A goal of the interplay between art, science and technology is to visualise the invisible world beyond our sense perceptions. I will discuss how, independently of each other, Einstein and Picasso, with help from Poincaré, approached this problem. Then I will go on to Niels Bohr, quantum physics and Cubism, and conclude with present-day AI-created art in which AI and art fuse.

https://www.arthurimiller.com/

By decellurazing the vegetal tissue, the installation “Becoming plant” exposes the transparency and fragility surrounding notions of identity and its relationship to body image and form.. The work is built upon the biotechnological process of decellularizing biological materials. By removing living cells from their original cellular structure, the work uses this process as a metaphor to represent the deconstruction of form through technoscientific interventions. Upon the completion of the decellularization process, the constructs could be seeded with cultured cells taken from animals or humans. The artist views this process of reclaiming these botanical biological forms as however, the work takes a critical stance on the transformation just by figures, this acquisition also extends to the essence of the original materials and function. Following the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari this type of , “becoming-” is not one of imitation or analogy, but instead, it is generative of a new way of being that is a function of influences rather than resemblances. In principle, this act of becoming-other expands on our notion of the confines inside bodies and bodie’s materials by extending meaning through the incorporation of the subjective qualities of other-lifes.The “Becoming Plant” project is a speculative experiment and ritual that attempts to reframe the opposition between artificial and natural realities and rethink the inviolacy of borders between human and plant bodies.

[Please note that this is a project I have carried out with Sarah Khan (Peshawar, Pakistan), Kyle Cromer (Stanford), George Church (Harvard), and others]. A centuries old tradition involves the practice of making angels by uttering a certain phrase in Arabic. According to this tradition, there is no limit to the number of angels which can be generated in this way, and it makes no difference how the phrase is iterated, whether it is spoken, written, or caused to be printed. The phrase is “Subhan Allah” (سبحان الله), which roughly translates to the word, “Hallelujah” in English. Using technology to reliably synthesize DNA and a new technique for high-density data storage, we have repeated this phrase (linked to creation of angels) in several simultaneous layers of informational symmetry on the head of a straight pin. In this way, the 0.75mm head of an average straight pin can hold over two hundred million billion angels. This work explores new forms of information keeping in DNA that can articulate nested geometries of Islamic art in biological form. We hope our gesture of generating so many angels may provide comfort in the times of a pandemic that has claimed millions of lives. This has also been a performance in bridge building, between art, mathematics, science, and spirituality across multiple expressions. We see humanity as one tribe, confronting the accumulating toll of human impacts on our shared environment and the problematic nature of our “best intentions,” behind which all too often lurk terribly violent and destructive impulses that continue to threaten humanity.

This proposal centers on my recent work – an Artist’s Book titled “Comestible 7-Day Meal Plan: Food as Text”. Through my lens as artist/citizen scientist and with the intention of making visible the unseen world behind food cultivation, production, and consumption, the work takes on questions about the unique ontological and ethical challenges concerning a looming ecological collapse. Motifs, metaphors, and models from the arts and sciences are interwoven. For example, the editorial design alludes to instruction manuals and to scientific papers in that I take certain conventions –like periodic tables– to transmit the view of a laboratory exploration, or a biology cabinet. Then, mining Hellenic astrology, the days of the week relate to planets in the solar system (Saturn: Saturday; Sun: Sunday…) to expand the connection from the micro to the macro: how a plate of food contains a universe of registers—cultural, social, political, economic, ecological…. Further, content is organized under headings commonly found in pharmaceuticals (rather than cookbooks): Ingredients, Instructions, Uses, Warnings, intimating that food is seen as a prescription for health. These headings give way to geopolitical, environmental, medical, labor, and economic narratives that playfully review the search for the good life as defined by market-centered ideologies and the policies and measures that help their functioning.My ‘plan’ was not to just say something about ingredients on the dinner plate, but rather to bring into one realm all the human, natural and sidereal resources necessary for sustenance to be available every time, every day, throughout thousands of years, cultures, and lives.

