The universe, and all it holds, is a source of wonder and mystery.
We love big ideas and big stories.
Science has them. Art brings them to life.
Transform your world
Engage the public
Ask thoughtful questions
Advance scientific research through art and design
our mission
what we do
We create experiences for curious people.
St. Bird is a transdisciplinary collective for the fusion of art and science.
who we are
Lance Gharavi
Lance is a Phoenix-based experimental artist and scholar. His work focuses on points of intersection between performance, technology, science, and religion. An early pioneer in the integration of digital media and theatre, Gharavi specializes in collaborating with transdisciplinary teams of artists, scientists, designers, and engineers to create original and innovative works of media-rich, live performance. He is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, and has collaborated with EarthScope—the largest solid Earth science project ever funded by the National Science Foundation—to write a children’s book about earthquakes. Lance is the Director of St. Bird.
Ed Garnero
Ed Garnero is a geophysicist that uses the tool of seismology to probe the insides of planetary bodies. Using seismic waves from quakes, he maps the heterogeneous interiors of the Earth and the Moon, and is involved in sensor development to pursue the imaging of other planetary bodies. His recent work has focused on the characterization of massive continent-sized anomalous blob-like structures in Earth’s deep mantle (which was the focus of his recent TEDx presentation), as well as mapping much smaller sized heterogeneities throughout Earth’s mantle rock. Mapping these structures contributes to our effort of understanding the dynamics and evolution of planetary interiors, and how dynamic surfaces (e.g., plate tectonics on Earth) relate to the inaccessible interior. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and author of over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Stephen Christensen
Stephen Christensen is a sound designer and engineer, focused on the rigorous investigation of sound design and emerging technologies in contemporary performance. He believes live engineering is integral to the success of a design and his work explores the intersection of the two disciplines. Stephen specializes in developing interactive and generative tools for performance that explore this intersection by building collaborative partnerships between artists, designers, engineers, and scientists.
Matthew Ragan
Matthew eared his BA in Theatre from CSU, Fresno. He has worked as an Educational Outreach Counselor for the federally funded Upward Bound (TRiO) program, and as a Faculty Developer for Keene State College’s Center for Engagement, Learning, and Teaching (CELT). He received his MFA from Arizona State University in Interdisciplinary Digital Media and Performance in 2015. His MFA work focused on the intersection of traditional turn-key tools for live production, and new approaches for breaking boundaries between performers and media systems. Matthew specializes in creating interactive systems for digital environments and has a robust archive of teaching resources for the creative-coding community. He is currently working as an Interactive Engineer for Obscura Digital, a creative studio in San Francisco.
Patrick Young
Patrick Young is a theoretical astrophysicist and astrobiologist. He uses computer simulations to understand stellar evolution, supernova explosions, and the synthesis of the chemical elements. Observations of real supernova remnants compared to 3D models illuminate how supernovae explode and how they distribute newly created elements into interstellar gas that will form stars and planets. He also studies the impact of chemical composition on planetary habitability. Understanding how planets and their host stars co-evolve will facilitate the choice of targets for future missions that will search for signatures of life on exoplanets. He is a science lead on the NASA Nexus for Exoplanet System Science project "Exoplanetary Ecosystems" headquartered at ASU. Since August of 2017 he has been associate director for community outreach in the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Daniel Fine
Daniel designs projections, digital art, and systems for dance, theatre, music and interactive installations. By combining the simple, traditional forms of storytelling with that of digital media, he collaborates on large scale and intimate experiences in order to engage the imaginations and hearts of a twenty-first century audience. Daniel is an assistant professor of Digital Media in Performance, with a co-appointment in Dance and Theatre Arts and is a core faculty member of the Public Digital Arts Cluster at the University of Iowa. He teaches regularly at LDI and USITT, writes an ongoing blog series for Howlround.com and is the co-author of the soon to be released book, Digital Media, Projection Design & Technology for Theatre from Focal Press, an imprint of Routledge. Daniel holds an MFA in interdisciplinary digital media for performance from Arizona State University, where he was a fellow at The Center for Science and the Imagination.
