----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Byron, what is estrógeno compound concentration?
Ciao,
Murat
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jun 21, 2017, at 7:56 AM, Byron Rich <byroncbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi all,
>
> I thought I’d chime in here. Kevin, thanks for the mention!
>
> In reference to your question regarding our role via practice to combat
> climate change, is an interesting one for me personally. In fact tomorrow
> I’ll be speaking at the ASLE conference in Detroit on this very subject.
>
> I’ve been battling with whether an art practice does anything other than
> inflate the ego or diminish the guilt of the artist making work on the topic
> in actually enacting any kind of social cultural shift. At the moment I can
> say this. Artists are often at the forefront of technological innovation.
> Additionally, many are also on a sort of margin of culture; a place whereby
> they can be disproportionately affected by marginalizing forces, whether we
> are speaking of legislation, climate change, or some other form of violence
> enacted by systems of power. I think there is great power in not just
> representing these systems, but also using the tools and technologies of
> these systems as a form of resistance. Whether the message transmitted by the
> work only reaches “those in the the know” (the art community/cultural
> producer community) or somehow have the ability to transcend that limited
> circle of viewership might not matter as much as I once thought. Works like
> Pau’s Suspect Inversion Center provide a language and aesthetic for scholarly
> and cultural conversation that demonstrate the falibility of entrenched power
> hierarchies. By reframing the language, and the potential for citizen
> engagement, this re-representation of the science and influence of the output
> we are, at worst, bearing witness to a moment, and at best, providing a
> moment of reconsideration of what is possible.
>
> I think that as important as reframing the cultural conversation is, perhaps
> it is notice by the institutions enacting systemic marginalization that the
> greatest work is being done. Art, especially in the genre we are loosely
> speaking of, is fringe, but perhaps it does carve out a what if moment within
> these institutions where they ponder whether this pulling back the veil on
> the technologies of violence may mainstream pushback against them.
> Worryingly, in the political climate of the moment, it may not matter as
> facts are apparently not a thing.
>
> I guess all this rambling leads me to this: I think the power in the
> tactical/subversive use of the technologies of marginalization is of greatest
> importance. The aesthetics draw in interest, and scholarship and
> dissemination with re-imagined language redraws the borders of power.
>
> I’ll be so smug and talk about a project I’m currently working on for a
> moment. It’s an extension of Open SourceEstrogen called Cyborg Avifauna of
> Estrogenic Paradise. It’s a large (7m diameter) drone blimp with a host of on
> board sensors and an incubator and deployment system for a biosensor that can
> help in the detection of estrogenic compounds. The blimp patrols airspace,
> mapping areas of high estrogenic compound concentration above what is
> commonly considered sovereign airspace. The project idealistically, yet still
> though a dystopia lens, at the possibility of a Jetson-esque paradise above
> political borders where the residues of neoliberalism (pollution) can be
> detected and harvested toward the production of DIY hormone therapy. The
> project capitalizes on the aesthetics of military drone technology.
>
> Anyway, in working on this project, I’ve been battling with whether it
> actually does any cultural good. I think with the spectacle of using
> military-esque aesthetics with proven DIY tech onboard, it can capitalize on
> the lure forbidden tech and draw in viewership, but the proven DIY
> technologies become realistically possible for amateurs to construct, giving
> them the tools to map endocrine disruptor pollution in their own backyards.
> I’ve come full circle as an artist and am back to my youthful vision of art
> as a tool of (tactical) inspiration.
>
> Ok, I’ve got to drive to Detroit.
>
> Thanks for the conversation!
>
> Byron
>
>
> —
> Byron Rich
> Assistant Professor of Electronic Art, Intermedia & Painting
> Allegheny College
> Meadville, PA
>
> Doane Hall of Art, A204
> (o) 814.332.3381
> www.byronrich.com
>
>
>
>
>> On Jun 20, 2017, at 2:02 PM, Hamilton, Kevin <k...@illinois.edu> wrote:
>>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Hello all -
>>
>> The questions I raised yesterday emerged for me in a panel Renate
>> co-organized at last year's College Art Association conference for the New
>> Media Caucus, on Biology and Art.
>>
>> At this panel we heard from some great people, including Maria Fernandez,
>> Paul Vanouse, Natalie Jeremijenko, Byron Rich and Mary Tsang. I was struck
>> by the role of representation, of image-making, at the center of so many of
>> the projects discussed. That shouldn't be surprising for artists of course,
>> especially given the aesthetic and theoretical lineages these artists draw
>> from. But images may be a surprising plane on which to argue with science.
>>
>> One might explain that through constructing their own "fake" images using
>> DNA, for example, Paul and his collaborators reveal the way these
>> "fingerprints" gain legal and scientific authority as cultural products.
>> Such a "reveal" of how science builds credibility can then help introduce a
>> larger conversation and critique about how, for example, the criminal
>> justice system relies on particular approaches to identity and personhood.
>>
>> This is one way in among many one might take to critique, reimagine or
>> abolish contemporary trial and sentencing structures. Some critiques of the
>> same system start with how little the victims of crimes figure into
>> retributive justice models. Others take a more historical approach, and
>> narrate the roots of American trial and sentencing culture in slavery.
>>
>> The dislodging of unjust structures solely through revelation of root causes
>> and origins will likely get us nowhere. So a critique of the science of
>> identity as applied in criminal prosecution that is based solely on
>> revealing the subjective, constructive nature of its images will likely get
>> us nowhere. Thankfully, I don't think that's where Vanouse and his
>> colleagues stop.
>>
>> It might be where the deniers of climate change stop. Such revelation and
>> critique is certainly is where a lot of "creation scientists" spend their
>> time.
>>
>> I'll keep going on this line tomorrow, but would of course also welcome
>> other thoughts, examples, and questions!
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> Kevin Hamilton
>>
>>
>>
>> On 6/19/17, 12:33 PM, "empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf
>> of Hamilton, Kevin" <empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of
>> k...@illinois.edu> wrote:
>>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Hi all -
>>
>> Thank you for the introduction Renate! And thanks to all for a good month
>> so far on the subject. I'll ask a question to get things going.
>>
>> Here on empyre, we can point to a lively and expansive lineage of art,
>> activism and scholarship that questions basic epistemologies of modern
>> science. Much of this work builds on science studies, feminist theory, and
>> postcolonial critique to illuminate and re-imagine the role of "big science"
>> in the structuring of biopolitical regimes across medical, military, and
>> agricultural domains.
>>
>> **What do these practices offer our efforts to reduce climate change, at
>> a moment when the truth-claims of scientists have been undermined for very
>> different reasons?**
>>
>> As in so many other moments this century, we find ourselves with some
>> structural homologies among the efforts of groups working towards very
>> different political ends. Climate-change deniers and critics of big oil and
>> big pharma have been taking similar swipes at the foundations of western
>> science for years.
>>
>> It matters who is doing the swiping, and to what ends, so I don't mean to
>> draw a false equivalence. But at a moment when public discussions about
>> climate change have become so predictable and even pre-determined, what
>> could we learn from the efforts and examples of Beatriz da Costa, CAE, Faith
>> Wilding, Paul Vanouse, Natalie Jeremijenko and others working in biology and
>> art? Do the rhetorical and representational strategies of these or other
>> artists offer help in shifting public conversations toward shared action?
>> Contrarily, are there examples from among these bodies of work that we
>> should take care to avoid in the present moment?
>>
>> I have some thoughts on all this that I'll share more over the week as
>> the opportunity emerges, but thought I'd introduce this line of questioning
>> for starters.
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> Kevin Hamilton
>>
>>
>>
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