interstices: Installation at the Alice Austen House - Amy Hotch - Style Research

Using the shoreline house of Alice Austen, the pioneering Victorian photographer, I wanted to allow the house itself—the walls, the baseboards, the keyholes, and underneath cushions—to tell the story of her complicated life and coded sexuality. Video loops and camera obscuras were embedded into various furniture and household objects; video projections, cast shadows and mirrors were incorporated into the existing interior. Using the notions of the domestic interior and the camera as visual conceits for the self, this installation explored the complex relationship between the “eye” and the “I.”
Using different surfaces and ways to display screens is interesting. Like the new forms of biotechnology are progressing, I think expanded cinema will become more popular due to audiences wanting to engage more deeply or interact with ideas, rather than just watching them on a screen.  For my project I'd like to create a room using projection and maybe screens to bring the viewer into this futuristic biotech led world.

All this research, but what am I actually doing?!?

Below are some of the mediums I want to explore and create an output at the end of this year for the exhibition. Although right now they are very simplistic (and seem strange) there will be a lot of contextual and factual research behind them. The reason why I want to do a series of different thing is I hope to become more confident with using each program within the Adobe Suit (mainly focusing on photoshop, illustrator, after effects and premiere). Another possibility to consider would be using a 3D program such as maya to create small 3D printed sculptures. I later posts I will draw up my ideas, and begin to build them. I hope to record my method of creating things, which will be supported by help from lynda.com and library resources. I also want to carry out a photo shoot in the studio, and strengthen my lighting knowledge for group projects I will be working on. My aim this year is not only to become more confident with software, but to also become more confident on leading and producing.

1. Installation
A room of a Utopian/dystopian future - has projections or a human hybrid, sculptures of bio engineered food (fish tomato), projection into a fish tank with neon flowing fish ect

2. Photography
Photography series of grown bacteria.
Portraits of people with glowing parts of skin - beauty

3. Animation
A two or three small screen projection of shapes and colours that represent cell division or bacteria

4. Sculpture
Mini 3d sculptures created on maya or 3D software, and then 3D printed (if I have access to the facility)

5. Music Documentary - helping Josh

As I experiment more I will have other mini outputs, however above are the main projects I want to achieve within the next unit.

In future posts I hope to produce more detailed sketches.

Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin

Art Orienté objet, a French collaborative group comprised of Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin, began a series of body modification experiments intended to communicate with animals outside of language. “Basically the project was to artistically adapt Jacob von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory, which argues that the meaning of an environment differs from one animal to another in relation to its sensorial system” (Marion Laval-Jeantet, “Self-Animality,” Plastik: Art and Science, June 2011). The project began with an investigation of cats — what eventually culminated in a single piece, Felinanthropy, where Laval-Jeantet put on a pair of cat-like prosthetic hindquarters; by transforming her status as a bi-ped, she was able to change the hierarchical relation between herself and the cat. A subsequent experimental work led Mangin to put on a prosthetic giraffe head and engage giraffes in a zoo — exploring the giraffe’s ability to recognize Mangin not as a human, but as something almost giraffe. More recently, AOo embodied an equine perspective; Leval-Jeantet built up a tolerance to horse blood by injecting a small bit of the animal’s plasma into her system over the course of a year. She subsequently staged a horse blood transfusion performance with her partner Benoît Mangin. What remains of Que le cheval vie en moi!, is the “relic,” a small, innocuous petri dish, with human/horse blood. In the following interview, originally conducted for Paper Monument where an affiliated essay, “Humanimals” was published, I asked Laval-Jeantet a few questions about this work. All answers have been translated into English by Basia Kapolka.

http://www.artorienteobjet.com/

Victimless Leather - Tissue Culture & Art (TC&A) Project

The Victimless Leather is grown out of immortalised cell lines which cultured and form a living layer of tissue supported by a biodegradable polymer matrix in a form of miniature stich-less coat like shape. The Victimless Leather project concerns with growing living tissue into a leather like material.

This artistic grown garment will confront people with the moral implications of wearing parts of dead animals for protective and aesthetic reasons and will further confront notions of relationships with living systems manipulated or otherwise. An actualized possibility of wearing ‘leather' without killing an animal is offered as a starting point for cultural discussion.

