Bio/Med SciART

8th International Digital Print Exhibition
Sept. 30, 2006 - Jan. 15, 2007
Artist Reception: Sept.30, 2-4pm
at the 
New York Hall of Science
Organized by:
Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this exhibition is to explore how the health, medical, biosciences and biotechnologies are influencing the content of contemporary art through the lense of the digital print medium.  Today, more and more artists are mining these fields for information, inspiration, and even new venues for their art.

In 1987, MIT sculptor Joe Davis and Harvard School of Medicine micro-biologist, Dr. Dana Boyd, created a synthetic DNA molecule (Microvenus) that is now widely regarded as the seminal work in art and the new “life sciences.” Their pioneering work spawned the new field of “bio art” where individuals no longer have to choose between their passion for both art and biology.  This new hybrid art form is being nurtured in highest art-science circles, university interdisciplinary programs, as well as permeating more traditional art circles.  In 1999, “Lifesciences” was the theme of the internationally renown Prix Ars Electronica festival and conference held annually in Linz, Austria; exhibitions like Exit Art’s “Paradise Now” [2000] in New York, explored many of the controversial issues of genetic research and biotechnology; in 2003, biologist-turned-artist/instructor, Ruth West, developed and taught one of the first Genetics & Culture curricula for UCLA's Design/Media Program; and by April of 2006, The Southern Graphics Council in the United States, selected the theme, “Genetic ImPrint” for their annual printmaking conference held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, thus bridging the university’s engagement in both biotechnology and printmaking.

[Links to above references are at bottom of this page.]


In the Digital'06: Bio/Med SciART exhibition, the work of 23 artists, art-science teams, and scientist-artist individuals was jurored from an international open competition of 223 images. The digital prints included cover a broad range of Bio/Med issues and aesthetic styles, but all have a highly graphic sensibility related to this year's theme. Brad Smith's "Totem & Embryo Series" is inspired by how the human embryo has become a nexus for deliberating what it means to be an organism, human, a person, and a citizen; Rob O'Neill's 3-D, graffiti-style DataProjections are the result of a biological anthropologist's research through the eyes of a high-tech artist; Debora Bork's sensitive, photomontage illustrations combine human anatomy with nature and printed words to touch on the mortality and connection of all living things; Deborah Cornell's "Species Bounday: Wind Map" looks at the geoanalysis of wind currents affecting the migration of physical matter (including genetic escapes) worldwide; Andrew Reach [an x-architect] turns his own physical challenges into visual meditations; the selected digital painting from Chris Twomey's "Madonna Series," recontexualizes classical religious painting and iconography via contemporary mother and child images superimposed onto a background of phylogenetic maps showing the child’s haplogroup [as traced by the mother's mitochondria DNA]; and Mara Haseltine's "Stem Cell Mandala" provides a micro, almost sci-fi view of the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, reflecting on the potential of these yet undifferentiated cells. Click on the link to *Artworks & Artists Info*, because this is just a small glimpse of what awaits you!  
 

JURORS
This year’s competition selections were made in an art-science collaborative process between ASCI Director, Cynthia Pannucci, and Ramunas (Ray) Kondratas, Curator of the Medical Collections in the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. 
 

DNA MUSIC AT THE RECEPTION
Composer/ASCI Member, Susan Alexander, has provided her CD, "Sequencia," as an art/bio-med musical entertainment at the Digital'06 Reception. The recording is of DNA molecular frequencies.  http://www.OurSoundUniverse.com


NEUROGLYPHS: PARALLEL SONGS IN A MOLECULAR KEY
Exerpts from Neil Freer's poetry... where the experience of a metaphysical world, in time and out of time, springs from the exploratory micro/macro worlds of today.  He also wrote, Breaking the Godspell, the Politics of our Evolution, published by The Book Tree. Click here for exerpts of Neuroglyphs and more information.


THANK-YOU FOR YOUR PARTNERSHIP & CONTRIBUTIONS
Marcia Rudy, Dir. Public Programs, New York Hall of Science
Mike Lane & Exhibit Department crew, New York Hall of Science
Ray Kondratas, Science Curator, The Smithsonian Institution
Scientist/ASCI member, Nadrian Seeman, for financial contribution
Artist Julian Andreae-Voss for production of exhibition postcards


EXHIBITION HISTORY
ASCI was one of the first organizations in the world to recognize the digital print as a valid fine art medium in 1998 by organizing an afternoon panel discussion, "Collectibility & the Digital Print".  It was held in Great Hall at Cooper Union, New York City, in conjunction with our first international digital print competition / exhibition. Visit our previous Digital Print Shows...


Links to BIO-ART HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
Joe Davis @ MIT:  /ArtSci2001/friday.html
"PARADISE NOW":   http://www.exitart.org/paradisenow/
ARS ELECTRONICA:  http://www.aec.at/lifescience/
Ruth West/UCLA curriculum:  http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics-culture.htm
"Genetic ImPrint" http://www.news.wisc.edu/12382.html

Art & Science Collaborations, Inc (ASCI)
130 East End Avenue- #1A
New York, NY 10028

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