Detroit based visual artist Lauren Kalman and collaborator, engineer Kipp Bradford, will be featured panelists in the RiDE conversation Before Wearing: Body, Adornment, Interaction at Pratt Manhattan Gallery on Wednesday, October 28 at 5pm.
Organized in conjunction with the exhibition After Wearing: A History of Gestures, Actions, and Jewelry, curated by Monica Gaspar and Damian Skinner, this discussion will expand upon the question, “What can I do to a piece of jewelry, and what can a piece of jewelry do to me?” Joined by lecturer and Ph.D. candidate in sociology Marzena Marzouk, Kalman and Bradford will examine the role of art jewelry as a means of generating critical discourse about the relationship between objects, technology, and the body.
Kalman and Bradford’s interactive piece Virus Simulation is currently on view in the After Wearing exhibition. Comprised of wearable electronic jewelry, Virus Simulation makes visible the hidden world of communicable disease by mimicking the spread of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV).
Exhibition and event are free and open to the public.
RiDE (Risk/Dare/Experiment) is a Pratt series of educational episodes that bring various processes related to artistic, intellectual, and design practices into a visible arena. After Wearing: A History of Gestures, Actions, and Jewelry, continues through November 14, 2015, and is sponsored in part by the Rotasa Foundation and the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG).

Lauren Kalman and Kipp Bradford
Virus Simulation
2011-2015
custom design circuit board, electronics
2 x 2 x 0.35 inches (each)