Our intention is not to provide yet another consumer product but rather to raise questions about our exploitation of other living beings. We see our role as artists as one in which we are providing tangible example of possible futures, and research the potential affects of these new forms on our cultural perceptions of life. It is not our role to provide people with goods for their daily use. We would like our work to be seen in this cultural context, and not in a commercial context.

Ecce Homology - Artist Research

"Ecce Homology" is a physically interactive artwork that visualizes genetic data as calligraphic forms. A novel computer-vision based user interface allows multiple participants, through their movement in the installation space, to select genes from the human genome for visualizing the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), a primary algorithm in comparative genomics.

Five projectors present "Ecce Homology's" calligraphic forms across a thirty-five foot wide wall. Multiple users can simultaneously interact with the installation through its computer-vision system (in which hand movement is detected and rendered in front of the user for feedback). By moving in the installation space, users are thusly able to draw their own calligraphic characters. A pattern-matching algorithm compares the user-drawn forms with the existing visualizations of genes in a genome database to select a character from that database. The system visualizes a BLAST run with the selected character as its target.

Advances in molecular biology make genomics an increasingly important topic for public discourse. BLAST (Altschul et al. 1990) is foundational to genomic biology. Yet despite its universality, BLAST is still something of a "black box" process whose workings are little understood even by researchers in the biological sciences.

"Ecce Homology" engages the public in genomic issues through an artistically based holistic visualization of genomic data coupled with an esthetically engaging interactive experience.

"Ecce Homology" is the first major work to use Kolo, a widespread framework for computing in the arts of which I am a primary developer.

Alexis Rockman - Artist Research

The Farm (2000)

My main artist inspiration for looking into GM and cloning based bio-art is Alexis Rockman. He has made series of art based on evolution, animals, and biological sciences, raising discussion on possibly outcomes of the future, and whether these are positive or negative outcomes.

The Farm 2000
The image shows familiar farm animals and how they may look in the future due to bioengineering.
The vegetables are bioengineered to grow in certain shapes ideal for packaging and shipping.
Was also presented as a new york citing advertising hoarding in a project called DNAid mounted by the art group Creative Time. I really like this particular piece, as even though there is a lot going on, it raises many subjects regarding the change in farming, and how we will continue to genetically modify plants and animals in the future. Its influenced by a broad range of pressures to do with human consumption, aesthetics, domesticated and medical applications.

Artist statement from Paradise Now:

"My artworks are information-rich depictions of how our culture perceives and interacts with plants and animals, and the role culture plays in influencing the direction of natural history.

The Farm contextualizes the biotech industry's explosive advances in genetic engineering within the history of agriculture, breeding, and artificial selection in general. The image, a wide-angle view of a cultivated soybean field, is constructed to be read from left to right. The image begins with the ancestral versions of internationally familiar animals, the cow, pig, and chicken, and moves across to an informed speculation about how they might look in the future. Also included are geometrically transformed vegetables and familiar images relating to the history of genetics. In The Farm I am interested in how the present and the future look of things are influenced by a broad range of pressures- human consumption, aesthetics, domestication, and medical applications among them. The flora and fauna of the farm are easily recognizable; they are, at the same time, in danger of losing their ancestral identities. "

Sea World

Rockman likes to play with our expectations of what's normal. In the painting called Sea World, an audience watches as a collection of marine animals performs tricks, but the animals are nothing like the killer whales and dolphins we're used to seeing.

"They're familiar because of their roles," says Rockman. "Some of them are familiar from paleontological history. You have a Dunkleosteus, which to me is the most frightening predator in history. It's a Devonian fish that's now, luckily for humans, extinct, but it was enormous and very frightening."

The sea creatures, somehow restored to life in a theme park, hint at a future where cloning makes re-creating extinct animals possible.

Soccer

In my opinion this piece displays the subjects of evolution as well as genetic modification of humans. Due to our roles in society, such as being a sportsman, it suggests if we will stretch to the extent of modifying ourselves to become better at things, or if we will just evolve to become this. This is suggested by the mans legs being almost horse or kangaroo like to jump higher, a tail to balance better, a bigger hard to be able to last longer when moving and webbed hands to be able to block the ball. 

Project Subjects and Core Contextual Research

A good starting point for my research was looking in several science art related books including The Molecular Gaze, Sign of Life and Information Arts. From these books I have chosen three subject areas I would like my projects to be based on. This includes:

• Breeding better humans - Genetic manipulation, xenotransplantation and tissue culture
• Selective Breeding 
• Chimera and transgenics 

Even though each of these subjects are different, they still interlink with each other in relation to us creating organisms to be better, and taking control of evolution of other organisms and ourselves. All of these subjects have strong ethical issues as well as idealistic fantasies behind them. This has made it a key subject for artists and scientists to explore, especially in a era of advanced biotechnological development.

