Wolfgang Knapp focuses on interdisciplinary projects, art and the media, curatorial activities and international project cooperation. Knapp is professor h.c. at the Department of Fine Arts and Design at Zhejiang Commercial Technical College in Hangzhou/China and has been chairperson of the Commission for artistic and scientific projects at the University for the Arts in Berlin. He created the UdK-Preis für interdisziplinäre Kunst und Wissenschaft(UdK Prize for interdisciplinary art and science).
Sun, 23 September 2018
Please join Camilla Pang and Yvan Tina on this second part of the interview which talks about the relationships between art and science as ways to communicate points of view and understanding. What can the experience of Synaesthesia and Asperger's syndrome, for example, tell us about the nature of information and processing? Do art and science share the same goals with regards to society? Or are these complementary? Camilla Pang addresses some of these questions and shares some personal exemplars of how one can blend art and science in everyday thinking. |
Fri, 14 September 2018
In this first episode, Camilla Pang and Yvan Tina discuss the relevance of bioinformatics in the life sciences. How it improves our understanding of DNA and provides multiple avenues for medical research and therapeutics but also how it challenges our representation of life. The podcast ends with a speculative reflection on gene editing and the possible evolution of consciousness. |
Wed, 4 April 2018
Knowledge Link through Art and Science (KLAS) is an Artist in Residence program of the Max Planck Society. KLAS fosters ArtSci exchange and transdisciplinary innovation and education whilst also establishing a link between Synthetic Biology research groups of two research institutions – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen [RuG] and two Max Planck Institutes [MPI]. In addition to awarding two Artist Residencies in 2017, KLAS will present a series of events and conversations around specific thematic topics. KLAS is funded by the Max Planck Society and the Schering Foundation and organized by Polyhedra. |
Tue, 27 March 2018
Knowledge Link through Art and Science (KLAS) is an Artist in Residence program of the Max Planck Society. KLAS fosters ArtSci exchange and transdisciplinary innovation and education whilst also establishing a link between Synthetic Biology research groups of two research institutions – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen [RuG] and two Max Planck Institutes [MPI]. In addition to awarding two Artist Residencies in 2017, KLAS will present a series of events and conversations around specific thematic topics. KLAS is funded by the Max Planck Society and the Schering Foundation and organized by Polyhedra. Tom Robinson, from the Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, and his group, aim to build membrane structures using lipid vesicles, which mimic biological cell organelles. The goal is to understand how enzyme-catalyzed metabolic processes occur within confined organelles; and eventually, construct a cell using artificial membranes in order to understand how a cell functions. |
Fri, 23 February 2018
Charlie Cotton speaks about collaboration and discovery in the context of KLAS. Edited by Oskar Olsson.
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Mon, 19 February 2018
Knowledge Link through Art and Science (KLAS) is an Artist in Residence program of the Max Planck Society. KLAS fosters ArtSci exchange and transdisciplinary innovation and education whilst also establishing a link between Synthetic Biology research groups of two research institutions – Rijksuniversiteit Groningen [RuG] and two Max Planck Institutes [MPI]. In addition to awarding two Artist Residencies in 2017, KLAS will present a series of events and conversations around specific thematic topics. KLAS is funded by the Max Planck Society and the Schering Foundation and organized by Polyhedra. Caterina Benincasa, born in Rome, Italy, studied physics and philosophy at Bristol University, UK, and specialized in Aesthetics & Theory of Contemporary Art (MD), History of Science (MD) and World Heritage Studies (MD). She has been visiting lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sassari, Italy, researcher in Contemporary Visual Art, France, researcher in Neuroaesthetics at Don Gnocchi Foundation, Italy, and recently worked for the ‘Modern Geometry and the Concept of Space’ research group at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany. In this episode, aesthetician and physicist Caterina Benincasa discusses the goals and inner workings of KLAS. |
Sat, 17 February 2018
