Elizabeth Goldring Piene

Elizabeth Goldring Piene
Elizabeth Goldring at artist Joan Brigham's home in Cambridge, MA, November 9, 2015, photo: Ellen Sebring
Born (1945-02-13) February 13, 1945 (age 81)
Forest City, Iowa
Known forpoetry; retina prints and collaborative artworks
SpouseOtto Piene

Elizabeth Goldring Piene (born February 13, 1945, Forest City, Iowa), is an American poet and visual artist (known as Elizabeth Goldring) who pioneered visualizing conditions of blindness in her creative work and research. Goldring advocates expressions of the visually impaired through her interactions with the medical community, research projects at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), her poetry volumes, and the artwork she developed known as retina prints. She resides in Groton, Massachusetts on a farm she shared with her husband, artist Otto Piene (1928–2014), which is the site of the Elizabeth Goldring-Otto Piene Foundation, where she serves as Chairman of the Board.

Elizabeth Goldring and her retina print, "Wandering Monk," Experience of Seeing exhibit, Groton School, January 11, 2015, photo: Ellen Sebring

Early life and education

Elizabeth Goldring Piene was born Elizabeth Olson in 1945 in Forest City, Iowa. She grew up in Nebraska where her father, American historian James C. Olson (1917–2005), taught at the University of Nebraska, later becoming the president of the University of Missouri System. Goldring earned a BA from Smith College and a master's degree from Harvard University.

Work

As a poet and artist, Elizabeth Goldring often represents the perspective of being visually impaired and the importance of keeping the visual sense alive. She explored these themes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she held appointments at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), including Senior Fellow, Exhibits and Projects Director, and Acting Co-director, between 1975 and 2013. She collaborated with medical and research scientists to develop seeing tools that generated visual experiences for those, like herself, with severe vision loss, in her case due to diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

Goldring has published five books of poetry. Her latest collection of poems, Still Blue, (University of Arkansas Press, 2023) was a tribute to her husband, artist Otto Piene, who passed away in 2014. An internationally acclaimed artist, Piene was the Director of CAVS at MIT from 1974 to 1993, and a frequent collaborator on Goldring's projects.

Goldring is co-author of the first history of CAVS titled Centerbook: The Center for Advanced Visual Studies and the Evolution of Art-Science-Technology at MIT (Elizabeth Goldring and Ellen Sebring, SA&P Press and ZKM Karlsruhe, 2019), distributed by MIT Press.

Books

Poetry

  • Still Blue, BkMK Press, 2023
  • The Light Silo Das Licht-Silo, Bilingual, English and German. Sketches by Otto Piene and poems by Elizabeth Goldring Piene, Delight Edition, 2014
  • Ey-: poems & retina prints, BkMK Press, Kansas City, 2002
  • Without Warning: 49 Poems, BkMk Press and Helicon Nine Editions, Kansas City, 1995
  • Laser Treatment: poems and two stories, Blue Giant Press, Boston, 1983

Non-Fiction

  • Centerbook: The Center for Advanced Visual Studies and the Evolution of Art-Science-Technology at MIT, by Elizabeth Goldring and Ellen Sebring, foreword by John Durant, Afterword by Gediminas Urbonas, SA&P Press and ZKM Karlsruhe, distributed by MIT Press, 2019

References

  1. ↑ "The University of Arkansas Press, Still Blue, New and Selected Poems and Retina Prints by Elizabeth Goldring, About Author". Retrieved 2026-11-03.
  2. ↑ Technology Review (September 1, 1998). ""A Rare Sight", MIT's Best and Brightest". MIT Technology Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2026-11-03.
  3. ↑ "MIT, Art Culture Technology, Elizabeth Goldring, CAVS Fellow". Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  4. ↑ Selvadurai, Cavallerano, Silver, Smithwick, Cain, Goldring, Wu (4 May 2012). "The Seeing Machine Camera: An Artistic Tool for the Visually Challenged Conceived by a Visually Challenged Artist". Leonardo, MIT Press. Leonardo 45.2 (2012): 141–147 – via MIT Open Scholarship.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)