Powerful Imaginary
The image of DNA (double helix) is a powerful image and has become a 'super image'. It has been described as " the ultimate explanation of a human being", "blueprint of destiny" and a "portrait of who we are".  A couple of years after the discovering of the double-helix and showing what it actually looked like, Dali created the piece Butterfly Landscape (The Great Masturbator in Surrealist Landscape with DNA) one of some he created featuring DNA. Dali used it to not only symbolise creation, but possibly a greater idea of God. This could suggest why biology and bioart has been explored by artists to not only just show something for what it is, but also for showing the bigger picture, the more complex output from our findings.

Scientists have managed to create unnatural forms forms of DNA - expanding the number of bases from 4 to 6. There has also been creation of unnatural amino acids, meaning there could development to create completely fabricated proteins, artificial chromosomes and synthetic protocells. The command in such powerful technology that we have and could continue to develop would result in greater political and economic power.

Social implication of biotechnology applications 
"The body can be manipulated, reconfigured, and redesigned"

As said by Molecular biologist Lee Silver "We now have the power to seize control of our evolutionary destiny". For me this is a debate which has pulled me back and forth on which side I should take on whether us manipulating and controlling evolution is right. On one hand we have evolved into complex beings that has been given the minds to be able dig deeper into life and manipulate it, and by doing so is natural as we are part of the ecological triangle. However, on the other hand I feel like we should let nature take its own journey and not control it ourselves as it could create further disruptions and mutations in our ecosystems. I think many artists have this fear, and these fears have transferred into popular culture. For example Frankenstein and Spiderman.
Popular cultures response to transgenics, in the tradition of H.G Wells has often been negative, including the 1991 TV series Chimera Stephen Gallagher (human ape hybrid) and comics /films Spiderman (student who is bitten by a bioengineered spider).

"If the promising implications of genetic engineering have been integrated into futuristic fantasies and cultural expectations, so too have problematic ethical implications. Could it lead to the creation of monsters and mutants?  The persistent "Frankenstein" fear of experiments that tamper with nature - the human body- is a recurrent theme in the public discourse and visual arts."


Breeding Better Humans 

Tissue Culture

Marion Laval Jeantet and Benoit Mangin - Skin culture (1997)
Skin culture presents the fantasy of being able to change your skin for different skin, of being able to use standard quick plastic surgery instead of hours of tattooing. The presented skin cultures originally bred from their own cells at a university lab in boston. The resulting skin cultures were tattooed with images of animals exhibited in jars of preservative liquid. The reason they had become in these studies was the same utopia idea the anti-vivisection lobbies had advocated in the use of skin cultures: the desire to stop the use of animals for cosmetic testing.

Genetic Manipulation and Xenotransplantation

Xenotransplantation is when animal organs or tissues transplanted into a humans. It is suggested that xenotransplantion will prevail over its major technical obstacles and be a norm in organ transplantation. This is something that is being tested and experimented with due to the global shortage of organs, There is the idea that could farm organs from animals or grow them from stem cells. Again there are ethical issues behind us hybridizing ourselves, would be able to still class ourselves as human?

Michel Rees
Artist Michael Rees, rather than tampering with his own body, he constructs skeletal structures from computer codes, transforming them into physically concrete objects. Unencumbered by the limitations inherent in traditional modelling techniques, Rees directs his computer program to build of sculpture by layering minute layers of material, one on top of the other.

Selective Breeding
"creating organisms through selective breeding or transgenic technologies involves a special kind of responsibility associated with the lifelong welfare of the organism and the surrounding environment. The care of the organism should no way be compromised by its placement in the context of art... It is my jope that new discoveries in genetic research and artworks will help us to fully realise how connected all lifeforms are" - Eduardo Kac (Sign of Life)

Andrea Zittel  - A-Z Breeding Unit of Averaging Eight Breeds
Here work was designed to reverse the domestication of Bantam chickens that has made naturally recessive traits artificially dominant. Although the design seemed based more on conceptual notions of anti-utilitarianism and Rube Goldberg like design the 'units' looked better than they actually worked to produce chickens.