Ian Shelanskey
Ian is an Interactive Engineer working to align the digital world into the physical. The digital world should be felt in everyday life as transparently as we feel air. Ian's work is to provide a seamless transition to that end by crafting new technology and experiential software. Ian specializes in creating real-time visualizations from scientific data sets as well as pulling data from the web for use in live events and installations. More info at www.ianshelanskey.com
Lindy Elkins-Tanton
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission, Director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and of the Interplanetary Initiative at ASU, and co-founder of Beagle Learning, a tech company helping teams efficiently solve complex problems. Her research concerns terrestrial planetary formation and evolution. Elkins-Tanton was faculty at MIT, and a director at the Carnegie Institution for Science before moving to the directorship at Arizona State University. Elkins-Tanton has led four field expeditions in Siberia. She is a two-time NAS Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow and served on the Mars 2020 Rover Science Definition Team. In 2010 she was awarded the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas prize. Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her. In 2013 she was named the Astor Fellow at Oxford University.
Christy Till
Christy Till is a geologist who leads a multidisciplinary research program that studies the role of magma in the formation and evolution of planets. Utilizing high pressure and high temperature experiments and studies of natural rocks, her research focuses on large-scale earth and planetary science problems. Till received her PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011 followed by a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellowship at the US Geological Survey Volcano Science Center in 2012-2013 prior to starting as an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University in 2014. She is the author of over 20 peer-reviewed publications and recipient of awards including a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship and the American Geophysical Union’s Trail Blazer Award. Prior to becoming a scientist, Till was employed full-time as a professional ballet dancer for five years in two world-renowned companies.
Jake Pinholster
Jake Pinholster is Associate Dean in the ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. As a researcher and artist, Pinholster’s efforts have centered on a combination of media/scenic design for performance and interdisciplinary collaborative practice in the arts and sciences. Co-creator of Luna City, an immersive installation-performance set in the first permanent human settlement on the Moon. Associate professor in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre and affiliate faculty with the School of Arts, Media and Engineering. Faculty co-director of the Emerge Festival of Futures. Associate artist with Les Freres Corbusier. Video designer for the David Dorfman Dance company. His professional media design credits include The Pee Wee Herman Show on Broadway, Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking (HBO), Current Nobody (Woolly Mammoth), and many other productions at off-Broadway, regional, and academic venues.
Elora Mastison
Elora is a digital media designer and motion graphics artist in the Phoenix area working on live theatrical productions, collaborations with scientists, films, graphic arts, and research into the intersections of culture and technologies. She graduated from Arizona State University, having studied film, theatre, and philosophy, and is now working on her MFA in interdisciplinary digital media and technology for performance also at ASU.
Spring Berman
Spring Berman is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at ASU, where she directs the Autonomous Collective Systems Laboratory and is Associate Director of the Center for Human, Artificial Intelligence, and Robot Teaming (CHART). Her research focuses on controlling robotic swarms to perform collective tasks in realistic environments. She received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 and was a postdoc in Computer Science at Harvard University from 2010 to 2012. She is a recipient of the 2014 DARPA Young Faculty Award and the 2016 ONR Young Investigator Award.
Sai Vemprala
Sai Vemprala is a PhD candidate at the Texas A&M University, where he studies autonomous robotics. Sai's current research deals with developing the brains behind unmanned aerial vehicles: algorithms designed to enable a swarm of flying vehicles intelligently navigate challenging environments. During his years in grad school, Sai has worked on various projects involving Antarctic underwater robots, volcano-monitoring sensor networks, self-driving cars and aerial vehicles as well as collaborative ventures as Ars Robotica. His sideline interests include artificial intelligence, deep learning, and hardware hacking.
Tanya Harrison
Dr. Tanya Harrison calls herself a “professional Martian.” She has spent the last decade working as a scientist and in mission operations on multiple NASA Mars missions, including the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers. Her specialty lies in geomorphology: the study of a planet’s evolution based on its surface features. She holds a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Western Ontario, a Masters in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Wesleyan University, and a B.Sc. in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Washington. Currently she is the Director of Research for Arizona State University’s Space Technology and Science (“NewSpace”) Initiative. Tanya is also an advocate for advancing the status of women in science and for accessibility in the geosciences.