[Synapse elist] Welcome to the bioart discussion

[Vicki Sowry]

Hello list!
 
Welcome to this, the inaugural discussion on the Synapse art/science elist
presented by the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT). Each month
we will address a new topic, with this month¹s being bioart.
 
For the first part of March, the discussion will focus on the materiality of
bioart and, in particular, the effect of using living materials in the
production of art works. As pioneering bioartist, Oron Catts, has noted,
³there is a growing discrepancy between our cultural perceptions of life and
what we know about life scientifically and what we can do with life
technologically².
 
Where does such a discrepancy lead? And what are the ontological, political
and ethical ramifications of this divergence between what we perceive, what
we know and what we are able to do with living matter?
 
Discussing this issue are our very special guests Oron Catts, Monika Bakke
and Jens Hauser. We welcome them and thank them for taking the time to
contribute!

Mid-month, the discussion will shift focus onto the challenges and issues
relating to the exhibition and distribution of bioart works. I will provide
a full introduction to the guests for this part of the discussion ­ Kathy
High and George Gessert ­ in a week or so.

Note: As I write this, Oron is en-route to Bangalore to deliver India's
first intensive Biological Art Workshop and Masterclass at the National
Centre for Biological Sciences. This means he will not be available to
respond to comments to his initial post until the 5th of March!
 
ORON CATTS pioneered the use of tissue culture as a medium for artistic
expression beginning with his work on the Tissue Culture & Art project in
1996. In 2000, he co-founded SymbioticA - the Art & Science Collaborative
Research Laboratory at the University of Western Australia
<http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au> . As Director of SymbioticA, he won the
inaugural Prix Ars Electronica, Golden Nica in Hybrid Art Category (2007).
He has exhibited widely, curated exhibitions and published numerous chapters
and articles in books and journals.
 
MONIKA BAKKE is Assistant Professor of Aesthetics at Adam Mickiewicz
University, Poznan, Poland. She writes on contemporary art and aesthetics
with a particular interest in posthumanist, cross-cultural and gender
perspectives. She has been awarded scholarships from the Netherlands, the
USA, Hungary, Poland and the UK and has published two books ­ Plermoa: Art
in Search of Fullness (1999) and Open Body (2000). More recently Monika has
contributed to edited collections, including Going Aerial: Air, Art
Architecture (2006) and Zoofilozofia (2008). Her writing has been featured
in dozens of journals and magazines and she is in demand as an invited
speaker throughout Europe and the USA.
 
JENS HAUSER is a curator, writer, and video-maker focusing on art and
technology and on transgenre and contextual aesthetics. He organised L'Art
Biotech, France (2003), at the National Arts and Culture Centre Le Lieu
Unique Nantes, and Still, Living (2007) at the Biennale of Electronic Arts
Perth. Most recently he curated sk-interfaces (2008) at FACT
<www.fact.co.uk> and is co-curating the Article Biennale in Stavanger,
Norway. He lectures at the Institute of Media Studies at Ruhr University
Bochum, Germany and has been a guest lecturer at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich, Donau
University Krems and Tbilissi University, Georgia, amongst others. Jens'
creative radio pieces, sound environments and documentary films have been
shown in festivals and museums world-wide.

So, welcome all and I hope you find the discussion enlightening, engaging
and enriching!
 
Regards,
 
Vicki Sowry
Program Manager
art research science
ANAT