INFOS - Les Actus de Leonardo & Leonardo/Olats

 FEAT and Trust Me, I'm An Artist New Articles

You have read all the magazines you bought at the airport, you have visited all the exhibitions at Documenta, Munster, Venice (or wherever-you-are), you have posted all those nice pictures of cute animals, seas, lakes, mountains, cities, food, artworks on social network, you have done none of the above?
Well, it doesn't matter really, here something great to do: reading the articles by the artists of the FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology project that have just been accepted for publication in the journal Leonardo. And to make it better, the two conclusive articles of the Trust Me, I'm An Artist project.

Enjoy!

Articles by the artists and organisers of the FEAT project

* Erich Prem, "Truth Emerging From Leading-Edge Art/Science/Technology Interaction"
The FEAT initiative organized and studied residencies of leading international artists in European Future and Emerging Technology projects. During the residencies, the artists closely collaborated with engineers and scientists on fundamental research in visionary areas of novel technologies not solely as an artistic endeavor, but also to investigate effects of artistic engagement on technoscience. Effects of the collaboration are visible on many levels including fundamental questions about the technoscientific project objectives, ethical aspects, and the aesthetics of scientific experiments. Interactions also resulted in long-term relations and opportunities for scientists to engage with artists in ashared effort to uncover truth.

* Anna Dumitriu, "Make Do and Mend: Exploring Gene Regulation and CRISPR Through a FEAT (Future Emerging Art and Technology) Residency With the MRG-Grammar Project"
This article documents the artistic research the author undertook for her FEAT (Future Emerging Art and Technology) residency. It describes her collaboration with the MRG-Grammar consortium and the creation of an artwork that involved editing the genome of a bacterium using CRISPR to reflect on issues related to antimicrobial resistance, bio-hacking and control. The article explores the author's methodology and describes the benefits of longterm embedded residencies to create artworks that are deeply engaged with emerging technologies with a view to enable the public to access the concepts and implications of cutting edge technologies and scientific research, through an artistic lens.

* Spela Petric & Miha Tursic, "Becoming. A(Thing): An Artists' Perspective on High Performance Computing"
The article summarizes the process and outcome of the Future Emerging Art and Technology residency during which new media artists Špela Petri? and Miha Turši? undertook the challenge of understanding and manifesting the artistic potential of high-performance computing (HPC). As a result of the collaboration with FET-HPC the artists developed a concept liberated from the complex computational technicity to underscore the (un)intentional construction of meaning by algorithmic agencies. The performance presents a congress of actors sensing, interrogating and interrupting each other, thereby producing an excess of relation, interpretation and translation. The heterogeneous congress performs an expulsion of imposed (anthropogenic) meaning, substituted by authentic, autogenic sense and non-sense.

* Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (Boredomresearch), "Simulated Despondency for Robots in Distress"
It is widely accepted that increased human interaction with natural systems is responsible for complex environmental issues, with most current thinking, centered on the provision of advanced technological solutions. One response emerging from current bio-inspired robotics research, proposes artificial neural networks (ANN) enhanced with the incorporation of artificial hormones for increased performance and efficiency. Here the authors discuss their artistic project concept, developed in collaboration with a bio-inspired artificial life lab, considering the affordance of emotional robotics to develop despondency in the field.

* Evelina Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand, Tommaso Calarco, "Trapping the Objectless"
Through the epistemological lenses of quantum theory and phenomenological art, the authors describe their collaborative development of several artworks exploring electrodynamic levitation. Comprising diverse ion traps that enable naked-eye observation of charged matter interactions, these artworks question the murky boundaries of perceptibility and objectification.

* Kerstin Ergenzinger, Thorsten Schumm, Simon Stellmer, "Nubis et Nuclei: A Study On Noise and Precision"
This study sets out to explore the perception of noise, as well as the relation towards meaning or information that it might contain, in arts, science and daily life. It is realized as an installation based on a suspended cloud of nitinol drums that create a sonic environment evolving in time and space. The instruments are driven by digital random noise. Roaming freely and listening, visitors become part of an ecology of noise. Exploring the differing regions in time and space, what appears to be noise can shift to a "meaningful" signal. This process of discovering a clear signal in a noisy background holds strong analogies to the scientific search for a nuclear resonance performed in the "nuClock" project.

FEAT is a project Co-funded by the European Union
Project website : http://featart.eu/

Conclusive articles of the Trust Me, I'm An Artist project

- "Trust Me, I'm An Artist": Building Opportunities for Art & Science Collaboration Through An Understanding of Ethics, by Anna Dumitriu
This article explores how learning from the Creative Europe funded "Trust Me, I'm an Artist" Project, and from the author's experiences as project lead artist and as a freelance artist working deeply embedded in laboratory settings around the world, can help build capacity and opportunities for artists and scientists to work together in interdisciplinary and transdiciplinary collaborations that address the societal and cultural implications of emerging bioscientific and biomedical research areas, attitudes to patient care and public engagement in contemporary scientific research. Ethical issues frequently arise in the production and exhibition of BioArt both as a subject matter and an issue in itself.

- What's Art Got to Do With It? Reflecting on Bioart and Ethics from the Experience of the "Trust Me, I'm An Artist Project", by Annick Bureaud
Bioart and biomedical art is a blossoming field with a whole new generation of artists, the DIYbio movement enabling more people to get involved, and discoveries in bioscience bringing in new challenges. Supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, "Trust Me, I'm an Artist" is a project initiated by artist Anna Dumitriu and ethicist Bobbie Farsides to provide a platform for discussing bioart and ethics, for sharing knowledge and building capacity. This article reflects upon my journey through the different art projects and how foregrounding ethics challenged my usual art critic approach.

