Mission

CO-LAB is an initiative bringing together interdisciplinary makers and thinkers to create conversational bridges. These events intend to instigate and inspire collaboration amongst branches of art, culture, politics and science. Co-founders Laleh Mehran and Christopher Coleman, both art practitioners, are currently professors at the University of Denver, Colorado.

Founders

Laleh Mehran

Laleh Mehran’s research, often modeled on and about the very idea of scientific research, assumes this privilege precisely for the purpose of calling it into question, even as she uses it in order to articulate a set of ideas which require precisely this kind of protection from both political and religious intolerance. It has been the challenge of her work over time that it develop a language complex enough to accommodate her own highly complex relation to this contemporary tangle of science, politics and theology.

Mehran received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Electronic Time-Based Media. Her work has been shown individually and as part of art collectives at the Next 5 Minutes 4 Tactical Media Festival in Amsterdam, Holland; the European Media Arts Festival in Osnabruck, Germany; Ponte Futura in Cortona Itlay; Massachusetts Museum of Art in North Adams, MA; the Orlo Video Festival in Portland, Oregon; the Carnegie Museum of Art, The Andy Warhol Museum and the Pittsburgh Biennial at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Pittsburgh, PA. Currently, Mehran is an Associate Professor of Art in Electronic Media Arts & Design at the University of Denver. More information and samples of her artwork may be found at Laleh's personal website (www.lalehmehran.com)

Christopher Coleman

Chris Coleman is an Associate Professor in the Digital Media Studies department at the University of Denver. His research Interests include control systems, chaos and order, digital interaction, physical interaction, borders, animation, appropriation, technological decay, art as activism, audio/video manipulation, systems in nature, and object creation. He received his B.F.A. in sculpture at West Virginia University where he also spent a number of years studying Mechanical Engineering. His M.F.A. was earned at SUNY Buffalo specializing in Interactivity and Real-Space Electronics. More information and samples of his artwork may be found at Chris's personal website (www.digitalcoleman.com)