Conceptual artist + professor + environmentalist + information designer Natalie Jeremijenko wants to provoke us. Trained in the hard sciences, Jeremijenko tackles everything from genetic cloning to bird flu with her uniquely-informed perspective. How does she do it? A piece at the Whitney shows a woman squatting over a toilet. "Why are the Hudson River fish and frogs on antidepressants?" Listed underneath are studies with all of the details. Residents’ anti-depressant-laced urine is flushed into local waterways and voila, the city’s waterlife is on an even keel for years to come. Her Bureau of Inverse Technology re-programs robotic dogs designed as toys for kids. Their top-secret mission? To identify environmental hazards in public spaces. The head of NYU’s Environmental Health Clinic wants us to “get” the link between our lifestyle and the world around us. Guess what? It’s working.


Good Magazine covered Natalie's work in their April 2007 Plan B issue.

http://preview2.goodmagazine.com/section/Portraits/mad_scientist