SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Marko Peljhan has been named the Fall 2007 fellow in the Center for Art and Science. Born in 1969 in Sempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia, Marko Peljhan studied theater and radio directing at the University of Ljubljana. In 1992 he founded the arts organization Projekt Atol through whose auspices he works in the performance, visual arts, situation, and communications fields. In 1995, he founded the technological branch of Projekt Atol Pact Systems and also cofounded, in Ljubljana, one of the first open-access digital media labs in Eastern Europe, Ljudmila (Ljubljana Digital Media Lab), where he has worked as programs coordinator. He is also the coordinator of the international Insular Technologies initiative and the Makrolab project.

In 2001, Peljhan became a member of the strategic council for information society established by the government of the Republic of Slovenia and coordinated the production of a mobile media lab initiative, Transhub-01. His work has been presented at major international exhibitions and institutions such as Documenta X in Kassel, the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, Ars Electronica, Media City Seoul, Gwangju Biennale, ZKM, Manifesta, Transmediale, Canon ArtLab, P.S.1 MoMA, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Venice Biennale. In 2000, he received the special Medienkunst prize at the ZKM and in 2001 the Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica.

Center for Art and Science Fellowship

The fellowships sponsored through SFAI’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies are fundamental to creating a lively intellectual and artistic environment, an environment that exists at the intersection of academic and public inquiry. Typically, those invited as fellows in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies have achieved a significant and distinguished record in their given fields. The period spent on the SFAI campus provides these internationally recognized artists and scholars time for reflection and an atmosphere in which to further develop and test new ideas as well as to teach and collaborate with SFAI students and faculty.

San Francisco Art Institute

Dedicated to excellence and diversity since its founding in 1871, SFAI is one of the oldest and most prestigious degree-granting institutions of higher education in contemporary art in the US. By addressing students through the particularity of their own experiences and by challenging them to test the assumptions that underlie those experiences, SFAI’s academic and public programs underscore the relationship between teaching and research, practice and critique.

SFAI’s School of Studio Practice is centered on the development of the artist’s vision through studio-based experiments and on the understanding that the artist is an essential part of society. It offers a BFA, an MFA, and a Post-Baccalaureate certificate in Design+Technology, Film, New Genres, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, and Sculpture.

SFAI’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies is motivated by the premise that critical thinking and writing that are informed by an in-depth understanding of the relation between theory and practice are essential for engaging global society. It offers degree programs in History and Theory of Contemporary Art (BA and MA), Urban Studies (BA and MA), and Exhibition and Museum Studies (MA only).