The Trust Me, I'm an Artist project is supported by funding from the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

 Be-wildering, by Jennifer Willet & Kira O'Reilly, Waag Society, Amsterdam

During the final performance of Trust me I'm an artist O'Reilly and Willet will bring (or perhaps smuggle) a variety of living materials to the Theatrum Anatomicum of the Waag building in Amsterdam, questioning which species are allowed in which ecologies, the laboratory as ecology and the wilderness as lab. A specially formed local ethics committee will react.

Schedule
Friday May 12th 2017 - 19h30 - 22h00

Location
Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam
Free event, but registration required (from link below)

Link for the event
http://waag.org/nl/event/performance-be-wildering-jennifer-willet-kira-oreilly

The performance
Questions will be raised on bio-safety, public health, pollution and toxicity. The work will be presented too the committee. While following the rules and procedures typical for the Netherlands, the ethics committee will debate the proposal and come to a decision. The artist will be informed of the ethics committee's decision and, together with the audience, enters into a discussion about the result.
Willet and O'Reilly have performed together before and for Trust Me I'm an Artist their work will again intersect, this time in a faux ethics review of different but parallel practices escaping the studio, the laboratory, and into the wilderness. Part performance, part lecture, part bureaucratic response and procedural rebellion O'Reilly and Willet will propose a series of real and imagined attempts at 're-wilding' their art/science practices. They will propose to enact twin sets of installations in Canada along the coastline of the Great Lakes, and in the forests of Finland. Unruly laboratory and performance practices will challenge notions of pollution, invasiveness, toxicity, and discrete national boundaries in interspecies dispersal actions; calling into question the possibility of a wilderness at all.

Artists websites
Jennifer Willet : http://www.jenniferwillet.com/
Kira O'Reilly : http://www.kiraoreilly.com/

The project 'Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing ethical frameworks for artists, cultural institutions and audiences engaged in the challenges of creating and experiencing new art forms in biotechnology and biomedicine in Europe' is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with ethicist Professor Bobbie Farsides. The project is run by Waag Society in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo/Olats.

 Trust Me, I'm An Artist, Group Exhibition

A group exhibition as a result of the project Trust me, I'm an artist with art works on the ethical complexities of emerging (bio)technologies at Zone2Source's Het Glazen Huis in the Amstelpark, Amsterdam.

Schedule:
Opening: Saturday 13 May 2017, 1 - 6 pm
Exhibition : 13 May - 25 June 2017

Location:
Zone2Source's Het Glazen Huis in the Amstelpark, Amsterdam

Opening event
The exhibition opens on May 13, 2017 at 1 pm at Zone2Source's Het Glazen Huis in the Amstelpark.

Program:
1 - 2 pm: Walking lunch and welcome
2 - 4 pm: Statements and discussion
4 - 6 pm: Official opening and drinks

Trust me, I'm an artist is a group exhibition of nine artists whose artworks involve gene editing, human tissue culture, the commons of nuclear materials, trans-species communications, the smuggling of biomaterials across continents and the relation between rituals of self healing and personalised medicine.

This exhibition shows the artworks that are the result of a series of performative events that took place between 2015 till 2017. During these events artists proposed and presented an ethically complex artwork to a specially formed ethics committee. While following the rules and procedures typical for the host country, the ethics committee would debate the proposal and come to a decision. During the performance the artist is informed of the ethics committee's decision and, together with the audience, enters into a discussion about the result.

The artists and collaborators are Martin O'Brien (GB), Gina Czarnecki (GB) & John Hunt (GB), Anna Dumitriu (GB), Špela Petrič (SLO), Jennifer Willet (CAN) & Kira O'Reilly (GB/FIN) and Howard Boland (GB), Erich Berger (AT/FIN) & Mari Keto (FIN). The artworks are in part commissioned by the projects Trust me, I'm an artist, except for those of Erich Berger & Mari Keto and Howard Boland.

The exhibition is curated by Anna Dumitriu and Lucas Evers and the project partners Nicola Triscott, Louise Emma Whiteley, Jurij Krpan.

The project 'Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing ethical frameworks for artists, cultural institutions and audiences engaged in the challenges of creating and experiencing new art forms in biotechnology and biomedicine in Europe' is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with ethicist Professor Bobbie Farsides. The project is run by Waag Society in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo/Olats.

 Rencontres LASER Paris, le 3 mai 2017

Leonardo/Olats, La Diagonale Paris-Saclay et Le Fonds de dotation agnès b. ont le plaisir de vous inviter aux prochaines rencontres LASER Paris avec Karine Bonneval & Claire Damesin, François-Joseph Lapointe, et Ana Rewakowicz.

le mercredi 3 mai 2017
chez agnès b.
17 rue Dieu, Paris 10ème
19h00 à 21h30.

http://olats.org/laser/laserMai3.php

Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles sur inscription (https://tinyurl.com/lhnzup9) Les Rencontres commencent à l'heure.

Au programme

> Karine Bonneval (artiste) et Claire Damesin (écophysiologiste au laboratoire ESE / Ecologie, Systématique et Evolution, UPSud, CNRS, AgroParisTech à Orsay // "Respirer avec les arbres" autour du projet "Dendromité : En intimité avec les arbres" (projet soutenu par La Diagonale Paris-Saclay).

> François-Joseph Lapointe (artiste et scientifique, professeur au Département des sciences biologiques de l'Université de Montréal, directeur du Laboratoire d'écologie moléculaire et d'évolution) // "Je est un Autre : de l'ADN au microbiome" autour de ses projets et performances artistiques "De la chorégénétique à l'art métagénomique"

> Ana Rewakowicz (artiste interdisciplinaire, née en Pologne, vit à Montréal, poursuit un doctorat en art et science à l'Ecole Polytechnique à Paris) // "Prendre l'eau de l'air au filet" autour du projet "Collecteur de brouillard / Mist Collector" (en cours).

