CODAzine is highlighting the public art community to share stories about leading creative professionals and the innovative art they are creating. This month, we feature Susan Narduli—architect, artist, and founder of Narduli Studio —who pushes the boundaries of technology and meaning. Blending visual and media arts with architecture, landscape, and urban design, Susan's work explores how technology shapes our experiences of space and storytelling. We asked Susan to answer a few questions about her creative process, inspirations, and what’s next. Here’s what she shared with us.
Thank you to SNA Displays for sponsoring this series.
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1. How does being an architect influence the art you create?
I began as an installation artist and then took up architecture to explore ideas at large scale, in a
public environment. For me, there is a continuum - both pragmatic and conceptual - between the
disciplines. It includes structural space and objects, but extends to movement and light, and most
importantly to how we humans occupy a place. It includes emotional and intuitive experience.
2. "Technology and meaning” seem incongruous. Could there be harmony between these two words?
I hope so. We live in a time in which the global socio-technical ecosystem is evolving at lightning
speed. Advances in technology have played a large part in this. But as much as a catalyst of
change, technology can also be a tool for understanding this change within the context of human
experience. I believe there is poetry in our relationship with technology to be discovered.
Click below to see a video of one of Narduli's projects!
3. Is there an emerging trend in experiential art that excites you?
In daily life, we have always moved seamlessly between the physical and thought and
imagination, integrating them. Emerging technologies offer new tools to do that.
4. If you could collaborate with another artist person who might that be?
If I could go back in time, I’d choose Joseph Beuys for his innovative communion with his
materials, including an unpredictable coyote, or John Cage and his Chance Music. I admire each
for his faith in the intuition and integrity of the general public.
5. What’s your process for turning a concept into a fully immersive experience?
There’s a step by step process that is rooted in the concept and the demands of production and
presentation. But there’s a parallel process that is much more fluid - not sequential or controlled.
And together they make the art. So in a way, it’s like a dance between a mirage and a machine.
6. Where do you typically find inspiration for your immersive experiences?
I have always been interested in the ephemeral. Initially I did explorations with light. Then I
experimented with holograms, then projection. Now I am working with kinetic structures. I have
sought out new technologies - not as an exploration of the technology itself, but more as a tool -
as a means to push boundaries, experiment. A way to work with content that was ephemeral,
dynamic - like thought.
