Emma Febvre-Richards is a multi-media artist whose research sits within the expanded practice of drawing. Combining traditional mediums of rendering with advanced technology (software programmes, laser technology, digital printing, film making) to explore how codes of our environment, culture and art creation inform and influence brain function, memory and experience.
Emma co-founded the trans-disciplinary drawing research community Drawing Open in 2016. A responsive community involving drawing practitioners and educators across 7 universities and 5 countries that expands and contracts according to specific projects, prioritising collaborations between art, design, science, emerging technologies, economics, environment and ecology, to explore how the speculative nature of drawing can open up discourse about issues particular to the Anthropocene. The aim is to engage in local and global issues via expanded and diverse drawing practices, ensuring that drawing is valued as a vital contributor to contemporary art, drawing research and pedagogy.
Consequently in 2017 she founded MeDArT to address how art, science and technology can combine to enrich and advance dementia research. This involves three projects: MinDArT, dual care for people with dementia and their caregivers through mindful, sensory nature based material/ digital drawing; Draw me an Odour, a transdisciplinary project dedicated to developing a deeper understanding of the links between the sense of smell, colour and gesture; and Graphe, The Graphe project is based on digital drawing to help early diagnosis of Primary Progressive Aphasia.
Emma is based in Wellington, New Zealand, having studied in England and gained her Masters of Fine Arts in France. She is currently lecturing at Whiti o Rehua, The School of Art, Toirauwhārangi College of Creative Arts at Massey University, New Zealand.