> Modération : Annick Bureaud

> A la pause : Annonces & Brèves du public

> Echanges autour d'un verre à l'issue des présentations

Les rencontres LASER / Leonardo Art-Science Evening Rendezvous (www.leonardo.info/laser) sont un projet de Leonardo/ISAST (www.leonardo.info). Sur le modèle du "salon de conversation", artistes et scientifiques présentent leurs recherches et leurs projets dans un format où la discussion et la rencontre avec le public sont privilégiées.

La relation art-science a pris depuis quelques années une nouvelle ampleur et recouvre des pratiques, des thématiques et des approches très diverses, sinon opposées. LASER Paris entend explorer les différentes modalités de ces créations et recherches pour constituer un lieu de réflexion et d'échange et offrir des opportunités de rencontres professionnelles entre les acteurs.

Lors de chaque rencontre, deux artistes et deux scientifiques présentent leurs travaux. Un de ces "duos" est issu des projets soutenus par La Diagonale Paris-Saclay. En outre, en 2017, la thématique de l'anthropocène a été retenue comme fil rouge : à chaque rencontre au moins un des participants sera un artiste ou un scientifique dont le travail ou la recherche porte sur ce thème. Et, selon la formule des rencontres LASER, le public aura son mot à dire non seulement dans les débats autour des projets mais également par un temps dédié à ses annonces et les discussions ouvertes à l'issue des présentations.

Leonardo/Olats (www.olats.org), La Diagonale Paris-Saclay (http://www.ladiagonale-paris-saclay.fr) et Le Fonds de dotation agnès b. (http://www.fondsagnesb.co/)

 FEAT: New podcasts available!

Artificial photosynthesis, clearing the sky with artificial diamond, meeting with Pinar Yoldas (in English), 26'28

Artist Pinar Yoldas presents and discusses her approach to art and to art and science collaborations and detail her specific project in relation to the FEAT residency working with the DIACAT consortium that is developping a way to clean CO2 based on artificial diamond technologies.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Time & Space, between noise and signal, meeting with Kerstin Ergenzinger and Simon Stellmer (in English), 22'52

Artist Kerstin Ergenzinger and scientist Simon Stellmer discuss the perception of time from their respective backgrounds and how they converge on the deep philosophical issues that are raised. They present and discuss their approach to art and to art and science collaborations and detail their specific project in relation to the FEAT residency.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Experiencing the tangibility of a single atom, meeting with Tommaso Calarco (in English), 21'38

Quantum physicist Tommaso Calarco discusses his relation to contemporary art and shares his experience of collaborating with the artist duo Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand in the art-science FEAT residency programme.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Human priorities at exascale computing, meeting with Špela Petrič, Miha Turšič, and George Beckett (in English), 28'40

Artists Špela Petrič and MihaTuršič and scientist George Beckett talk about their approach to supercomputer and supercomputing in relation to the FEAT residency. They focus and agree on the place of collaboration between art and science and put human at the center of the priorities.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Quantum probing, experiencing nature or science?, meeting with Ruth Jarman, Semiconductor (in English), 24'44

Ruth Jarman, from the duo Semiconductor, talks about how she and Joe Gerhardt are, in their art, looking for the langage of science and man signature in nature. This journey is then built into their animation films and sound works. She presents and discusses their approach to art and to art and science collaborations and details their specific project in relation to the FEAT residency.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Inspired by Nature: Swarm of robots and artificial life works, meeting with Vicky Isley & Paul Smith (Boredom Research) and Thomas Schmickl (in English), 34'12

Vicky Isley and Paul Smith forming the artist duo Boredom Research and Thomas Schmickl, the project leader of the scientific research project subCULTron talk about their respective approach of artificial life, both "in vitro" (artificial virtual creatures in a computer environment) and "in vivo" (robots and more precisely swarm of robots in natural environments). They present and discuss their common ground and questions in relation to the FEAT residency.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Slices of Reality: Ion Trap & Quantum Lattice, meeting with Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand (in English), 28'48

Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand talk about their fascination for light that led them into quantum physics to create art installations and performances. They present and discuss their approach to art and to art and science collaborations and detail their specific project in relation to the FEAT residency.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

Bacteria as an art medium, meeting with Anna Dumitriu (in English), 27'12

Anna Dumitriu talks about her creation with bacteria and contemporary biomedicine and bioresearch, explaining how she combines high end bioresearch with craft techniques in her work. She presents and discusses her approach to art and to art and science collaborations and details her specific project in relation to the FEAT residency.

FEAT/Future Emerging Art and Technology is an EU H2020 funded project where artists are embedded into FET/Future and Emerging Technologies consortia.

 Trust Me, I'M An Artist: New podcasts available!

Cellular Propeller, by Howard Boland

The artist Howard Boland presents his project Cellular Propeller, not achieved at the time of the recording, and that consists of propelling an artificial object, namely a small wheel, with human sperm cells in a synthetic biology artwork. He discusses the ethical and aesthetical issues related to the creation of this work as well as his creative process.
The podcast was recorded in Berlin, at Transmediale, on February 6th 2016.

Trust Me, I'm an Artist is an EU funded project that is exploring ethical issues in art that engage with biotechnology and medicine.

Heirloom, by Gina Czarnecki & John Hunt

Artist Gina Czarnecki and scientist John Hunt present their work Heirloom which is a living portrait of the artist's daughters consisting of a glass cast of their faces onto which their skin cells are growing within a bioreactor. A video document of the whole process and 3D scanning-printing sculptures complete the work.
They discuss the ethical issues raised by this work, from the consent forms to regenerative and personalized medicine.

Trust Me, I'm an Artist is an EU funded project that is exploring ethical issues in art that engage with biotechnology and medicine.