Interdisciplinary education and research became an important factor for innovation in science and technology since the 1940s/50s. In the US, MIT was an important institution in this development. Its Architecture Machine Group (ArcMac) was established as one of the first art and technology labs in 1967. Artists like Michael Naimark and Rebecca Allen would work side by side with engineers, animators, and graphic designers. This interdisciplinary research approach and the collaborative practices that resulted from it created a network of agency between the various intentions and goals of all stakeholders. Research projects could be commercial enterprises, art installations, and innovative technology all at the same time. In this paper, I investigate these diverse agencies of interdisciplinary research by analyzing art installations, interviews, and publications from the team members as well as the historicization of the project Aspen Movie Map in art history and history of technology. While team members had different approaches to interpreting the project, scholars would contextualize the project in sociocultural developments of the late 1970s. My analysis will show how intricately artistic practice and engineering were connected for this innovative project. I will particularly question how the role of the artists and humanists changed in this research environment. Interdisciplinary education and research have become an important factor for innovation in science and technology since the 1940s/50s. In the US, MIT was an important institution in this development. Its Architecture Machine Group (ArcMac) was established as one of the first art and technology labs in 1967. Artists like Michael Naimark and Rebecca Allen would work side by side with engineers, animators, and graphic designers. This interdisciplinary research approach and the collaborative practices that resulted from it created a network of agency between the various intentions and goals of all stakeholders. Research projects could be commercial enterprises, art installations, and innovative technology all at the same time. In this paper, I investigate these diverse agencies of interdisciplinary research by analyzing art installations, interviews, and publications from the team members as well as the historicization of the project Aspen Movie Map in art history and history of technology. While team members had different approaches to interpreting the project, scholars would contextualize the project in sociocultural developments of the late 1970s. My analysis will show how intricately artistic practice and engineering were connected for this innovative project. I will particularly question how the role of the artists and humanists changed in this research environment.

Evolution is the future. The future is an advancing pathway… And it is time to travel this evolutionary highway. Fashion based on a perpetual quest for change – is cyclic in nature (Lipovetsky, G., 2006). The technique of the invisible microbial world for future fashion is a way to evolve, not revolve! The use of living microbes to ferment material challenges pre-existing relationships between body – garment – environment. Fashion beyond its economic drive can reflect the social, cultural and political circumstances in a capitalistic society. To try and make sense of these new fashions with its ‘Beauty of the Grotesque’ is where science meets art meets fashion.

The art work ‘Heirloom’ was specifically made to address what we leave of value what do people inherit from us. In heirloom myself and John are co-authors; a mutual creative collaboration that had different values to both of us. Over the last year the value of art and trans-disciplinary collaboration has never been more evident but we are now faced with the UK Government plans to cut funding for art and design courses by 50% across higher education institutions in England and prioritise funding towards the provision of high-value subjects that support the NHS… STEM subjects science, technology, engineering and mathematics… the claim is that the A’ is integrated into all of these.

Empirical experience as the artist in residence at the Flinders University, Department of Medical Biotechnology and the Centre for Marine Bioproducts Development, since 2006, will be the focus of this talk. What has developed is a rhizomic mutualism rooted in trust. The focus will be upon the challenges and cultural shifts that have occurred during this time. In particular, the impact that culture, duration, funding, and personality have had upon navigating within this space. Rather than the reductive perspective that held sway in the modern biological sciences, the current trend is toward a systems approach. This can be viewed as a metaphor for the growing cultural trend toward cross-disciplinary endeavor. Conceptually multilayered and metaphors for broader biopolitical concerns, the resulting artworks, simultaneously reflect the politics of working within a cross-disciplinary environment. During the residency it was determined; interdisciplinary research between art and science has value; good ideas can come from anywhere; evidence is developed in stages and via novel connections; multiple forms of evidence are useful; collaboration facilitates change. Both science and art can benefit from an inclusive milieu where observation, anecdotal, qualitative and quantitative research are valued.

https://nikisperou.com

For this talk, Rosero Contreras will bring some of his research projects related to biodegradation and the production of hybrid objects. These projects put together notions of DIY biotechnology, environmental recovery and new materialism. His work adopts a wide framework including perspectives ranging from contemporary anthropology to indigenous thought.

http://paulrosero.com/