Bioart and Textiles: A workshop by Anna Dumitriu

http://genspace.org/event/20130312/1500/Bioart%20and%20Textiles:%20A%20workshop%20by%20Anna%20Dumitriu

Bioart and Textiles: A workshop by Anna Dumitriu

3:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Tuesday, March 12

Location: genspace

Organizers: Nurit Bar-Shai

---

A Workshop by Anna Dumitriu

When: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 3-6pm

Where: Genspace

The MEx Building

33 Flatbush Avenue

7th Floor

Brooklyn NY 11217

$100 non-member / $75 member

15 person limit

Please Register Here! 

Join us at Genspace for a Workshop by Anna Dumitriu, who uses bacteria in textiles. Dumitriu founded and directs the Institute of Unnecessary Research. She was the curator of "Trust Me I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art/Science Collaboration". Dumitriu, will discuss how she uses bacteria in her fabrics, and lead this workshop where participants create their own bio-textiles.

In this workshop you will learn how to work safely with bacteria as an artistic medium using commonly available supplies. You will develop a bacteriocentric view of the world, understand the microbiology and textile techniques used in the work of bioartist Anna Dumitriu and discuss the new advances in clinical microbiology being investigated by the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project. The workshop will also involve discussions of safe working practices, the ethical issues around bacterial bioart, issues of public engagement in science, and the nature of collaborative art - science practice.

Anna Dumitriu’s work blurs the boundaries between art and science with a strong interest in the ethical issues raised by emerging technologies. Her installations and performances use a range of digital, biological and traditional media, including live bacteria, robotics, interactive media, and textiles. Her work is held in several major public collections, including the Science Museum in London. Dumitriu is known for her work as founder and director of “The Institute of Unnecessary Research”, a group of artists and scientists whose work crosses disciplinary boundaries and critiques contemporary research practice. She recently completed a Wellcome Trust commission entitled “The Hypersymbiont Salon", collaborating as a Visiting Research Fellow: Artist in Residence with the Adaptive Systems Research Group at The University of Hertfordshire (focusing on social robotics) and (Leverhulme Trust 2011), and was Artist in Residence on the UK Clinical Research Consortium Project “Modernising Medical Microbiology” at The University of Oxford. Her major international project “Trust me I’m an artist, towards an ethics of art/science collaboration” (in collaboration with the Waag Society in Amsterdam and The University of Leiden) investigates the novel ethical problems that arise when artists create artwork in laboratory settings. She is a contributing editor to Leonardo Electronic Almanac, and winner of the 2012 Society for Applied Microbiology Communication Award.

For questions contact us at info@genspace.org

Shool of Visual Arts SVA NY

http://www.sva.edu/special-programs/summer-residency-programs/bio-art

FROM THE LABORATORY TO THE STUDIO:
INTERDISCIPLINARY PRACTICES IN BIO ART

Vanitas (in a Petrie dish)

by Suzanne Anker

May 21-June 21
4 undergraduate studio credits; $2400

From anatomical studies to landscape painting to the biomorphism of surrealism, the biological realm historically provided a significant resource for numerous artists. More recently, bio art has become a term referring to intersecting domains of the biological sciences and their incorporation into the plastic arts. Of particular importance in bio art is to summon awareness of the ways in which biomedical sciences alter social, ethical and cultural values in society.

Coming to the fore in the early 1990s, bio art is neither media specific nor locally bounded. It is an international movement with practitioners in such regions as Europe, the U.S., Russia, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Several sub-genres of bio art exist within this overarching term:

1) Artists who employ the iconography of the 20th- and 21st-century sciences, including molecular and cellular genetics, transgenically altered living matter, reproductive technologies and neurosciences. All traditional media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing are employed to convey novel ways of representing life forms.

2) Artists who utilize computer software, systems theory and simulations to investigate aspects of the biological sciences such as evolution, artificial life and robotics through digital sculpture and new media installations.

3) Artists employing biological matter itself as their medium, including processes such as tissue engineering, plant breeding, transgenics and ecological reclamation.

This interdisciplinary residency will take place in the new Fine Arts Nature and Technology Laboratory located in the heart of New York City's Chelsea gallery district. Participants will have access to all of the facilities. Each student will be assigned an individual workstation. In addition, the Nature and Technology Lab houses microscopes for photo and video, skeleton collections, specimen collections, slide collections, an herbarium and aquarium as well as a library.

Demonstrations include microscopy, plant tissue engineering, molecular cuisine and the production of micro eco-systems. Field trips and visiting speakers will include artists, scientists and museum professionals. Students may work in any media, including the performing arts. 

The Residency will be led by artist Suzanne Anker, Chair of the BFA Fine Arts Department at SVA, and Brandon Ballengée, bio-artist. In addition, visiting speakers will include artists, scientists and museum professionals including Mark Bridgen, Kathy High, James Walsh and Jennifer Willet.