Heirloom and The Body Collected, as seen by the curators, meeting with Louise Whiteley and Malthe Bjerregaard

Enregistré par Annick Bureaud le 27 mai 2016 à Copenhague dans le cadre du projet Trust Me, I'm An Artist, soutenu financièrement par le programme Creative Europe de l'Union Européenne.
Jingles et habillage sonore Jean-Yves Leloup, musiques Carl Harms, David James Elliott "The Wire", Sergey Lopoukha "Lull" (Universal Production Music Publishing), Stefanski "Last Light Lament" (Atmos Production Music/UNIPPM)

Trust Me, I'm an Artist is an EU funded project that is exploring ethical issues in art that engage with biotechnology and medicine.

  FEAT @ Ars Electronica

ENGLISH

Dear Friends,

For those of you attending Ars Electronica, join us on Thursday 8th for the FEAT workshop & Panel.

Time : 12:00 - 15:30
Location : Post City - Future Innovators Summit Stage (this is right near the Railway Station)

Programme

12:00 - 12:15 Introduction to FEAT
by Erich Prem (eutema) and Lucas Evers (Waag Society)

12:15 - 13:45 Artist Interventions and Interviews
Anna Dumitriu - interviewed by Annick Bureaud
Vicky Isley & Paul Smith (boredomresearch) - interviewed by Alex May
Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand - interviewed by Jurij Krpan
Miha Turšič & George Beckett (scientist, INTERTWINE) - interviewed by Erich Prem
Ruth Jarman (semiconductor) - interviewed by N.N.
Kerstin Ergenzinger - interviewed by Lucas Evers

13:45 - 14:15 Are we doing this right? (Open Discussion)

14:15 - 15:30 Art / Science Programmes: Where do we go from here?
A panel of experts from art, science and research policy discusses challenges of art science interaction in future research programmes
Participants: Ralph Dum (EC), Luis Miguel Girão (EC, Artshare), Špela Petrič (artist), Erich Prem (eutema), Andrea Wald (Austrian Research Promotion Fund), Thorsten Schumm (nuClock)

FEAT is a project Co-funded by the European Union
Project website : http://featart.eu/

FRANCAIS

Chers Amis,

Pour ceux d'entre vous qui iront à Ars Electronica, rejoignez-nous pour la rencontre organisée autour du projet FEAT.

Quand : Jeudi 8 septembre de 12:00 à 15:30

Où : Post City - Future Innovators Summit Stage (c'est juste à côté de la Gare)

Toute l'information sur le projet FEAT, co-financé par l'Union Européenne, est disponible sur le site du projet : http://featart.eu/

Et voici le programme ci-dessous (en anglais)

12:00 - 12:15 Introduction to FEAT
by Erich Prem (eutema) and Lucas Evers (Waag Society)

12:15 - 13:45 Artist Interventions and Interviews
Anna Dumitriu - interviewed by Annick Bureaud
Vicky Isley & Paul Smith (boredomresearch) - interviewed by Alex May
Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand - interviewed by Jurij Krpan
Miha Turšič & George Beckett (scientist, INTERTWINE) - interviewed by Erich Prem
Ruth Jarman (semiconductor) - interviewed by N.N.
Kerstin Ergenzinger - interviewed by Lucas Evers

13:45 - 14:15 Are we doing this right? (Open Discussion)

14:15 - 15:30 Art / Science Programmes: Where do we go from here?
A panel of experts from art, science and research policy discusses challenges of art science interaction in future research programmes
Participants: Ralph Dum (EC), Luis Miguel Girão (EC, Artshare), Špela Petrič (artist), Erich Prem (eutema), Andrea Wald (Austrian Research Promotion Fund), Thorsten Schumm (nuClock)

 Parution des articles et des podcasts d'Ivor Diosi et d'Ondrej Cackl à propos de l'œuvre "Molding the Signifier".

Alors que va se tenir la nouvelle rencontre du projet "Trust Me, I'm An Artist" autour de l'œuvre "Heirloom" de Gina Czarnecki et John Hunt au Medical Museion de Copenhague (http://www.museion.ku.dk/heirloom/), c'est avec grand plaisir que nous vous offrons de la lecture et de l'écoute à propos du précédent projet qui s'est déroulé à Prague.
Articles et podcasts sont en anglais, nous laissons donc les informations dans cette langue.

- "Molding the Signifier" - Codesculpting the Possibel Shapes of a Future Consciousness, by Ivor Diosi This article introduces the art/science/transmedia project "Molding the Signifier" from the point of view of the artist and maps out its wider cultural and societal connotations, reach and significance.
"Molding the Signifier" is a collaborative work of humane after people, an art-science group, addressing questions of the future of the human condition, aiming for a machine-unreadable humanity, creating the future Humane Other.

- Ivor Diosi's "Molding the Signifier": An All-Too-Human Victor by Ondrej Cakl In this article, curator Ond?ej Cakl discusses the biocybernetic work "Molding the Signifier" by Ivor Diosi. The author reveals two factors that most essentially influenced the decision to present this work as part of the Trust Me I'm an Artist project event in Prague (16-19 November 2016): It questions the notion of AI as it currently exists, suggesting that the ideas of "artificial", "independent" or "higher" intelligence and existence are all too human (and from that point of view therefore dangerous). He argues that "Molding the Signifier", although it doesn't confront existing legislation, does question the ethical core of the essential latent purposes of bio-technologies as a means of human creativity.
(http://olats.org/trustme/articles.php)

You can also listen to the artist and curator discussing the work with Annick Bureaud in the podcast series on the Audiolats channel on the Creative Disturbance platform.
http://olats.org/trustme/podcasts.php

Bonne lecture et bonne écoute !

