Professor Tim Parsons & Dr Jessica Charlesworth
IAS Residential Fellows
Art and design studio Parsons & Charlesworth
Parsons & Charlesworth is an art and design laboratory that brings speculative scenarios into physical form. Co-founded by Chicago based, British artists and designers, Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons their collaborative worldbuilding projects challenge viewers to reconsider their relationships with technology and ecology while addressing pressing concerns including the climate crisis and the future of work. The studio creates visually provocative objects, installations and digital media that invite viewers into meticulously crafted and designed alternate realities.
Their award winning project Catalog for the Post-Human has appeared internationally in galleries, museums, institutions, and festivals including the Venice Architecture Biennale, Walker Art Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Science Gallery Monterrey. They have exhibited at the MAAT in Lisbon, Media Majlis Museum Qatar, Science Gallery Dublin, piknic (Seoul), Istanbul Design Biennial, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), London Design Festival and the Chicago Cultural Center.
Recent grants and awards for their work include the 2024 Lumen Arts Prize and grants from Canada Council for the Arts, Awesome Foundation and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Parsons & Charlesworth are both graduates from London’s Royal College of Art and teach at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They are members of NEW INC, the New Museum’s mentorship program.
Jessica Charlesworth (British / Canadian, 1979), Tim Parsons (British, 1974).
During their IAS Fellowship, Parsons & Charlesworth will be collaborating with Dr Cansu Curgen-Gurpinar from the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering and Dr Avsar Gurpinar from the School of Design and Creative Arts.