Lead artist: Sharon Tang
Co-designed with Amy Zaremba & Alicia Rheal

integrating science & technology with art, this interactive mural has 9 hidden QR codes for science education & outreach

As lead artist, I had the pleasure of co-designing and painting this project with Amy Zaremba & Alicia Rheal. Commissioned by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation with input from a panel of UW-Madison scientists, this mural celebrates notable Wisconsin scientific innovations, highlights a diverse range of scientific fields, and features underrepresented scientists from the past, present, and future. In addition to notable historic figures, an emphasis is placed on anonymous scientists to represent the unrecognized workforce contributing to discovery and those lost to the hostile environments that can exist in the sciences.

With such a large theme to cover, I really wanted to use technology to bring a deeper dimension of engagement for the audience. So we intentionally designed this work to contain QR codes to allow the mural to serve as a living portal for content delivery. Not only does this mural leverage technology to create interactive spaces that foster curiosity, but it also offers a dynamic opportunity for informal education to increase public access points for science literacy. By inviting the audience to actively participate while viewing, it challenges the narrative for who belongs in the sciences and academic institutional spaces, and hopefully it inspires others to understand that the arts and sciences are not mutually exclusive.

Special thanks to Yvette Pino for her guidance and help with screenprinting the QR codes!