Claire Brunet is a sculptor and Associate Professor Chair of the Sculpture/Installation undergraduate program and Life Studies, she also teaches in the Digital Futures Graduate Program at OCAD University in Toronto. Brunet completed a PhD degree in Fine Arts, in the Special Individualized Program (SIP)/Interdisciplinary Program (INDI) at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research work explores expanded spatial boundaries and the influence of a 3D digital and technological context on the artist’s creative process in sculpture practice. Brunet’s sculpture projects propose temporal forces that stress the opposing values at work in a hypermodern society—a 3D digital and technological spatial approach as a mode of production, and a critical discourse with regards to living species and their relationship to their environment. Her most recent project is a virtual reality immersive experience based on the concept of identity.
Brunet has presented projects and papers at conferences in New Zealand, Australia, Paris, Belgium, Germany, Greece, and Canada. Her publications include: “Paradox in Sculpture: Hypermodernity, Nature and Digital Medium,” in S. Davis (ed.), Balance-Unbalance International Conference 2013, (Noosa, Australia); “Exploring Data Space,” in The Faculty of Art Newsletter (OCAD U, Toronto, 2012); “Extending Spatial Boundaries Through Sculpture Practices: Exploring Natural and 3D Technological Environments” in The International Journal of the Arts in Society (Illinois: CG Publishing, 2012); “McLuhan and Extended Environment: Affect and Effect of a 3D Digital Medium on Sculpture Practice,” in Y. Van Den Eede, J. Bauwens, J. Beyl, M. Van den Bossche, and K. Verstrynge (eds.), Proceedings of ‘McLuhan’s Philosophy of Media’ – Centennial Conference, October 2011 (Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts).
As an artist-sculptor and researcher, Brunet’s ongoing interest in pushing the boundaries of artistic expression has led to a need to explore new spatial-temporal dimensions. Her research aims to extend traditional artist-medium boundaries in sculpture and to study how a change from an analogue to a 3D digital and technological context affects artists’ interaction with the environment and relation to objects in space. Her current research explores analogue and digital interactions through a conceptual exploration on themes of identity and representation. Brunet explores figuration at a time when technological developments influence our relationship with the self and provoke a questioning of the notion of identity. Her research investigates technological developments that influence the interaction of sculptural objects inside an enhanced understanding of spatial platforms from real to virtual reality: an exploration of new spatial directions allowing for an enhanced phenomenological approach to forming the viewer’s experience through interactive and immersive environment.