd go hiking and, paint with a cigar box, and I was painting in a very, like, kind of traditional, like Turner Hopper kind of, way.

Megan Luedke
Around the years of 2014 and 2015, a profound existential shift took place within her creative process. The discomfort with her own work became palpable, a realization that unfolded as she grappled with the dissonance between the romantic, beautiful landscapes she was painting and the harsh realities of the 21st century landscape unfolding in the world around her. During this period of introspection, Elena recognized the need for a substantial change in her artistic direction, the disconnect between her art and the pressing issues of the contemporary world became a catalyst for transformation.

Megan Luedke
The landscape she once painted with a romantic brush now felt out of sync with the urgency and challenges of the 21st century.

Elena Soterakis
I was, filing a lot of environmental scientists and learning a lot about, the environment and climate change and feeling like, wow, if my work's not in dialog with 21st century issues, I don't think I'm doing the best work that I can be doing. And then, I started, really collaging and adding, waste and debris into my landscapes.

Elena Soterakis
And so I started because I thought that juxtaposition was really jarring and had a lot of impact. So, that that's when I kind of made the shift into environmental work and kind of activist kind of themes and dialogs, that I was trying to create and facilitate with my work. My studio practice is, is definitely documenting, like, this is what we've done with, our throwaway society and not thinking about e-waste in different, streams and thinking about how we export waste to, you know, developing nations and just kind of thinking, like asking people to be more thoughtful about those types of things.

Elena Soterakis
But then, I mean, the main thing that now with, like, my curation and exhibitions and other things that I'm doing is just really cultivating stewardship for the natural world and, creating, I really want people to see humans as not, as having a symbiotic relationship with nature, not one of domination. that's something I think a lot about, like how how do we learn to live peacefully in coexistence with the divine, kind of infinite wisdom of nature and.

Jens Bringsjord
From harnessing the principles of biomimicry to embracing the ethos of circular economies, these pioneers seamlessly blend science, design, and art in their practices. Alana delved into the immersive experience of spending time with these bio designers. A sense of hope for the future emerged.

Elena Soterakis
The more I spend with bio designers who are using biomimicry and all of these different, methods, and thinking about circular economies with design and and art, there are practices I think that's made me really hopeful for the future and, like building those communities and and ensuring in those values and just changing like, becoming like, interspecies, world building and not making it like human centric, human dominated, worlds.

Elena Soterakis
And just like kind of highlighting the beauty of things like slime molds here. It is very smart. And engineers, you know, follow their creativity and their designs and just thinking about alternative ways of, creating that, instill those, those values.

Megan Luedke
In a secluded studio. Elena passionately embraces eco friendly creativity, experimenting with unconventional materials like avocado seeds to produce vibrant natural dyes. He expresses a profound interest in sustainable artistry by not having debuted any new work, but having a narrative that transforms overlooked elements into captivating hues. Her studio became a sanctuary for conscious, artistic expression, where discarded elements found new purpose, and each stroke on the canvas spoke of a commitment to a future where art and sustainability seamlessly coexist, echoing the timeless stance between creativity and the evolving palette of nature.

Elena Soterakis
Well, one thing that I'm able to I feel like do sustainably is with, packing and creating and shipping. I'm able to reuse all those materials and, not use peanuts and be, really careful about that. And I'm starting to look at, mycelium alternatives to packing materials, for my studio practice. I've also been experimenting.

Elena Soterakis
I haven't made any new work that I've debuted with this, but I've been playing around a lot with, natural dyes, and that's and pigments. So that's something that interests me greatly. you can boil like, avocado seeds and get a beautiful pink dye, and walnut chestnuts make a black inky dye. And, there's also some companies like, spirulina that run by Elliot Roth.

Elena Soterakis
And he makes these gorgeous pink blue pigment out of spirulina, and it's called Spira. so just thinking about ways of doing that. But as an oil painter, I mean, it's definitely I do use some really toxic materials that I, kind of make me uncomfortable sometimes. So I do sometimes switch out, turpentine for safflower oil, but sometimes it just doesn't do what I need it to do.

Elena Soterakis
So, but I would say for painters, one thing that you can do, because oil paint for me is just like my jam. I love it so much. It would be hard for me to, get rid of that material out of my practice. But I will say, you know, one thing I do is to never, dispose of Benoit or Turpentine.

Elena Soterakis
I always reuse it and let the the pigment fall to the bottom, and I strain it out and just reuse it and reuse it until it's done.

Megan Luedke
With an unwavering resolve, Elena shared an unconventional practice, never disposing of toxic waste, instead incorporating it into her artwork, expressing a poignant concern for the well-being of fellow artists and the environment, she acknowledged the inherent toxicity of these materials. Elina also mentioned health risks faced by aging artists, particularly sculptors working with substances like resin. The artist speaks with a place of awareness, citing instances where fellow creators have suffered severe health issues due to the materials they employ, underscoring the often overlooked human and environmental toll of artistic practices.

