Collaborations between artists and researchers in the field of life sciences such as biology, botany, genetics, microbiology, biochemistry or zoology are not yet strongly developed in Belgium. Certainly in comparison with interesting foreign initiatives. An extra effort is therefore needed. “How can cultural institutions contribute more to collaborations between art and life sciences and why are these interactions important for scientists?”, this is the central question of this online session organized by GLUON as part of the Media Culture Fast Forward.
SPEAKERS
PROF. DR. MICHAEL JOHN GORMAN – COLLIDING IDEAS
Michael Gorman, founder of the groundbreaking Science Gallery in Dublin and driving force behind the new Biotopia Museum in Munich, describes future scenarios for cultural institutions working on the border of art and science. A series of interesting models serve as inspiration for innovative initiatives that focus on contemporary research and mediation between artists and researchers. How can they stimulate new forms of participation and surprise?
PROF. DR. RAOUL FRESE – OPACITY IN THE WORLD OF SCIENCE
Raoul Frese (Founding Director Hybrid Forms Labs, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) entered into an intense collaboration with the Malian writer and filmmaker Manthia Diawara. Together they travelled to the Senegalese fishing town of Yene to investigate what Artificial Intelligence means for the local population. How this experience enriches his scientific practice is the starting point of this presentation, a story that brings us to the writer Edouard Glissant and what terms such as ‘hybridity’, ‘the opaque’ and ‘globalism’ mean for contemporary research.
PROF. DR. KARINE VAN DONINCK AND ARTIST ANGELO VERMEULEN – ĒNGINES OF ĒTERNITY
Eternity biologist Karine Van Doninck and Angelo Vermeulen (artist, biologist and co-founder of the collective SEADS) describe the dynamics that arose during the project Ēngines or Ēternity. Research into the repair mechanisms of rotifers, microscopic animals, lead to discussions about the nature of human identity and future human nature. SEADS is a transdiscplinary collective of artists, scientists, engineers and activists.
Presentation Founder Gluon & programmer BOZAR Lab Christophe Jaeger – ‘Studiotopia’.
Christophe De Jaeger explains the innovative collaboration between BOZAR, GLUON and the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). Within the framework of the European project Studiotopia, artists Sandra Lorenzi and Kuang Yi Ku visited the labs of VIB in Ghent. This led to several discussions between scientists and artists and to a series of new project proposals that put VIB’s research on the map in an interesting way.
