Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont
Research Statement


My teaching, research and personal life are endlessly linked. The discoveries or innovations found in my everyday life and studio inspire and provoke the methods I employ as a teacher or mentor.

My current work is about relationships and collaboration. I build relationships within my community by introducing collaborative art projects between my students and colleagues. The benefits of collaboration are great, though the most beneficial is the clash of viewpoints and ideas that percolate through the collaborative process. Such benefits are likely to be the largest when the collaboration involves partners from more divergent backgrounds, as with Hack.Art.Lab, a group I co-founded and co-direct. Hack.Art.Lab, is a collaborative team of artists, educators, technologists and engineers. Hack.Art.Lab (H.A.L) provides an environment for learning and exploration through nonconvention. By connecting professional and nonprofessional artists, technologists and youth, we explore learning models, then create projects offering new perspectives in art, technology, and society. We strive to develop activities that encourage our natural curiosity and playfulness through creative engagement with science and technology.

My research will continue to redefine the traditional definitions of fine art practice. My working process begins from a core understanding of the formal properties involved with visual art; from there I can push and pull the given boundaries and begin to redefine the boundaries for myself. This process allows me to develop my own vocabulary as I seek to define my relationship between traditional and new art practice. Other interests for research include: contemporary curatorship, perceptions of public vs. private, perceptions of natural vs. artificial, alternative time measurement, additive and subtractive processes, sound art, performance art, installation art, eco-living, collecting, systems…