Elena Soterakis
So Beyond Earth is a three person art collective with, Milena Cetera, Rochelle Gribble, based on the West Coast, and Yoko Shimizu, who's a Japanese bio artist and researcher, but also, works in Austria at the Ars Electronica Museum. And she, created a future lab, which is a bio lab within the museum, which is pretty amazing. And so, the three of us connected over by Kovat.

Elena Soterakis
I met I met the two of them, through the gallery, and, we all had a real love and, and, like, imaginative projects that we wanted to do around aerospace and art, and, but the main thing I want to emphasize is that Beyond Earth is, an art collective that's dedicated to bringing a feminist perspective to space exploration and anti-colonial perspective to space exploration.

Elena Soterakis
So we don't want these like, billionaires, these phallic rockets just taking over, you know, colonizing the moon and putting a Costco on the moon. And that what happened is like all of us. So a lot of times people think that space exploration and art, and environmentalism are like at odds. And I actually don't believe that. And I think that they actually help one another.

Elena Soterakis
And so, just a few reasons that I think it does is that, seeing Earth from afar from like, a Frank white calls it overview effect. That's like such a big part of our inspiration.

Megan Luedke
Alena delves into the remarkable capacity of DNA, which can store vast amounts of information measured in terabytes, expressing the potential to encapsulate the entirety of Earth's knowledge within the intricate structure of DNA. The practicality of using DNA as a lightweight carrier for sending information into space becomes apparent, aligning with the consideration of cost intensive payloads. The exploration of these cutting edge concepts reveals a fascinating intersection of science, information technology, and space exploration.

Elena Soterakis
the DNA capsule can last for thousands of years, like hundreds of thousands of years. DNA is the basic building blocks of life on Earth. So we thought that that was a good way to, like, communicate a message rather than a hard drive or something with planned obsolescence. Like, I think we thought that that would make more sense so we do projects like that.

Jens Bringsjord
In the vibrant heart of Brooklyn. Within the walls of the biobank, a captivating narrative unfolds at the intersection of art and biotechnology, guided by the visionary curator Alina Bio. About. Nestled in the Brooklyn Army Terminal isn't merely a biotech lab. It's a synthesis of innovation and esthetics. Born from the collaborative efforts of Sonny Downstate and the Economic Development Corporation.

Megan Luedke
Envision a space where scientific exploration converges with artistic expression. And a beautiful lobby reminiscent of a blue chip gallery sets the stage for a unique fusion of disciplines here, in these moments between lab construction and scientific endeavors, Elena steps in transforming the unutilized spaces into canvases for art exhibition. In this unconventional marriage of creativity and technology, Elena's curated exhibitions breathe life into the otherwise sterile environment, turning bio bat into a dynamic testament to the harmonious, coexisting of art and biotech, where each element complements and enriches the other.

Elena Soterakis
What happened is they wanted, they reached out to, my co-founder, Janine Bardo, who is also a local artist and AI, to see what kind of art activations we could do. But because I've been working with environmentalism and, like climate scientists, I've been following many, many artists at the intersection of art and science. And I started to really get into bio art, which is, you know, art using, which is a new contemporary art.

Elena Soterakis
Former artists are using, living materials and plants and organisms or referencing these things in their art. And so, I came up with the idea of launching a bio art gallery, a dedicated bio art gallery in a biotech incubator, and creating programing, where we have dialogs with the labs and created artist residencies and exhibitions. And, so that's been like a huge project of mine because I think that's a great way to communicate the sciences, to show that art and design are an equal to the sciences as well, to put that a in steam, and to also, create a cultural space and an underserved part of New York City, which I

Elena Soterakis
think is really important because growing up, I mean, not growing up there, but being living there as an adult. All right. there weren't that many exhibitions. And so, like, I would always have to go to, like, Bushwick or Williamsburg or Park Slope or, you know, sort of have something in that that neighborhood is really important. So, so when we launched it, I thought it would be successful, but I couldn't believe, you know, all the academics from around the world that were like contacting me and people because there aren't very many dedicated bio art galleries in the world and in the country.

Elena Soterakis
So because we were doing something very novel, we launched in 2019, you know, I've gone I've had an amazing opportunity to work with some of the world's leading bio artists, like Susan Anker, who runs the SCA bio Art lab. And, we had it. We did an exhibition with the Mexican government, called Common Frequencies, where, we showed Mexican, leading Mexican bio artists, like Alberto, Esperanza and Tania Candy Ani and, and then that show was bilingual because most of the, people who live in Sunset Park, are Spanish speaking.

Elena Soterakis
We normally do one large format exhibition a year because the space is 18,000ft². So you can imagine it's not like it's not easy to put a show up and then have rotating shows. And we also found that the long format exhibitions with many, iterations of like talks and workshops and residencies and different things like that work better because then we can get all the university students public schools.