Accidental release is a major concern of selectively bred plants and animals, as well as transgenically manipulated organisms.

Bringing back life
Reactivating of  genetic information long after its owner has died. This is ideal for cloning endangered animals and extinct animals. An artist that explored this idea was Alexis Rockman, who created a alternative universe, one in which has extinct animals in a modern environment. Although the piece highlights our control over evolution, in reality would this be the case? I can't help but think there was a reason why some species do not exist in the world today, and if there were to return, the possibility of our ecosystem being corrupted could happen.

Chimeras and Transgenics 
"We have now entered a social realm in which the minutest elements found inside the body (genes) cab be externalized (through gene sequencing and amplification), and what is created outside (eg a synthetic chromosome) can be internalized (transgenics).

Chimeras

Mythical chimeras have gone back as far as greek mythology.

In science, a chimera is an organism composed of two sorts of cells with different genetic origins, stemming from two different zygotes.

1967 El libro de los seres imaginarios (The book of imaginary being), Jorge Luis Borge stated that "we could evolve an endless variety of monsters -- combinations of fish, birds, and reptiles, limited only by own our boredom or disgust. This, however, does not happen, our monsters would be stillborn, thank God". This was written in the pre-biotech era, when imaginary beings were family in the realm of legend and literature.

L'invention collective - piscine half on top instead of down below -  anagrammatic or combinant atomy is but one sign that the twentieth century ceaselessly imagined the limits and the potentials of the human body and of biological principles.

When a human ear was grafted on onto a mouse, although this technically was not a chimera, in public it functioned as one in the public eye.

Dr Moreau's - He arrived at his fantasy island expressly to develop techniques for creating novel human beings from animal creatures. In Wells' science fiction fantasy, the chimera is a powerful warning about the grim and drastic consequences of scientific manipulations. In 1984 the first 'Geep' (sheep-goat chimera) was created by combining the embryos of a goat and a sheep, meaning it has cells of both origins.

Transgenics

Transpecies creatures are no longer mythical icons or figments of human imagination: They are, as well, the genuine results of transgenic experiments.
"Super animals"

Implanting human genes into animals so that they become, in effect, biological factories for the production of body substances, therapeutic materials, or pharmaceutical products. Human genes are inserted into cows to increase production of milk. Mice are created to produce human blood protein TPA and cows are altered to produce human hormones.

If a transgenic animal is ever sold as meat, could this be a form of cannibalism?

Many artists from the Dada and surrealist movements reconstructed the body as a combination of disparate elements. In these confabulous images, human beings meld with machines as robotic extensions, or coverage with animals as mythical beasts.

Max Ernst depicts extravagant and preposterous organisms by intermingling images of specimens from the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Body parts such as rib cages and blood vessels are juxtaposed with fabricated exotic plants and sedimentary rocks - all superimposed on an existing anatomic engraving.

Bradley Rubenstein - Through manipulations of the artist - employing Photoshop techniques - the boys eyes take on the deep and warm characteristic of a puppy dog's. Rubenstein's work, conceptually similar to Lang's, suggests how the boundaries between human and animal are becoming more fluid and often hard to explicate, if not discern.

http://www.zittel.org/works

http://www.regenprojects.com/attachment/en/54522d19cfaf3430698b4568/Press/54b9930fa1c1382862ad734a

http://www.stillliving.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/pages/artists/aao.htm

http://www.artorienteobjet.com/index.html

Back to the Bio Art!

Last year I was involved in and created two experimental works around the subject of sci-art. My fields and frame project allowed me to research into current happenings within biotechnology. I also researched artists and scientists who have previously used art to show something biological and also to voice their concerns.  There are a lot of ethics behind the manipulation of organisms particularly human beings, and our ideas and fantasies of what we could become has continued to inspire scientist to research further. I feel last year although I researched a lot into one particular area, I feel there are other important areas and theorists that can be explored. This reoccurring interest has lead me to want to use third years as a extension, but also the bigger picture of my previous work. I want to explore deeper into the world of biology and draw out things that we may not think of, and our own opinions on controversial ideas. I find this sort of research exciting, but also very relevant to my life, as it is something that could effect us all in the future.