Knowledge Link through Art and Science (KLAS) is an Artist in Residence program of the Max Planck Society. KLAS fosters ArtSci exchange and transdisciplinary innovation and education whilst also establishing a link between Synthetic Biology research groups of two research institutions - Rijksuniversiteit Groningen [RuG] and two Max Planck Institutes [MPI]. In addition to awarding two Artist Residencies in 2017, KLAS will present a series of events and conversations around specific thematic topics. KLAS is funded by the Max Planck Society and the Schering Foundation and organized by Polyhedra. In this episode, Dr. Arren Bar-Even speaks about his work as the Research Group Leader for "Systems and Synthetic Metabolism" for the Max Planck Research Group. https://klas.mpikg.mpg.de/venue/ |
Mon, 11 September 2017
Defining himself as a curator interested in transgenre aesthetics and art and technology, art curator Jens Hauser engages a discussion with Danielle Aviles, student in biology; on the relationships between art and science. He defines what ‘Wetware’ - the title of the exhibition he curated with David Familian (2016) - is, as an extrapolation of softwares and hardwares, a convergence between technologies, or an evolution of mixed-media. With the rise of synthetic biology, the aim is to apply engineering principles to the biological realm and create aliveness from scratch. Do art and science deal with the same medium? |
Sun, 27 August 2017
Engagée dans une recherche doctorale, l'artiste Lia Giraud revient sur les enjeux de la production et de l'exposition d'oeuvres conçues à partir de matériaux vivants. Des plantes qui dansent, des photographies créées à base d'algue : les oeuvres évoquées sont parfois surprenantes. C'est également l'occasion de revenir sur sa collaboration avec des scientifiques. |
Wed, 7 September 2016
Chercheur en médecine, commissaire et critique d’art, Jens Hauser présente l’exposition ‘WetWare’ qu’il a organisé avec David Familian pour le Beall Center à UC Irvine. Rappelant les écrits de Chris Salter, il y fait l'état d’un basculement de l’art de la performance à la performativité s’enracinant dans la théorie du discours (langage), la théorie du genre (corps construits), l’anthropologie (comme méthode d’inspection), et les sciences performatives (sociologie des sciences). Ces changements d'échelles, d’espaces, d'écologies resituent le corps sur un plan mésoscopique, a la fois objet et sujet, y compris dans le non-vivant. La microperformativité a pour but de relocaliser les actions ou fonctions à l'intérieur de ce corps afin d’aller au corps microscopique - séquences génétiques, molécules, organes... |
Fri, 2 September 2016
In the first part of the podcast, art curator and media studies scholar Jens Hauser, interviewed by Roger Malina and Yvan Tina address the question of staging aliveness. Hauser argues that, between life in silico and life in labs, we’re witnessing the animation of the technological, on one side, and the technologization of the animated on the other. Opposing Biomediality to communication media, the critic returns to the in-betweeness space of the medium. Through the scales of performance and performativity - mesoscopic definitions of the human body - macroscopic scales of molecular biopolitic , a gallery of spaces, ecologies and processes sets the stage for energetic theaters. |
Mon, 15 August 2016
Conducted by Josh Brumett and Alex Garcia Topete, this last part of the interview explores the notion of greenness as it relates to art history. The most anthropocentric of all colours, art curator Jens Hauser says , green stands for nature, has something related to growth and constitute a large part of our visual spectrum. From night visual devices to first computer screens, green operates like a technical colour. While being the most toxic colour when it comes to the production of its particles and its pigments, green is used as an attempt to ‘green’ life itself, language, technology, and chemistry. Using Jun Takita’s transgenic mouss sculpture, and Cohen Van Balen's Pigeon D'or as biofacts - that is to say as living system equivalent to the artefact - Jens Hauser reveals how these artworks point to the intervention of human life.To what degree a bioartist has to take into account what will take place in the world? |
Fri, 1 July 2016
In this final section of the interview, Adam Zaretsky shares his views on the relationship between literature and biology, code and language, poetry and bioinformatics. He addresses the question of hubris in biotechnology and delivers his take on sensitive issues such as human gene editing and resurrection biology. The podcast also talks about the place of speculative thought in new media art.
Direct download: WeareWildPoetryHubrisDeExtinctionSpeculativeArt1.mp3
Category:Meta-Life -- posted at: 12:30am CDT |
Sat, 18 June 2016
Why should artists and designers worry about the production of drugs and food? In this second part of the interview, bioartist Adam Zaretsky defends his views on the ethics and aesthetics of utility, with respect to local context, values and culture. Echoing with Flusser’s ideas in Curie’s Children [ Art Forum, 1988], the remaining part of the podcast deals with the topics of human enhancement and biological exuberance, Zaretsky calling for the advancement of a queer transhumanism.
