Scream teams and gene themes
2 August 2003
A visual, musical and linguistic contemplation of the human genome, the terror of fairground rides and the environmental impact of 'gender-bending' chemicals are among the rich variety of themes being explored thanks to the latest sciart research and development awards.
The New Chamber Opera project, a trans-Atlantic collaboration involving artists, poets, and music and linguistic scholars from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, will examine issues in contemporary genomics and bioinformatics, including concepts of sequencing, cloning, and probability models. The project will examine the language and symbolism within these subjects, and how they fit within broader themes within cultural, literary and scientific history.
By complete contrast, Interactive Designer Brendan Walker will collaborate with James Condron, Research Fellow at Media Lab Europe in Dublin, to capture images of people 'enjoying' fairground rides, through a machine automatically triggered by human emotions. He will also aim to capture biofeedback from volunteers at the height of the thrill.
Film-maker Roz Mortimer (Wonderdog Productions) will collaborate with Dr Theo Colborn of the World Wildlife Fund, to examine the effects of industrial pollutants on hormones, fertility and gender development. The film will draw upon research in a number of areas, but present a unique, symbolic interpretation of this modern-day phenomenon.
These and six other equally imaginative and challenging projects have received sciart funding as part of the Engaging Science Programme, which aims to raise awareness of biomedical research and its social implications. The aim of the awards, of up to £15 000, is to encourage projects that promote art and science crossovers in innovative and experimental ways and that reflect contemporary ideas and practices.
SCIART 2003: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AWARDS
Marsyas: running out of skin
Performance artist Kira O’Reilly will undertake a residency at symbioticA, within the department of Human Anatomy, University of Western Australia. O’Reilly will collaborate with scientists on a project to re-evaluate the body as site and material, working with culturing tissue and engineering skin grown from the artist’s cells. Using traditional lace-making techniques, the artist hopes to generate her own in vitro skin lace.
New Chamber Opera
The New Chamber Opera project will examine issues in contemporary genomics and bioinformatics, including concepts of sequencing, cloning, and probability models. The project team will examine the language and symbolism within these subjects, and attempt to locate them within wider discourses in cultural history, literary history and the history of science.
The project is a collaboration between:
Dr Jonathan Owen Clark (Lecturer in Music at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
David Moody (Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia)
Dr Herbert
Jo Shapcott (poet, Department of English Language)
Uta Kogelsberger and Volker Eichelmann (artists, School of Arts and Cultures, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
Zero Gravity
‘Zero Gravity’ sets out to explore the themes of illness and death, using gravitational states as a metaphor. Animation artists, Rosie Pedlow and Roderick Mills aim to create a work that will challenge preconceived notions of illness and death, in this instance cancer, in order to present a more positive and holistic view of our own mortality and to encourage the viewer to question the invasive nature of oncology treatments. The artists propose to research and develop an animation inspired by the work of poet, Gwyneth Lewis.
Punters: auto-portraits of fairground thrill
The research phase of the project will explore the boundaries of current emotion-sensing practice by developing an algorithm to detect the emotion of thrill from sampled ECG and GSR bio-signals. Interactive Designer, Brendan Walker will collaborate with James Condron (Research Fellow at Media Lab Europe in Dublin) to develop a machine ultimately controlled by human emotions. The machine will create a unique collection of photographs reflecting the fairground as experienced by the rider. The results are intended to be primarily artistic, the images emotive. The portraits, along with the auto-portrait machine will form the basis for an installation.
Hurrysickness
The ‘Hurrysickness’ project researches the theme of the acceleration of living in Western society brought about by advances in technology and the physical and mental effects of this ‘acceleration’. Third Angel, the partnership of artistic directors Alexander Kelly and Rachael Walton, will produce work that inhabits the territories of theatre, performance, live art, installation, film and video.
Forecast: Disruption
Filmmaker Roz Mortimer (Wonderdog Productions) will collaborate with Dr Theo Colborn (World Wildlife Fund) to examine the effects of industrial chemicals - which escape into the environment - on hormones, fertility and gender development. Following the research phase, an experimental film will be produced that draws together disparate research studies from toxicologists, environmentalists, human rights campaigners, endocrinologists and reproductive biologists. The film will encompass specific symbolic visualisation of the landscape to emphasise the dramatic human, social and ethical consequences of this unforeseen phenomenon.
Ethereal Bodies/Vanishing sky/Reverse Vertigo (all working titles)
Artist Lucy Orta - in partnership with a number of biologists - aims to explore the effects certain environments have on the body, its physical appearance and the relationship of the individual in the community as a whole. Orta aims to explore 3-D imaging technologies, as used in cellular and developmental biology, to create a series of artworks and sculptures.
Euthanasia
Artists Tracy MacKenna and Edwin Janssen plan to undertake research for a video work and website examining the cultural and ethical issues for and against voluntary euthanasia in Britain and the Netherlands. This project application is still under review.
Cognitive Impairment, access and the built environment
Visual artist, Kate Adams will work in partnership with Ruth Marchant (Co-director of Triangle) and the architects Adams and Sutherland to develop creative research into ways in which ‘non-verbal’ people, of all ages, with severe neurological impairment, navigate and experience the built environment.
Anatomy and the Performance of Weight
A series of sculptures based on the individual weights of internal organs will be developed to draw on their cultural and mythological significance. Artist Kirsten Norrie will work alongside Dr Matthew Wood (Department of Human Anatomy at the University of Oxford) and Dr Sarah Simblet and Professor Brian Catling (Ruskin School of Fine Art), to examine the relationship between art and anatomy. The collaboration will lead to an understanding of the contemporary physical self.
Details correct as at June 2003
