Dr. Aisen Caro Chacin leads the medical prototyping lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch and is an Assistant Professor at the John Sealy School of Medicine. She is an artist and affiliate faculty at the School of Art at the University of Houston, where she also received her BFA. She is a founding board member of the Medicine and Arts Program at UCLA and holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons the New School, where she was also a teaching Fellow. She received her Ph.D. in Human Informatics from the University of Tsukuba, Japan.
Dr. Chacin's research and practice focus on sensory perception, the human-machine relationship, and the technical and philosophical implications of embodiment through artificial bodies and reality. Her work is an intersection of art, science, and technology, and focuses on new media art, developing human-computer interfaces, medical devices, and Assistive Device Art (ADA). Her work includes sound art, interfaces for sensory substitution, resuscitation, human echolocation, haptics, medical automation, surgical simulation, and fashion. She is bridging the gap between art and science in Houston, TX, engaging art and medical students to collaborate and participate in the conversation about conscious evolution, BioArt, new media arts, and device prototyping. Her work has been presented and exhibited at Ars Electronica, Cite du Design, Malta Arts Society, TEI, NIME, NYC Museum of Art and Design, The New York Hall of Science, and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Featured as an inventor in Future Tech by Discovery Channel, Creative Applications, FastCo, Time Techland, Engadget, and NY Times, and was awarded by PopSci.