Local artists Lani Asuncion, Christina Balch, Keaton Fox and moderator Jesa Damora discuss using art and technology to bring people together in today's digital world. Combining the messiness of technology with their bodies and experiences, these women artists explore and question the relationships between people, technology, and nature.
![asuncion-lani.jpg](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/390c4f9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/260x260+0+13/resize/70x70!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_images%2Fasuncion-lani.jpg)
Lani Asuncion uses video, performance, sculpture, and the flora in conjunction with technology to survey how disparately cultures meet and mix to negotiate experiences of loss, transformation, and belonging. Storytelling is at the core of her practice, by using her body and the camera she is able to navigate landscapes and recall personal stories that are constructed into abstract narratives used to explore her identity as a multicultural, biracial womxn. Blending digital media with elements of nature Asuncion constructs interactive environments, like that in her [HUMAN GARDEN](https://laniasuncion.com/human-garden) series to present alternative perspectives on conversations around green spaces and urbanization. Finding ways to use her work as a way to connect people to their natural world through technology. See her work on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/laniasuncion ) and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lani.asuncion/?hl=en) .
![balch.jpeg](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/fd736a2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/300x300+0+0/resize/70x70!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_images%2Fbalch.jpeg)
Christina Balch is a Somerville-based, multi-media artist interested in the way people define themselves digitally, especially through the use of mobile technology and self-documentation. Process and experimentation play an important role in Christina’s practice. Her latest project titled Extensions explores digital memory and personal data by creating both physical and digital objects. Christina recently curated two exhibitions at the Nave Gallery titled AVATARS exploring artist representations in the digital, information age.
![Screen_Shot_2019-08-20_at_10.39.27_AM.png](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/4457cb2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/322x322+49+0/resize/70x70!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_images%2FScreen_Shot_2019-08-20_at_10.39.27_AM.png)
Keaton Fox is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator who uses art and technology to reflect the digital disarray of the modern world. Fueled by child-like fascination and frustrations, Fox combines the natural with the virtual to create visual experiments that playfully explore the varied realities of our time. She has exhibited nationally, internationally, physically, and digitally. She is currently the Assistant Director at Boston Cyberarts as well as a Teaching Media Artist at Cambridge Community Television. The overarching goal of her multiple creative endeavors is to use art and technology to bring humans together.
![jesa.jpeg](https://cdn.grove.wgbh.org/dims4/default/6079173/2147483647/strip/true/crop/200x200+0+0/resize/70x70!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk1-prod-gbh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fmedia%2Fspeaker_images%2Fjesa.jpeg)
Jesa Damora runs [FunnelCake Marketing](https://funnelcakemarketing.com/) , an arts marketing and business development consulting firm, out of Somerville’s Artisan’s Asylum. Her clients include artists of all stripes. She also provides arts event development and execution (TED talks, Somerville Open Studios). She offers curation services, helps with crowd-sourced funding, develops publicity campaigns, and she gives arts marketing presentations and workshops in Boston and in Brooklyn. She produced a long-running vlog/TV show on the arts, was the executive director of a consortium for the US Department of Energy, a championship speedskater, and is a recovering architect. As an artist, she specializes in enormous graphite drawings on Mylar that are about the wildness in both nature and ourselves that we think we have tamed.