 Heirloom by Gina Czarnecki with John Hunt and Lola and Saskia Czarnecki-Stubbs, Medical Museion, Copenhague

As part of the 'Trust Me, I'm an Artist' project, Medical Museion, Copenhagen, presents a work by Gina Czarnecki in collaboration with John Hunt and Lola and Saskia Czarnecki-Stubbs

Schedule:
Exhibition : 25 May - 28 August 2016
Ethical panel discussion: May 25th 7.00 pm to 9.30 pm
Workshop Cellcraft 1 for artists and curators, Friday May 27th 11 am - 4 pm
Workshop Cellcraft 2 for everyone, Sunday May 29th, 11 am - 4pm

Location:
Medical Museion
Bredgade 62
Copenhagen

Link for the event : http://www.museion.ku.dk/heirloom

Artist website :
http://heirloom.ginaczarnecki.com

In Heirloom, Gina Czarnecki grows skin portraits of her daughters from their own cells onto glass casts. The growing portraits are bathed in a liquid that feeds them and prevents infection. When the growing cells reach the thickness of tissue paper they are removed, preserved, and displayed. Heirloom subverts the notion of the portrait, representing a person not in paint or oils, but with their own biological material. As the cells grow, are removed, and grow again, does the link between portrait and sitter lie in the physical resemblance or the cellular material? The starting point of Heirloom was the idea of personalized medicine and having your teenage face back in the future. The artwork was realized in collaboration with professor of Clinical Sciences John Hunt; using Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine this could lead to new possibilities for facial reconstruction and cosmetic modification. Gina Czarnecki and John with professor Caroline Wilkinson have also become interested in the possibilities of saving information about the 3D structure of the face along with youthful skin cells in biobanks - could everyone have their own facial heirloom? In other words, using art with science, society is dared to think differently about what might be possible. Placing Heirloom alongside Medical Museion's exhibition The Body Collected invites us to compare how scientists and artists use bodily materials to produce new insights (http://www.museion.ku.dk/bodycollected) The project is supported by: Arts Council England, The creative Europe Programme of the European Union, The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research and Arbejdsmarkedets Feriefond.

The project 'Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing ethical frameworks for artists, cultural institutions and audiences engaged in the challenges of creating and experiencing new art forms in biotechnology and biomedicine in Europe' is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with ethicist Professor Bobbie Farsides. The project is run by Waag Society in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo/Olats.

  CREATE! PROGRAM! FORCE TO LIVE!
Molding the Signifier by Ivor Diosi

Organizer: CIANT - International Centre for Art and New Technologies in collaboration with Ex Post Cultural Centre Prague
Host: Ondřej Cakl (CIANT)

Installation: 16th to 19th November 2015 - "Meet the Artist" on the 18th at 20:00

Ethical Committee panel: 19th November 2015, starting at 19:00

Venue: Ex Post, Příčná 1, Praha 1

https://www.facebook.com/events/1501178796849140/

Language: English

Molding the Signifier - a complex digital interactive installations intertwining organical and digital worlds by Ivor Diosi.
It deploys an external biological agent to infiltrate and disrupt the body-mind-ecosystems of virtual humans, resulting in states that we regular humans can perceive as mental illness. A well known game character has been chosen to be deconstructed as a virtual human actor, as this is how most people today are introduced to and come to know virtual entities. This is in effect intended as a social commentary on a culture that is hungry for simulated experiences, yet is stuck on its own evolutionary conditioning - the problem described as the "uncanny valley".
A contaminated biologic culture (an assortment of growing mold species) is continuously monitored and measured for data with a digital microscope and a set of bioelectric sensors. This real-time input is gradually interspersed into the neuronal logic that governs facial recognition (of exhibition visitors), and the virtual human visualization/simulation, combined with procedural emotion expression and speech synthesis.

CREATE! PROGRAM! FORCE TO LIVE!

Shall the scientific ethics restrain the artists of experimenting with certain technologies and challenge their impact?

Towards the future of the manipulation of organic life and artificial intelligence - exhibition and open expert panel on ethical issues in science reflected and brought to light by art.

The main ethical struggle incorporated in human dealing with technologies is rooted in the very core of our approach towards creation of otherness: The human dream of creating the higher level of intelligence and higher way of being is shattered by simultaneous eagerness to create only in the manner of control and exploitation. Technology serves to rule the all too human world, but then again it could be the medium of getting out of it to something un-human, higher, better, artificial. From that point of view the biggest danger for artificial intelligence is the chance, that it will most likely be created and "brought to life" by average humans. Those who mainly seek, how to use it - as it was proved by occidental abuse of… well, of everything on planet Earth, so far.
Ethical restrains of stem cells replication, genetic manipulations or eugenics could be reduced to a fear of harming other being or creature. Yes, we do want to play gods and create new life. Yet no, we do not want to face the fact of causing the pain by giving life (which is inevitable) and we don't want to take responsibility for that. That's basically why we set ethical rules against some procedures or techniques - not to cause pain, which we would be responsible for.
After all, what we face in medicine, synthetic biology or genetics nowadays is so tight codex of rules, that it often prevents effective help ground-breaking research or innovation - the vicious circle of protection causes pain in order not to risk it.
Now how this works in case of artificial intelligence? Because where a rule is, there will always be someone keen to break it - if only for curiosity. And what if we let the artist show us, what does it mean to create an artificial existence base on extrusion of bacteria…? What if he forces bacteria to live and grow only in order to feed his digital intelligence simulation (with data)? What if he creates artificial existence only to let it bitterly wither away in solitude of communication breakdown…? - Would you be curious to experience it? Would like to talk with it, or rather only about it?

CIANT Prague organizes another part of Trust me, I'm an Artist series. An expert panel on ethical issues in science reflected and brought to light by art. This time about ethical consequences of artificial intelligence and artificial life creation, computer based communication simulations and violence against the nature. A group of experts will debate the ethical implications of the work raised by the new media art installation, and consider the implications for art, science and society.

