Eric William Carroll
Eric William Carroll | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Asheville, NC, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Coe College |
| Known for | Photography, Science, Grand Unification Theories |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Photography, visual art |
Eric William Carroll is an American visual artist and photographer whose work explores the intersection of Photography, Science, and nature. He is best known for G.U.T. Feeling, an ongoing art project inspired by Grand Unification Theories in theoretical physics. He has lived and worked in the American Midwest and in San Francisco, California, and is based in Asheville, North Carolina.
Biography
Carroll was born and raised in the Midwestern United States. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2002, and a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in 2006.
He has held numerous teaching positions, serving as Assistant Professor of Art at Macalester College from 2013 to 2021, as adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota, and later as adjunct professor at Western Carolina University. He has also worked as a founder and teaching artist at a community art program in Asheville, North Carolina.
Work
Carroll's photographs, installations, and performances examine how people experience, represent, and organize the world, often drawing visual and emotional connections that span large distances in space and time. His practice frequently engages with the imagery, instruments, and documents of scientific research.
His best-known project, G.U.T. Feeling, is his attempt to make sense of Grand Unification Theories, the effort within physics to describe the fundamental laws of the universe in a single unified framework. The project combines found scientific documents with self-made photographs that draw on recurring themes and images in theoretical physics, exploring the correlation between science and art as well as the human dimension of scientific inquiry. Related bodies of work include Standard Stars and photographs made in abandoned Midwestern mines that house experiments designed to detect elementary particles and theoretical dark matter.
Honors
- Baum Award for Emerging Photographers (2012)
- MacDowell Colony Fellowship (2010)
- Goodall Visiting Fellow, Wofford College (2022)
- Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grants
- South Arts Individual Artist Grant (2023)