Lectures

SPECIALIST LECTURES
Available on topics from publications and artistic research

Neuromedia

Art and neuroscience research (1 hour)

This lecture is an overview of works from my 16 year focus on media art and Neuroscience. It features a research series called: Neuromedia. This presentation is an innovative examination of shared territories in neurobiological anatomy, physiology and media art. It reveals how scientists investigate perception and behavior at the molecular, cellular and systems level. It demonstrates how interpretative forms of media art can help to demystify these complexities for diverse audiences. Examples include and compare media artworks that have been shown in both science museums and in contemporary art contexts. Under the reflective headings of inspiration, construction, challenges and reactions, it offers deeper insights into the processes of art and science production. Neuromedia suggests an alternative approach to scientific communication.

The Artists-in-Labs Program

A historical overview (1-2 hours)

This talk is an historical overview of the program of The ArtistsinLabs program in Switzerland. Since 2003, when the author founded the Artistsinlabs Program, we have placed over 40 artists into many different science labs in the life sciences, physics, cognition, computing and engineering. In this presentation I will give an overview of this history, an outline of the methodology we had to invent and an idea of how to facilitate this exchange for other people who might be interested to set up similar programs in their own institutions. Within this program my colleague Irène Hediger and I have facilitated international residencies for artists, exhibitions, concerts and publications, research projects and Art/Sci/Culture exchanges. The program has evolved through various stages and the funding sources have changed alongside the growth of art and science into a new discipline. The main aim of this lecture is to use examples from this art and science exchange to foster 3-way discourses that search for correlations and models that can deeper creative levels of discourses across the disciplines of art, science, sociology and philosophy.

Art as PHD Research

The value of clusters (1-2 hours)

This lecture is based on my own experiences of running a transdisciplinary art and science Doctorate program for 12 years called Z-node. Z-node is a research initiative, which began in 2004 as a collaboration between the Institute for Cultural Studies, Zurich University of the Arts, (ZHDK) Zurich, Switzerland and the School of Technology, Communication and Electronics at the University of Plymouth, England. In this lecture I explore and define new cultural epistemologies between design, art, science and technology and attempt to search for original hybrid combinations of media and art practice and scientific theory by focusing on critical and ethical discourses. I also discuss the future of the arts in relation to the cultural and social impact of technology on society. Examples include art and media projects about healthy water quality and air quality, resilience and agriculture, environment -evolution and cellular metaphors. The aim is to also stimulate discussion about the potentials of trans-disciplinary frameworks based on current controversies in neuroscience, behavioral studies, materiality, space and physics.

Cellular life and the mediated metaphors of the cilia

Evolution and Vision (30 minutes)

One challenge of the media artist in the “third industrial revolution” is to bring communication, science and evolution together. Perhaps some metaphors can be found by scaling up the forms and behaviours found in cellular science to raise peoples’ awareness about the environment we live in. In this presentation I will talk about the values of this communication strategy by using two examples from my own art and science works: AURALROOTS and JELLYEYES.AURALROOTS combines inspiration from tactile and aural sensory perception based on the stereocilia in the inner ear in the cochlea. Here, scale and the impossibility of regeneration of these cells are used as methaphorical learning experiences for the viewers. The poetic content of AURALROOTS is extended by focusing on how we learn through acoustics a) as an embryo in the womb, b) as a daughter listening to her mother about the wild pants for survival in the Australian dessert and finally c) as a female artist communicating with scientists. JELLYEYES looks at the evolution of cilia in retinal vision in humans, jellyfish and squid. Warmer temperatures are already affecting the evolution of these three species and their cells.

Critical Make

Ideologies of the DIY movement

In this lecture I compare some creative processes and shared strategies of makers with those of media artists and activists. How functional are the results and for whose knowledge are they useful or “affective”? I explore the different levels of sharing experiment building and explore the value of working together on problems. The talk includes examples from the USA and Europe that value the construction of interactive experiences that can provoke unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge.

Redesigning Nature

With Christoph Kupffer

From Performance Art to New Media

A historical critic

Woman

In Art and Science

Other Talks

Other talks are also available from various Keynotes on request. For any lecture requests please contact me directly.