Exhibiting artist: Ivor Diosi Committee members: Anna Dumitriu (UK, Artist), Bobbie Farsides (UK, Brighton and Sussex Medical School), Claudia Lastra (UK, The Arts Catalyst), Pavel Stopka (CZ, Charles University Prague)

Participants of the panel: Pavel Smetana (CIANT), Prokop Bartoníček (CZ, Ex Post), Annick Bureaud (FR, Leonardo/Olats), Aleksander Väljamäe (University of Talinn), Marc Boonstra (NL, Waag Society), Espen Gangvig (NOR, TEKS)

Host: Ondřej Cakl (CIANT)

  Trust Me, I'M An Artist: First podcasts available!
On April 18th 2015 took place Martin O'Brien performance "Taste of Flesh / Bite Me I'm Yours", the first one of the "Trust Me, I'M An Artist" project [http://olats.org/trustme/trustme.php].

Leonardo/Olats is happy to propose the podcasts with the artist, Martin O'Brien and the curator, Jareh Das, on the Audiolats chanel on the Creative Disturbance plateform.

Happy Listening !

> Taste of Flesh / Bite Me I'm Yours, as seen by the artist, meeting with Martin O'Brien (in English), 25'03
Interview by Annick Bureaud, on April 19th 2015 in London

Martin O'Brien is an artist and theorist. He received Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding for his PhD at the University of Reading and he has contributed to several books.
Martin O'Brien's live art practice uses physical endurance, disgust and pain-based practices to explore the meaning of being born with a life threatening disease (cystic fibrosis) by confronting others' responses to illness.
His performance work has been presented throughout the UK, Europe and the US.

> Taste of Flesh / Bite Me I'm Yours, as seen by the curator, meeting with Jareh Das, (in English), 22'02
Interview by Annick Bureaud, on April 19th 2015 in London

Since 2013, Jareh Das has been working with The Arts Catalyst as an Arts Humanities Research Council funded Ph.D student in Curating Art and Science, partnered with the Geography department of Royal Holloway, University of London.
Das's doctoral research focuses on performing bodies, audience witnessing, and pain-based practices used by artists. It considers performances that resists clear categorisations i.e. focusing on live works that operate at the intersections of 'art and science' encompassing the medical, cultural and social.

  Confronting Vegetal Otherness - An Inquiry into Phutonic Principles with an Emphasis on Plant/Human Intercognition

As part of the 'Trust Me, I'm an Artist' project, Kapelica Gallery presents a work by Špela Petrič.

The performance will be followed by a discussion with ethics committee.

Schedule:
Performance:
Sept 10, 2015, 12am - 12 pm
Sept 11, 2015, 10 am - 5 pm
Panel discussion: 11 Sep, 2015, 6-8pm

Location: Kapelica Gallery
Kersnikova 4
SI-1000 Ljubljana

Author: Špela Petrič / Design: Miha Turšič / Technical realization: ScenArt

Plants have undergone an evolutionary history resulting in organizational principles radically different from those of humans. When looking towards their embodiment, we stare at aliens living amongst us - vegetal beings we have recently come to scientifically understand as complex, continuous multi-species communities operating at time-scales and in expressions not perceptible with the innate human sensorial apparatus.

Artistic and scientific interfaces, which mediate plant time, their internal molecular processes and physiological responses, have been employed as the aperture through which the commonplace plant is given a human-friendly articulation. However, utilizing the crutch of interfaces, informing as they may be, somewhat misplaces the true challenge of post-anthropocentrism, which would not only bring the plant into proximity of the human, but also recognize the distinct properties of each organismal type as well as their relational context in ecosystems.

Although there has been a recent surge of post-anthropocentric conceptions of plant life (e.g. authors Matthew Hall, Michael Marder, Paco Calvo, Stefano Mancuso), Western cosmology struggles to find a pragmatic formula that would aid in incorporating this new knowledge and awareness into our everyday experience, precluding a change in the ethical perspective on the non-human Other, wherein plants represent a particular challenge since they are traditionally attributed with lacking interiority, autonomy, essence and individuality and hence fall through the sieve of contemporary ethical discourses.

As technological mediation becomes naturalized, the non-human subjects with which we interact become discernable, even though their expression is refrained to the milieu of the interface at hand. By overcoming our lack of perceptual capacity, these technological hallucinations inspire awe and fascination during a particular mediated contact, but the experience is scarcely transferred to plant life we encounter on a daily basis.

The plants' disregard seems to match our own. With the innumerable animal, fungal and bacterial organisms at the reach of a leaf, a root or a flower, plants have sought partners and curtailed enemies throughout the natural world, (r)evolving around the human as mundanely as the human approaches them - through utility on one hand and damage control on the other.

My goal during the artistic research into phutonic principles (phuton (gr.) meaning plants, but also growing being) is to explore the possible biosemiotic cross-section of humans and plants at various levels of organization, challenging the prospect of intercognition - a process during which the plant and the human exchange physico-chemical signals and hence perturb each other's state. Attention is brought to the materiality of the relation, which results in a perceptible manifestation, a change that can be observed in both partners of the exchange.

The process itself - artificial, novel and striving towards authenticity within the perceptual milieu - exerts immense strain on both vegetal and human entities undergoing the experiment. The confrontation of radically diverse living principles is an attempt of the human to humbly put her animality aside and surrender to the plant, transgressing the need for equivalence to achieve equality - an equality stemming from respect in the face of the subject's (in)comparability with the Other.

The result of Confronting Vegetal Otherness is not to be read as a pursuit of functional hybridity, but rather a conceptual enslavement of particular capacities of plants and humans with the purpose of recognizing the limits of compatibility, empathy and post-anthropocentrism. Through this liminal practice the artist hopes to test the capability of herself as a human to address and express her frustrating desire to understand plants on their terms. The transient, potentially unsuccessful intercognition and its artifacts make the body of the ephemeral artwork requiring ethical justification, calling for a discursive response on the topic of "how can we know the Other when empathy fails?".

