----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
I’m just dipping into this important discussion on bioart and changing 
paradigms. 

Re: this, “How can we as artists, writers, technologists make sense out of the 
current shift in politics as it reflects on science through our practices and 
living”

I have been saying for years, that we are witnessing a biological correction on 
a species problem. In that view, as horrific as I find certain current 
political realities, they might also be seen as accelerating that inevitable 
amoral correction on an amoral situation. As an artist, I see that this is a 
systems problem. What has brought us here- specialization, etc., is what must 
be deconstructed without losing the bodies of knowledge. One way the danger of 
specializtion is expressed is in the globalized fragmentation into refugia we 
are witnessing, whether on the human political or species spectrum. I see that 
as much here as anyplace else. So the question I see underlying the original 
question, is if my premise is correct, what kinds of systems change could 
redirect that biological imperative? I would suggest, straddling a paradox of 
continued drilling down vertically into knowledge, and horizontal linking and 
layering between systems.

Which leads to another question. 

My question is about why there seems to be such a huge divide between artists 
interested in the human body centered epistemologies and those, as myself, who 
are obsessed with large environmental systemic issues? It seems ironic that 
most ecological artists are omitted from the aspect of this discussion of 
climate change and global warming that has asked what might be learned from 
bioartists, since systems analysis in environmental science is equally 
biologically based.  At CAA, tho I was very interested in the Bioart panel, I 
never got there. There’s always that issue at CAA about competing panels, but 
even so, the audience was clearly a diff audience than a panel I was on 
(Infiltration Art), which also addressed systems change from the art out.  My 
hunch is that very few in those audiences overlapped panels.

The three threads I see that relate to the original question are environmental 
justice (socially-racially-gendered centered), bio-neuro art, and ecological 
art (looking at large biogeographic relationships). This is a disconnect I’ve 
observed for years. I see this as a problem that needs some solution. I could 
speculate about anthropocentric self-centeredness but I’m curious what other 
explanations people might have? 


“What the world needs is a good housekeeper.”
Aviva Rahmani, PhD
Affiliate INSTAAR, University of CO. at Boulder
https://www.nyfa.org/ArtistDirectory/ShowProject/1446ef3a-0a9d-4449-96be-74023eb9c376
Watch “Blued Trees”:  https://vimeo.com/135290635
www.ghostnets.com <http://www.ghostnets.com/>
www.gulftogulf.org
 
 

On 6/19/17, 11:37 AM, "empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of 
Renate Terese Ferro" <empyre-boun...@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on behalf of 
rfe...@cornell.edu> wrote:

    ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
    Many thanks to Talan Memmott and Mark Marino for being our guests during 
Week 2. This week on -empye- I am thrilled to introduce Kevin Hamilton.   Kevin 
has been a guest moderator and participant for a number of years.  As well as 
being an artist and writer, Kevin is the editor of Media-N, the journal of the 
New Media Caucus.  We are currently working on a short publication for that 
journal that encapsulates a recent panel on Bio-Art that was held at the 
College Art Association. We thought it might be interesting to consider truth 
and fiction at the  intersections of Art, Technology and Science.  Within this 
convened panel issues of politics and ethics were a part of the discussion.  
    
    Considering world views on climate change, The Environmental Protection 
Agency has removed all data on global warming from its website a sign of fake 
news in itself. the US Environmental Protection Agency will experience a budget 
cut of by 31 percent over 2017, according to records of the Office of 
Management and Budget.. Cuts in science and medial research, health and welfare 
will be slashed. More than 50 EPA programs will be impacted. Among them  Energy 
Star a guide to consumers that  support energy-efficient products (your home 
appliances) and buildings.  Also affected are  targeted Air Shed Grants (a 
program that assists in controlling air pollution at the local level); and the 
medical programs that  screen for endocrine disruptors, such as mercury and BPA 
that impact humans’ hormone systems.
    
    I pause here to think about the legacy that Beatriz Da Costa left for us. 
    
http://blog.creative-capital.org/2013/01/remembering-beatriz-da-costa-1974-2012/
    
    
    How can we as artists, writers, technologists make sense out of the current 
shift in politics as it relfects on science through our practices and living.  
A serious question for the beginning of the week.  
    Here’s Kevin’s bio. 
    Renate.  
    
    Kevin Hamilton (US)
    is a Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he 
holds
    appointments in the School of Art and Design and the program in Media and
    Cinema Studies, and serves as Senior Associate Dean in the College of Fine 
and
    Applied Arts. He works as an artist and scholar to produce artworks, 
archives,
    and scholarship on such subjects as race and space, public memory, history 
of
    technology, and state violence. His articles with Ned O’Gorman on Air Force
    film production have appeared in Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Visual Culture,
    and Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies. Their book-in-progress and
    accompanying digital archive traces the history of the Air Force’s most 
famous
    film unit, Lookout Mountain Laboratory, from 1948 through 1969. Kevin’s
    artworks in digital form have appeared in Rhizome, Turbulence, Neural, and 
the
    ASPECT DVD series.
     
    
    
    
    Renate Ferro
    Visiting Associate Professor
    Director of Undergraduate Studies
    Department of Art
    Tjaden Hall 306
    rfe...@cornell.edu
    
    
    
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