Artistic Collaborations

2100 (2020) Audio/video installation

Designed and produced by Matthew Brennan and Eugenia Morpurgo.

Through the speculative animation of a fresco that represents the green spaces of the American Academy in Rome, Brennan and Morpurgo visualize the predictions of climate change in the coming 80 years, following the five-degree temperature increase model. For every increase of one degree, notable changes in fauna and flora are anticipated, together with droughts, floods, and extreme weather activities. By applying these predictions to a familiar place, the place in which viewers now find themselves, the artists demand we confront an expected, if hypothetical, future in order to create a new, more empathetic level of understanding that is in sync with the scientific data on climate change.

Meryyt (2017) Life-size Color 3D Print

Conception and direction by Marc Erwin Babej. Digitization, 3D model, 3D print by Matthew Brennan.

Part of Babej’s Yesterday-Tomorrow project, the life-size, color, 3D print of a life-scanned model has been exhibited at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim.

pantheon (2016) Architectural backgrounds

Concept and direction by Marc Erwin Babej. Set-piece/background design and production by Matthew Brennan.

Pantheon (2016) imagines a present-day in which Rome has never fallen and extends across Europe and the Americas. Like many leading Roman fashion houses, Pantheon Vestimenta observes the common practice of referencing figures from Roman religion and history in its designs. The work integrates environmental portraiture with digital reconstructions by the classical studies and informatics departments of The University of Virginia and Indiana University.

Excerpts from the work have been exhibited at Davison Art Center (Wesleyan University) in the fall of 2019 and is held by the collections of Tampa Museum of Art, among others.