Skotopoiesis (meaning shaped by darkness) is the first performance from the series attempting plant-human intercognition. In this durational piece the artist and germinating cress face each, illuminated by a light projection. The biosemiotic process occurs through the obstruction of the light - the artist throws a shadow onto the cress for 12 hours a day, which results in the etiolation (blanching, whitening) of the plants. The effect is mediated by phytochromes, one of the plants' non-photosynthetic light sensors. The diminished light intensity stimulates the production of auxin, a plant hormone that acidifies the cell wall, facilitating its elongation. The stems of the cress become long and pale, the leaves are sparser, all in an effort of the plant to grow from the shadow. As the cress elongates, the vegetalized artist shrinks - standing still for a prolonged amount of time decreases body height due to fluid loss from the intervertebral disk. Thus the evidence of intercognition is observed through the physical changes of the plant and human partner.

The work is produced by Kapelica Gallery and supported by funding from the European Commission - Creative Europe and Leonardo da Vinci LLP, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The project 'Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing ethical frameworks for artists, cultural institutions and audiences engaged in the challenges of creating and experiencing new art forms in biotechnology and biomedicine in Europe' is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in collaboration with ethicist Professor Bobbie Farsides. The project is run by Waag Society in collaboration with Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo Olats.

Performing with Jellyfishes, rencontre avec Robertina Sebjanic (in English), 16'53

Enregistré par Annick Bureaud, le 6 février 2015 à Paris,

Jingles et habillage sonore Jean-Yves Leloup, musique extraits de la performance de Robertina Sebjanic avec les méduses Aurelia 1 + Hz / proto viva sonification.

 BIO ART - BIO DESIGN : Les vidéos sont en ligne !

Mars 2014, Leonardo/Olats et Décalab organisaient la journée d'études BIO ART - BIO DESIGN. Enjeux culturels et sociétaux de la biologie de synthèse à l'Espace Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - ESPCI Paris Tech.

Mars 2015 : les enregistrements vidéos de cette journée sont désormais disponibles. Retrouvez les présentations d'Anna Dumitriu, Lia Giraud, Thibaud Coradin, Claude Yepremian, Marion Laval-Jeantet, David Benqué, Franck Perez, Lucas Evers et Annick Bureaud.

Site de la journée :
http://olats.org/studiolab/bioartbiodesign.php

Les vidéos sur Vimeo : https://vimeo.com/album/3287152

Les vidéos sur YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNqz5yLWi0gUdGZtY32MmPkvORtV158C9

Site Décalab : http://www.decalab.fr/

 BIO ART - BIO DESIGN : The Videos are online!

March 2014, Leonardo/Olats and Decalab were organising the conference on BIO ART - BIO DESIGN. Societal and cultural issues of synthetic biology at the Espace Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - ESPCI Paris Tech.

March 2015: the video recordings are made available. Listen to Anna Dumitriu, Lia Giraud, Thibaud Coradin, Claude Yepremian, Marion Laval-Jeantet, David Benqué, Franck Perez, Lucas Evers and Annick Bureaud presentations.

Conference website :
http://olats.org/studiolab/bioartbiodesign.php

On Vimeo : https://vimeo.com/album/3287152

On YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNqz5yLWi0gUdGZtY32MmPkvORtV158C9

Décalab website : http://www.decalab.fr/

L'année 2015 commence avec de nouveaux très beaux projets pour Leonardo/Olats. Nous avons le plaisir d'être partenaire du projet européen Trust Me, I'm an Artist (2015 -2016) sur les questions éthiques soulevées par la création artistique avec les biotechnologies et dans le champ de la biomédecine.

"Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing Ethical Frameworks for Artists, Cultural Institutions and Audiences Engaged in the Challenges of Creating and Experiencing New Art Forms in Biotechnology and Biomedicine in Europe" (oui ... le titre est un peu long ...) est une collaboration entre Waag Society, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery, Medical Museion, Capsula et Leonardo/Olats. La direction du projet inclut Anna Dumitriu (artiste), la Professeure Bobbie Farsides (éthique), avec la Waag Society comme organisation coordinatrice.

Le but de Trust Me, I'm an Artist est de conduire une recherche sur la façon dont les artistes et les institutions culturelles peuvent le mieux s'engager dans des projets avec des biotechnologies et la biomédecine afin de produire des créations artistiques et des formes d'expositions innovantes et de s'ouvrir à de nouveaux publics en Europe.

L'objectif principal est de fournir aux artistes, aux institutions et aux publics des outils pour comprendre et appréhender les questions éthiques qui se font jour dans ce type d'œuvres.

En outre, le projet entend fournir aux collaborateurs dans les domaines scientifiques et technologiques de nouveaux cadres éthiques leur permettant de travailler plus aisément avec les acteurs culturels.

Trust Me, I'm an Artist inclut des workshops, des événements performatifs en public où des artistes proposeront devant un comité d'éthique des projets artistiques complexes, un symposium, une exposition itinérante, des publications, un site web dédié et une forme permettant de partager nos résultats avec tous ceux -artistes, groupes, étudiants, etc.- qui souhaitent lancer leur propre événements Trust Me, I'm an Artist en DIY.

Le projet Trust Me, I'm an Artist est soutenu financièrement par le programme Creative Europe de l'Union Européenne.

Le ArtSciLab du département ATEC de l'Université du Texas à Dallas soutient et participe à Trust Me, I'm an Artist par le biais des projets de publication expérimentale des Leonardo Initiatives qui incluent la chaîne Meta-Life (http://creativedisturbance.org/channel/meta-life) sur la plateforme Creative Disturbance (www.creativedisturbance.org) associée à Audiolats ainsi que le site web du projet Meta-life (http://synthbioart.texashats.org).

