She is currently Professor of Art & Ecology with a joint appointment between Fine Arts and Engineering, the Mesa Del Sol Endowed Chair of Digital Media, and the Director of the Social Media Workgroup at the Center for Advanced Research Computing at The University of New Mexico. She holds a doctorate in practice-led research from the University of Plymouth in the UK and an MFA in Time Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Polli has been creating media and technology artworks related to environmental science issues since 1999, when she first began collaborating with atmospheric scientists on sound and data sonification projects. Among other organizations, she has worked with the NASA/Goddard Institute Climate Research Group and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and her artwork and research has been funded by The National Endowment for the Arts and The National Science Foundation. She believes in the importance of many levels of interdisciplinary collaboration and has created collaborative situations for very large groups, small teams, and pairs of individuals. Through her work as a resident at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology and in creating the Open Source Learning Community at the University of New Mexico, she has become increasingly committed to open source practice and concepts to aid collaboration in project development and in teaching and mentoring.

Polli's work has been presented widely in presentations, exhibitions, and performances including at the Whitney Museum of American Art Artport and The Field Museum of Natural History, and has been recognized by awards including Fullbright and UNESCO. Her work has been reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art News, NY Arts, and others. She has published audio CDs, DVDs, book chapters, and papers with MIT Press, Cambridge University Press, and others. Her latest book published by Intellect Press is Far Field: Digital Culture, Climate Change and the Poles.

Artist Website