Direct download: CuriesChildrenBiologicalExuberance1.mp3
Category:Meta-Life -- posted at: 12:30am CDT |
Mon, 13 June 2016
Adam Zaretsky is an artist and professor in Media Arts at Marist College (NY, USA) who develops a practice that integrates the fields of Ecology, Biotechnology, Performance and Gastronomy. Drawing upon the questions raised by one of his texts on transgenic art, the podcast addresses several issues such as the bioethics of new technology, that of genetic modification, the public understanding of science or even the appeal for biology in contemporary art. Is science making better performance than art? How far ranging human gene editing can get us to? What is so sexy with the biological today? |
Wed, 11 May 2016
Considered as restaured behaviors or even as living reliquaries, it is suggested that bioart works can be approached from the standpoint of performance studies. Bioartist Ionat Zurr talks about her use and understanding of performance/performativity as a way to create ritual experiences and enabling symbolic connections. The podcast addresses the concept of cruelty with regards to the aesthetics of care and disappointment. |
Fri, 22 April 2016
Extending our discussion on biolabor to the field of synthetic biology, Ionat Zurr addresses the application of engineering principles to life. She also reflects upon her role as both an artist and researcher that makes use of technology to create symbolic gestures. The episode ends with comments on the scalability of the living and the links between biological and conceptual arts. |
Mon, 28 March 2016
Drawing upon two of their most recent works, The Mechanism of Life - after Stephane Leduc (2013) and Futile Labor (2015), artist Ionat Zurr discusses our perceptions of life and talks about the processes that lead her with the Tissue Culture & Art Project to create semi-living art and our evolving relationship to labor. |
Fri, 4 March 2016
Qu’est-ce qu’un rapport amical? Quelle relation existe t-il entre l’oeuvre d’art et l’artiste? Qu’est-ce qu’être vivant? Dans cette deuxième partie d’entretien, Dominique Lestel questionne la validité des modèles biologistes et les critères qui permettent de distinguer le vivant du non-vivant. Les artistes sont ceux qui peuvent, à ses yeux, tenter des expériences particulières et ainsi mettre en oeuvre des stratégies d’élargissement de la sphère du vivant. Reste le problème du langage et des blocages culturels. |
Tue, 1 March 2016
Pour Dominique Lestel, il est urgent de penser le non-humain car être humain c’est, selon lui, entretenir une certaine proximité avec celui-ci. A l’occasion de l’ouverture de “DeMonstrable” (Perth, 2015), une exposition qui interroge notre habilité à intervenir sur le vivant à travers des expériences artistiques et scientifiques réalisées notamment depuis la création de la souris Vacanti, Dominique Lestel partage avec nous sa vision des processus amicaux à l’oeuvre en art et au sein du (non) vivant. |
Mon, 1 February 2016
Drawing on the work of Neri Oxman with her use of biomaterials and 3d printing for the design exploration Mushtari, and considering the popular examples of Henri Damon and Oscar Pistorius, Laini Burton investigates the use of prosthetic organs as wearable art in fashion industry and biodesign. From cosmetic surgery and extreme body modification to the design of astrobiological artefacts that could host life, she questions the agentic capacity of synthetic biology in our perception of liveness. The podcast also talks about the ideas of fiction and suspension of disbelief in design from the speculative and the contestable approaches.
Direct download: Prosthetics_Organs_Wearable_Art_Podcast.mp3
Category:Meta-Life -- posted at: 12:30am CDT |
Mon, 25 January 2016
Bio-Fiction is an art-science and film festival that explores the social, cultural and environmental ramifications of synthetic biology. Markus Schmidt, its founder, and Georg Tremmel, a Tokyo-based artist from Austria, are moving it for the first time in Japan. This edition follows a previous workshop (organized and produced by the Bioartsociety) that focused on the topic of exo/xenobiology. |
Tue, 19 January 2016
Le microbiome (ou microbiote) désigne l’ensemble des microorganismes qui vivent sur et à l’interieur de nos corps. Cet ensemble constitue un microfilm que l’on trouve chez tous les êtres vivants et dans tous les milieux. Qu’est-ce que cela nous apprend t-il sur l’individu et la notion d’espèce ? Est-il possible de se servir de ce matériel génétique pour créer des oeuvres ? Entre performance et recherche scientifique, l’artiste-chercheur François-Joseph Lapointe développe une pratique expérimentale (paradisciplinaire) où l’art et la science se nourrissent l’un l’autre. |
Wed, 13 January 2016
Stelarc comments the various degrees of aliveness running through his work from his recent robotic choreography (Propel, 2015) which combines the automated and the improvised. In reflecting upon the NeoLife conference opening exhibition Futile Labor (I. Zurr, O. Catts, C. Salter, D. Wards) that examined shifting perceptions of life through motion and agency, Stelarc offers elements of response to the very question of what minimum vocabulary of behavior or movement is needed to generate a sense of aliveness. |
Tue, 12 January 2016
By looking at the history of Eugenics and Design, Christina Cogdell questions the cultural values we affect to biologically designed artifacts and how humans, through that process, may become mere products. She also takes into consideration the evolution of technology in relation to the history of energy and the horizontal gene transfers that occur between living organisms to balance her ‘techno-pessimistic’ approach. |
Tue, 22 December 2015
What can we learn from the regulation of the physical world when looking at the world of information? Who controls the technology ? What could be the effects of biotechnology on Nature? These questions are among the important issues that this podcast addresses with Robert Cunningham, Assistant Professor at The University of Western Australia and author of Information Environmentalism: A Government Framework for Property Rights. Here we touch upon a variety of topics ranging from the environmental movement to issues of power and the role of artists in society. |
Thu, 17 December 2015
This podcast talks about the increasing relationships between biology, computation and architecture. How could synthetic biology evolve in contact with architecture and how does it changes its aesthetics ? By looking at biology as a technology, SFU PhD candidate and (bio) designer Mahsoo Salimi gives some insight into the potential evolution of architecture and design with the integration of bioengineering and bioluminescence, just to name a few possibilities. |
Thu, 17 September 2015
Terranova discusses interactive architecture, synthetic biology in architecture, and living architecture with Philip Beesley.