  Trust Me, I'm an Artist
http://www.olats.org/trustme/trustme.php

This year 2015 starts with a new exciting project for Leonardo/Olats as we are a partner in the european project Trust Me, I'm an Artist (2015 -2016) exploring ethical issues in art that engage with biotechnology and medicine.

"Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing Ethical Frameworks for Artists, Cultural Institutions and Audiences Engaged in the Challenges of Creating and Experiencing New Art Forms in Biotechnology and Biomedicine in Europe" is a collaboration between Waag Society, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo/Olats. The lead artist on the project is Anna Dumitriu, the lead ethicist is Professor Bobbie Farsides, the lead organization being De Waag.

The aim of Trust Me, I'm an Artist is to investigate how artists and cultural institutions can best engage with biotechnology and biomedicine in order to drive innovation in artistic production, ways of presenting artworks, and developing new audiences in Europe.

The main goal is to provide artists, cultural institutions and audiences with the skills to understand the ethical issues that arise in the creation and exhibition of artworks made in collaboration with biotechnology and biomedicine.

Additionally the project will provide science and technology collaborators with new ethical frameworks for successfully working with cultural and creative players. By giving confidence to stakeholders it will open up opportunities for artists and creative organisations to work in new partnerships across Europe and internationally.

Lead artist Anna Dumitriu said: "Artists tend to work at the forefront of innovation and push boundaries, whilst engaging in ethical and philosophical challenges that resonate through society around new technologies, and this project has the potential to situate them at the forefront of the latest research. Our high impact outputs will prompt new ways of thinking about how art, biotechnology and biomedicine can intersect, and bring together diverse stakeholders and audiences to create new ways of working at the cutting edge of art, science and technology." Trust me, I'm an Artist will involve a series of practical and discussion-based participatory workshop activities; a major series of performative events (before a live audiences) where a specially selected artist will propose an ethically complex artwork to a specially formed ethics committee (following the rules and procedures typical for the host country), the ethics committee will then debate the proposal and come to a decision, the artist will then be informed of the ethics committee's decision and, alongside the audience, they can enter into a discussion about the result.

The learning from the project will be shared through a major symposium; a touring exhibition; a series of publications; a website; and an exciting distributable format designed to give other cultural institutions, artists groups, community groups, students and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue by creating their own DIY Trust Me, I'm an Artist events, leaving a strong legacy for what we learn.

The Trust Me, I'm an Artist project is supported by funding from the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

The UT Dallas ATEC ArtSciLab supports and participates in the Trust Me, I'm an Artist project through the Leonardo Initiatives projects in Experimental Publishing including the Creative Disturbance platform (www.creativedisturbance.org) channel on art and biology (http://creativedisturbance.org/channel/meta-life) associated to Audiolats and the Meta-Life project website (http://synthbioart.texashats.org).

 Call for Papers
 Memoirs of Pioneers and Pathbreakers in Art and Technology

Part of the Leonardo Art History project: http://www.leonardo.info/isast/events/mediarthistory.html

Pioneers and Pathbreakers (http://olats.org/pionniers/pionniers.php ), a project of Olats/The Leonardo Observatory for the Arts and the Techno-Sciences and Leonardo/ISAST, is re issuing a call for papers in anticipation of Leonardo Journal’s fiftieth anniversary. The aim of the project is to establish reliable, selected, on-line documentation about twentieth-century artists, scholars, and institutions whose works and ideas are considered seminal in the development of technological art and art-science. Founded in 1966 with its first appearance in January 1968, Leonardo Journal accompanied and championed the work of the pioneers that were just beginning to use computers and other emerging technologies for artistic purposes.

We are interested in topics including the following:

• Memoirs by pioneer artists using new media (holography, computer and electronic arts, telecommunication arts, interactive arts, new materials, space arts, bio arts etc.). Texts must be written by the artist, in English, and cover an extended body of work. Length may be up to 2500 words, 6 illustrations. Preference will be given to artists describing early work carried out prior to 1980. Readers of Leonardo are asked to encourage their colleagues to submit such memoirs, which will be invaluable primary documents for historians and scholars in the future.
• We also call for memoirs of pioneer engineers and developers who collaborated with artists or whose engineering or computer science work in the 1960s, 70s and 80s proved to be important for developing the new art forms based on new and emerging technologies.
• Memoirs by pioneer curators who organised art and technology exhibitions in the 60s/70s/80s.
• Memoirs by pioneer collectors who were early advocates and promoters of technological art.
• Memoirs by pioneer founders of organisations, university programs and other institutions that played seminal organizational and educational roles.

Interested authors should submit manuscript proposals to "Leonardo (manu.scripts)" leonardomanuscripts'@'gmail.com

Editorial Advisors: Eddie Shanken, Patrick McCray, Charissa Terranova, Roger Malina, Annick Bureaud, David Carrier

This is an ongoing call tied to our 50th anniversary celebration; Articles will be published after peer review, revision and acceptance. There is no specific deadline.

Recent memoirs and articles by pioneers published in Leonardo include:

Early Digital Computer Art at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated,” by A. Michael Noll (2014)
Adventures in ASCII Art,” by Ian Parberry ( 2014)
Algorithmic Art,” Editorial by Frieder Nake (2014)
The Harrisons: Talking and Remembering,” by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison with Peter Selz (2012)

Recent books published as part of the Leonardo Art History Initiative include:

The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technologies from Prints to Pixels, by Sean Cubitt (2014)
Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles, by Erkki Huhtamo (2014)
Relive: Media Art Histories, edited by Sean Cubitt and Paul Thomas (2013)
The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art, Revised Edition, by Linda Dalrymple Henderson (2013)

Synthetics : Aspects of Art and Technology in Australia, 1956-1975, by Stephen Jones (2011)

White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960 – 1980, edited by Paul Brown , Charlie Gere , Nicholas Lambert and Catherine Mason (2009)

See: http://www.leonardo.info/lbsinfo.html