Elena Soterakis
So we normally have like one large show a year, so we don't have a lot of over. So because of that, I have a long list of artists who have sent applications or shared their work. And just through social media and following Instagram. And I know I'm always like watching to see I go to I love demo days. I love going.

Jens Bringsjord
In the spring of 2024, bio that will emerge as a dynamic stage for a transformative collaboration. A new tenant, the Interstate Environmental Commission, will take residence in this space known as the Urban Shores Exhibition, it's an exploration that casts a spotlight on the intricate waterways, cradling the landscapes of New York City, new Jersey and Connecticut. Notably, the talented artist Yoko Shimizu becomes an integral part of this narrative.

Jens Bringsjord
Her creative prowess transcends conventional boundaries as she endeavors to translate scientific data into visual masterpieces, and this intersection of art and mental consciousness. The Urban Shore's exhibition promises to be a mesmerizing journey to the nexus of science and creativity and biobank.

Elena Soterakis
Most of my inspiration, I think it's just like being a disturbed viewer of the news and like just flipping through the New York Times or Nat Geo or all these things and just seeing them, and then they get into my, my mind when I'm like digesting and processing all this climate kind of, instability and fear, you know, it's it's very disturbing.

Elena Soterakis
So I think, it's also a form of sublimation. It kind of feels, I don't know. Well, now we're talking about climate change and environmental degradation much more than we were when I started making those works. But I remember just like being really concerned. Everything about the, like, wedding industrial complex, the baby industrial, you know, like just the amount of consumerism that was being, like, pushed down our throats and taking that waste.

Elena Soterakis
And those magazines and, those catalogs that come in the mail that normally I throw away. I started like, actually repurposing them and trying to show them in a different light so that, and I think adopting like a minimalist, I'm pretty minimalistic. And I think, like thinking about how many items we have and, and what we're consuming and why, and just being a little more thoughtful about those things.

Elena Soterakis
I think that is the future, which is exciting to see that shift. And then also one shift that I'm very excited about, and I don't know if you guys have encountered this, but people and designers, and they're doing this with Yoko Shimizu at the Future Lab, but trying to interface directly with plants and, computers and not having like, external hard drives and e-waste and all this planned obsolescence.

Megan Luedke
In the summer, echoes of the pandemic, a profound reflection emerged. Covid halted the world, urging contemplation on the possibility of a necessary pause once again, and perhaps in the not so distant future, though the details may have required further contemplation, the concept resonated. An intentional pause for the globe a shared experience uniting humanity in a common cause. As we navigated these musings, the idea took shape, a potential beacon guiding us toward a harmonious coexistence between our actions and the health of our cherished earth.

Elena Soterakis
Oh, and one thing that we really wanted to highlight was also that not everyone was having the same Covid experience as people in higher socio economic, you know, categories were were able to stay home where other workers were not. And so, that was a big thing that we wanted to capture. What what about all the people that didn't have the luxury to stay home and the people that had to go to work, and then people that were, you know, living in multiple generational families.

Megan Luedke
In the realm of creative endeavors. A reassuring mantra echoes, it's okay to fail. Embracing this mindset, Elayna found joy in the audacious and the challenging. Whether immersed in the projects of Beyond Earth or other ventures, a particular thrill arose from conceiving wildly ambitious goals only to embark on the journey of achieving them. A vivid memory surfaced, gathered with Yoko and Michelle.

Megan Luedke
The three of them dared to dream big. The mission to craft feminist artworks that would transcend our earthly confines and voyage into space. It was a bold endeavor and audacious aspiration. Acknowledge the possibility of failure, but driven by the exhilaration of pushing boundaries and challenging the norm in the tapestry of Elena's creative pursuits, this willingness to embrace the audacious and the uncertain remains a cherished principle, a testament to the beauty found in the pursuit of the extraordinary.

Elena Soterakis
Sounded so improbable. But then, like six months later, we were able to we were able to do it. And so I think that I, I love like a good challenge and I love the comfort, like finding comfort in discomfort and just being okay. It's okay to fail. It's okay to I mean, for every biomed artspace, there's other projects that did not, come to fruition.

Elena Soterakis
There's a lot of great ideas that don't always see the light of day, but I always keep them and then I might revisit them. I think, like having, like a common journal or something where you're, like, capturing all of your ideas and just spending a lot of time alone and quiet to just like, think and be bored a little bit as.

Megan Luedke
We conclude this insightful episode with Elena. So talk is her passion for bridging the realms of art and science shines brightly.

Jens Bringsjord
Through her projects and bio and beyond Earth, Elena has not only curated spaces of creativity within the scientific landscape, but has also embraced the audacious underscoring of transformative power of collaboration. Elena's journey exemplifies a harmonious existence between art and science, proving that the intersection of these worlds can birth innovation and inspire new perspectives.

Megan Luedke
As we look to the future. Elena's visionary approach leaves us with the belief that the most extraordinary endeavors often arise when we dare to think beyond the conventional, embracing the beauty found in the unexplored spaces where art and science converge.