There are certain subjects I want to research into which will inspire and help me create an output of a series of mini projects, which then leads up to a main installation piece. My main idea is creating a room that creates a futuristic environment that we could have if we continue to experiment and allow biotechnology into our every day lives. This is something that I will research and plan later on. As a starting point I am going to explore six different yet interlinked subjects. These include the social implications of biotechnology applications; recent discoveries and practices; manipulating and breeding better babies; exploring the blurred boundaries - chimeras and transgenics; The relationship between genetics and personality trates; the complex communications between organisms. The final outputs will be a variety of mediums including photography, animation and sculpture. I will also

continue to research bio artists, and hope to visit some current exhibitions. 

A good place for me to start is to fully read The Molecular Gaze: Art In the Genetic Age. As well as writing and bringing reference art into the subjects, there is a lot of reference articles and books within this books. It will really help me create a strong portfolio of research and contextual material.

The reason why I want to do this is that I do really enjoy this subject, and I think me being stuck on my first idea for this term and not knowing what to do made me realise that it is so important to pursue something that you have a strong interest in. Although I like the idea of the body and mind on a spiritual level, it is a project that I could do in the spare time. I needed a subject in which has my focus and interest. This is one of the reasons why I want to extend my knowledge on biological research. My second reason is for the importance that science has not just on a personal level, but the importance of it in our future. I think its something a lot of people can connect with and understand. 

Whilst producing a strong contextual background I hope to become more confident with using each program within the Adobe Suit (mainly focusing on photoshop, illustrator, after effects and premiere). Another possibility to consider would be using a 3D program such as maya to create small 3D printed sculptures. I later posts I will draw up my ideas, and begin to build them. I hope to record my method of creating things, which will be supported by help from lynda.com and library resources. I also want to carry out a photo shoot in the studio, and strengthen my lighting knowledge for group projects I will be working on. My aim this year is not only to become more confident with software, but to also become more confident on leading and producing.  

World Goes Pop

Going to this exhibition was definitely and eye opener in terms of the possibilities of my future installations and concepts behind them. The purpose of pop art is to represent and show a particular cultural or political issue in a way that stands out. It was interesting to see the hidden and less well known pop art artists, who displayed major political issues within the 60's and 70's in particular cultures. There were a lot female artists featured within this exhibition including Evelyn Axell and Jana Zelibska, some of the early known feminist pop artists. Below are a few of the pieces I liked from the exhibition. All cover very different themes, however some I feel are relevant and interesting.  

Doll festival - Shinohara Ushio (1965)

By including both the traditional Japanese woman and a cowboy, it represents the modernisation and Americanisation in Japanese society. Pop art is an effective way to use imagery to metaphorically suggest a cultural or political issue. Not only is there the use of bold brushwork, but there is use of new industrial materials at the time, including fluorescent paint, aluminium sheets, metal foil and acrylic sheets. I really liked this bold piece at first it appears to be just painted but as you look closer is has many layers. Pop art, although there is less detail within the images itself, still gets a message across by being more vague and making the audience think about the pieces more.    

Valentine - Evelyn Axell (1966)

Kisskisskiss - Tadanori Yokoo (1964)

"The work starts off with the soundtrack of Dean Martin’s popular song ‘Kiss’, changing moments later to the otherworldly sounds of a theremin, suggesting the emergence of a darker side to the kissing couple’s bliss. As the animation progresses, the images are manipulated through hand colouring, rhythm, rotation and the effect of ripped paper, speeding up only to once again end with Martin’s song."

God of war - Ulrike  otttinger

Crayon angel - Keiichi  Tanaami  (1975)

The traumatic experiences in World War II remain and extremely significant memories of Tanaami's childhood. The sound used in contrast with the cartoon like pictures, scarily plays with the mind, however aids the image of fear that he had experienced as a child. 

Evelyn Axell - Licenced Both Ways (1965) 

Represents the female body and society's gaze.

Nicola L - Woman Sofa 

Representation of the female body as an object.

Ruth Francken  - Man Chair  

Blurs boundaries between sculpture and manufactured product. Idealised male body becomes mass- produced and sexualises  anyone sitting on it.

Very interested in technology and industrial materials and their relationship with artistic production.

Jana Zelibska 

In her works viewers could manipulate elements such as certain hinting at erotic concealment and unveiling of the female body. Fragmented females bodies using mirrors and fabric, staging the intimate encounters with bodily imagery.

Going to the Tate really inspired me and the possibilities of what I could create for my project. It is great to see the works in person and the textures, rather than just looking at pictures in and book or online.