Direct download: Meta_Life_Terranova_Beesley_Interactive_Architecture.mp3
Category:Meta-Life -- posted at: 12:30am CDT |
Tue, 21 July 2015
Jana Winderen is a sound artist working mainly in water environments (rivers, seas, oceans). The sound recorded from these living elements raises issues about what it reveals on nature. The artist questions where the sounds come from, notably in wild places that are not readily accessible, recording mostly unknown (unheard, unperceivable) sounds. The artist's process is based on biological information that she transforms into a composition, proposing a listening experience of sounds extracted from nature. |
Thu, 2 July 2015
Lindsey French shares ideas about three of her latest works: “Phytovision”, a body of work that invites the viewer to adopt a phytocentric perspective; “Written by Trees”, a series of poetry and literature written by oak tree; “Packet Switchgrass”, a speculative work that involves switchgrass and aim to merge plant internet with the human internet. |
Thu, 18 June 2015
American artist Lindsey French considers herself as a facilitator of communication between living things and is only interested in non-human modes of perception. The podcast talks about her main directions of research which range from the slippage between nature and technology to the use of captors and sensors in translation processes. |
Wed, 27 May 2015
A travers les représentations de l’humain, de l’animal et du végétal, Camille Prunet intérroge dans sa thèse le traitement plastique du vivant dans les oeuvres biotechnologiques. L’occasion de nous entretenir sur les frontières et les limites de cette notion, les tendances de l’art contemporain et les enjeux de réception et de production de ces formes. |
Fri, 22 May 2015
In her book Synthetic: How Life Got Made, science historian Sophia Roosth investigates the field of Synthetic Biology in which life and computer scientists advance new definitions of life by manufacturing it from scratch. |
Thu, 9 April 2015
Le Biohacking ou "Do-It-Yourself (DIY) biology", s'affirme depuis 6 ans comme un mouvement singulier du génie biologique non seulement en raison de la courverture médiatique dont il fait l'objet, mais aussi à cause de l'intérêt artistique qu'il suscite (voir l'exposition "Bioacking: Do-It-Yourself" organisé au Medical Museion de Copenhague en 2013-2014). Le titre de ce podcast renvoit à l'article de Morgan Meyer paru dans "Meta-Life. Biotechnologies, Synthetic Biology, A Life and the Arts", Leonardo ebook series, MIT Press, 2014. |
Fri, 6 February 2015
Although they both involve generative algorithms, randomness and computational processes (among other principles), the art of artificial life is not considered a part of the computer art forms as described by pioneering computer artist Frieder Nake. Yvan Tina sits down with Nake to briefly discuss some of the intertwining issues between the two fields. |
Fri, 5 September 2014
Longtemps considéré comme une entité semi-vivante, inerte et active, molécule et organisme à la fois, ou au contraire, rien de tout cela, le virus est aujourd’hui envisagé comme un agent essentiel à l’évolution de la vie chez les êtres vivants. Retour avec Thierry Bardini sur l’actualité de cette figure de l’écologie symbiotique, à l’intersection des mondes numériques et biologiques. |
Fri, 5 September 2014
Peut-on (ou plutôt comment) penser le théâtre, la danse et les arts de la performance à l’ère des biotechnologies, de l’ingénierie du vivant et de l’émergence de formes de vie artificielles? Roger Malina et Yvan Tina proposent un rapide tour d'horizon de ces pratiques, entre arts et techno-sciences, qui ouvrent de nouvelles avenues dans le champ de la représentation. |