The Deep Field Project was initiated by Neal White with Diann Bauer and Jol Thoms at CREAM based at the University of Westminster. After Diann’s passing, and the dispersal of key members, we are reviewing the role of ‘The Deep Field Project’ – thinking through how we might explore the legacy and future of the ideas that were discussed. As these ideas form, we will continue to promote the work and vision of our colleague.

Diann Bauer. A Deep Field Tribute

On May 9th  2022, our friend, the artist and visionary Diann Bauer passed away. As a colleague whose voice was pivotal to Deep Field Projects, Diann had a profound influence on those around her, including those working with her in the PhD community at University of Westminster. Her own work on Xenotemporality was shaping into an extraordinary body of written work with key theoretical propositions that will be expanded upon in the future. Her individual practice underpinned by her exchange and collaborations with others including the projects and fieldwork coordinated with the Alliance of the Souther Triangle; AST informed and shaped her practice and her close relationships with other like minded artists, curators, creative intellectuals, feminist thinkers, amongst many, many others.

She was in all respects a kindred spirit to Office of Experiments, and together we worked on research, discussion and planning for a series of works concerning time machines under the title  ‘An Atlas of Chronographic Things’, a Deep Field Project. As an academic researcher, with vast professional experience and a shared artistic and aesthetic vision, she gave expression to our shared ideas in relation to time, temporality and event structures through the geometric language of a highly engaging form of visual communication that matched her own critical thinking and that were woven together in her carefully connected and insightful practice.

Image: Dian’s graphical prototype for the installation ‘An Atlas of Chronographic Things’, at Kunsthalle Trondheim, 2020 featuring key work and research artefacts.

In July 2023, Diann Bauer was awarded a posthumous PhD on Xenotemporality from University of Westminster. Neal White, who was started as a supervisor but became a friend of Diann on her journey is still thinking through the huge potential that Diann’s work offered, in both artistic and philosophical terms.

“From our discussions on topics as varied as aesthetics, our passion for geometric and structural forms, the event structures of temporal media, as well as the philosophical dimensions of collaboration with AST and of course, alien time, Diann always surprised me in both sharing her joy and laughter, her astute critical inflections and confident yet self-effacing sense of injustice of the world. Diann’s life touched so many and her passing is a loss felt amongst colleagues and admirers alike. Diann’s work will continue to inform our approach as we explore a new iteration for The Deep Field Project that she was so critical to in its inception, and will remain a guiding light, in terms of her propositional vision and empathy for all of our futures, human and alien alike.”

Neal White

© Diann Bauer

Dr Diann Bauer 1972 -2022

Event at University of Westminster, November 2022

Diann’s life and work was invested in how art, images and writing must be reconfigured for a time in which complex and unpredictable systems at scales surpassing direct human experience prevail. This symposium gathers artists, writers and thinkers who have been in conversation with Diann’s work formally and thematically. We will take her work as a generative challenge to build on her proposals on collectivity, imaging, time and temporality, sentience overloading, and the changing capacities to make alliances.

Suhail Malik

“Cohesion was meant to hold. But reality started to slide.”

Dr Diann Bauer — An Appreciation

On Saturday 19 November, at Ambika P3 and CREAM, University of Westminster, a remarkable hybrid event was held that was both a celebration and commemoration of the artist, writer and CREAM researcher Diann Bauer (1972–2022). Many colleagues, academics and artists / friends shared their recollections and insights alongside a screening of some of Diann’s most seminal work. At the closing of the event, it was announced that Diann Bauer would be awarded her PhD in recognition of her work and contribution to knowledge in her field.

Event Details

Neal White | Suhail Malik Screening of moving image work by Diann Bauer. Presentations: Alliance of the Southern Triangle | Keller Easterling | Gary Zhexi Zhang | Stefanie Hessler | Helen Hester | | Bridget Crone | Bassam El Baroni | Bahar Noorizadeh | Andrea Phillips | Closing comments: Neal White | Lucy Rogers

With special thanks to Weaver: Victoria Ivanova