Gill Baldwin is a multi-disciplinary artist working in Rotterdam. Her art covers a broad range of topics, but almost always has something to do with technology and the issues surrounding that topic. Within the Centre for BOLD Cities, Gill is one of the guest lecturers for the Smart and SHARED Cities minor.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your background?
I was born and raised in Canada, where I studied Environmental Design at the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD University) in Toronto. I obtained my degree in 2016 and worked a few years as an interior designer after that in an architecture firm.
A few years later, I continued my studies with a masters in Interior Architecture Research and Design at the Piet Zwart institute in Rotterdam. During that program, I moved away a bit from architecture and specialized in artistic and design practices.
And what do you currently do?
Currently, I am a guest teacher at both de Erasmus University (among others in the Centre for BOLD Cities Smart and SHARED Cities minor) and the Willem de Kooning institute (both in Rotterdam). Next to that, I am a freelancer at the New Institute in Rotterdam. I do work in their digital archives, with a focus on born digital archives. I research how these digital files are preserved and in what ways they can be exhibited. On top of that, I have my own artistic practice. My art is multidisciplinary and covers a lot of topics, but technology and the issues around it always come back as the main themes. I did work on urban surveillance for example, or on the perception of nature through technological lenses. I find hidden aspects of technology, and how these possibly influence social behavior, fascinating, and can use that fascination much more in my artwork than I could do in my architecture.
I find hidden aspects of technology, and how these possibly influence social behavior, fascinating, and can use that fascination much more in my artwork than I could do in my architecture.
How did you get involved with the Centre for BOLD Cities?
Vivien Butot (a Centre for BOLD Cities affiliated research, red.) went on my audiotour, There Is Something I’ve Been Meaning To Ask You… (an interactive audio tour through the city center of Rotterdam, bringing together a series of interlinking interviews with architects, designers, artists, software developers, and AI researchers about the increase of surveillance in their daily lives, see https://gillbaldwin.com/There-is-Something-I-ve-Been-Meaning-to-Ask-You for more).
My research interests aligned with the topic of Vivien’s PhD-project and therefore those of the Centre for BOLD Cities. Through Vivien, I got to give a workshop to the Smart and SHARED Cities minor, on urban surveillance. I really enjoyed giving that workshop because it was for a whole different audience than I normally teach. The Smart and SHARED Cities-minor students have completely different backgrounds, and I really enjoyed hearing their opinions on urban surveillance.
Next to teaching in the minor, I took part in an interview for the White Paper “This is the Real Smart City (Dit is de échte Slimme Stad) interview with Bregje van Eekelen, in which we discussed how technology and design intervene in our daily lives, and what we can do to regain grip on these innovations.
What impact do you hope to achieve with your work?
I do not necessarily have a strong message about the technology, but I just want to make people aware of its existence, and start a conversation about it. I want to show what is usually hidden to people and start a conversation on the topic.
I want to show what is usually hidden to people and start a conversation on the topic.
Do you have a podcast-book recommendation?
It is not directly related to the smart city or my art, but I always recommend Maintainance Phase. It is a podcast by two reporters who discuss diet culture. It is very American, and also very funny. It changed a lot of my own views on wellness and body culture.