Dr Catherine Baker

Catherine Baker

Associate Professor

Birmingham School of Art
Email:
Catherine.baker@bcu.ac.uk
Phone:
0121 331 4304

Dr Catherine Baker studied Fine Art at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design followed by an MA in Drawing at Wimbledon School of Art, completing her PhD by Publication in 2012.

As a practising artist and researcher, she has lectured widely and participated in a number of international drawing initiatives including being invited to be International Artist-in-Residence at the prestigious National Art School in Sydney, Australia. Her contributions to publications on drawing and drawing research include books, journals, exhibitions and conference outputs. Her early research involved working within scientific domains with neuroscientists with whom she shared an interest in the neurobiology of the eye. Baker’s research involved investigating the active process of drawing as a physical and perceptual encounter, this work involved working with a vision scientist measuring eye movements. Her interest in this encounter as a phenomenological consideration developed as she investigated the relationship between the observer and the observed entity.

Baker continues to be concerned with the interface between Art and Science and is currently International Guest Editor with a colleague form the University of Bristol for Leonardo, the world-leading organisations for Art, science and Technology.  After being invited to undertake a residency at a cutting-edge Clinical Research Imaging Centre in 2010 her research began to focus on interdisciplinary approaches that crossed into health and the geosciences. Her work has been widely exhibited, including; Australia, Italy, Germany, China and across the UK featuring in both art galleries and at major science festivals.

As a senior academic Baker has taught in a number of UK HEI’s, holding positions of leadership in both research and teaching practice. Central to her own research and her approach to learning is interdisciplinarity. Baker has worked across multiple disciplines throughout her career and is currently leading a project in Scotland working with a leading printmaking institution, horticulturalists, a human geographer and an award-winning paediatric spinal surgeon. This ambitious multi-partnered project signifies her ongoing awareness of the value and impact that researching across boundaries can provide. Amongst other outputs this work will be realised through two substantial exhibitions in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2020.  Along with her project in Scotland where she is PI she is working with young music composers in Birmingham to develop an audio work using the sounds of diagnostic imaging processes to accompany recent film work involving patients.

Since 2015 she has worked closely with Kimberley Foster to form a collaborative drawing practice Inappropriate Collisions and a student-centred drawing programme The Drawing Exchange. This partnership allows for an ongoing critical questioning of drawing practices and the boundaries of collaborative practice and instruction.

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