----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- Dear ALL - and thank you Renate!
I am very excited to hold this broad conversation about “bioart” (as my computer keeps correcting my use of the term of “bio-art” to “board” “bard” and otherwise! - ha!). I vey much appreciate this space/forum to allow the chance to hold a discursive moment -and talk about our projects, ideas, and futures. I am also delighted to be coupled in this Empyre forum with Lindsay Kelley - we only met last year while in Australia, but I am really impressed by Lindsay in terms of her energy, her thoughtful approach to her bio-work, and also her risk-taking compulsions!! Go Lindsay! And I also very much thank Byron Rich for your opening comments abbot your work, methodologies and concerns that are super useful in general! Your works are amazing and I look forward to seeing more!!! I will briefly start all this conversation by saying that in this particular political climate (by that I mean the Trump era), I am very aware that my role as an artist, feminist, educator, queer person, and provocateur is essential more so now than even before! As so-called bio-arists (and I say that because the term "bio-art" is such a terrible "catch all” term that needs to be examined as it needs to serve for “eco-artists”, "genetic-artists” “transgenetic artists" "synthetic biology artists" and so on, all terms needing to be unpacked), ― and generally we, as bioartists, work with living materials and we make decisions about the ethics that we apply to these materials. This is a primary point! A primary focus that brings us all together in this terrible “Anthropoceene”! And then there are the US politics on top of it all. At this point in time in the political spectrum and given the threats of the current US administration to shut down all scientific dialogue and all arts dialogue and radical sexual, poetical, queer actions, we need to act now to make our work count! Okay - that is my diatribe and impassioned introduction! More about my artistic concerns later. I would prefer to open up this discussion to you all to propose ways to see clear of our current horrible situation - possibly using art, bio-art, as a vehicle for new discoveries and “refreshment”! Please send updates! I will also say that I am working with a group that I recommend checking out - a new feminist art and technology methodology collective called REFRESH: https://refreshart.tech/ It is a feminist collective to encourage the production of art and technology created by women, people of colour, queers and others who feel marginalized. Art and tech includes biology and art, etc. More specifics to come. Thank you for your patience. Onward, Kathy On 14/02/2017, 7:11 PM, "empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Renate Terese Ferro" <empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of rfe...@cornell.edu> wrote: >----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- >Dear empyreans, >Thanks to Byron for starting the first few days off. I am hoping he will >stay on at least for a couple of more days to make the transition toWeek >2 but I want to thank him now for being such a sport. >I am so happy to introduce artists Kathy High from nearby Troy, New York >and Lindsay Kelley from Australia. We look forward to hearing about >their own respective practices and also continuing our discussion on >humor, irony and public reception. Looking forward to it. Just a note to >apologize to you all for being a bit behind. I am on my way to the >College Art Association in New York whetr this coming Friday, the 17th I >will host a round table discussion on Bioart. More information about >that in a day or so. Hope to see some of you in New York! > >Welcome Kathy High and Lindsay Kelley. >Renate > >Biographies: > >Kathy High (US) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator working with >technology, art and biology. She considers living systems, empathy, >animal sentience, and the social, political and ethical dilemmas of >biotechnology and surrounding industries. She has received awards >including Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and >National Endowment for the Arts. Her art works have been shown at >documenta 13 (Germany), Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln >Center and Exit Art (NYC), UCLA (Los Angeles), Science Gallery, (Dublin), >NGBK, (Berlin), Fesitval Transitio_MX (Mexico), MASS MoCA (North Adams), >Para-site (Hong Kong). High is Professor in the Arts, at Rensselaer >Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. > >Lindsay Kelley (AU) Workingin the kitchen, Lindsay Kelley's art practice >and scholarship explore how theexperience of eating changes when >technologies are being eaten. Her first book >is Bioart Kitchen: Art, Feminism and Technoscience (London: IB Tauris, >2016). Bioart Kitchen emerges from her work at the University of >California Santa Cruz (Ph.D in the History of Consciousness and MFA in >Digital Art and New Media). Kelley is an International Research Fellow at >the Center for Fine Art Research, Birmingham City University as well as a >Co-Investigator with the KIAS funded Research-Creation and Social >Justice CoLABoratory: Arts and the Anthropocene (University of Alberta, >Canada). > > > >Renate Ferro >Visiting Associate Professor >Director of Undergraduate Studies >Department of Art >Tjaden Hall 306 >rfe...@cornell.edu > > > >_______________________________________________ >empyre forum >empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au >http://empyre.library.cornell.edu _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
