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Welcome to the October discussion "This Mess We're In." It is 200 years
since the publication of “Frankenstein,” the first speculative fiction
novel. This month, the –empire- discussion is devoted to reflecting on
the legacies of Mary Shelley’s seminal exploration of life creation and
re-formation from queer, feminist and first nations perspectives. The
guests this month are artists and writers involved in “This Mess We’re
In,” an exhibition that entangles queer feminist ecologies with
“Frankenstein” that is presented as part of SymbioticA’s Unhallowed Arts
Festival in Perth which runs throughout October and November. 26
experimental artworks by first nations, national and international
artists are exhibited in “This Mess We’re In.” These works emerge from
art/science practices that explore the relationships between life and
technology, emerging, resisting, reforming and responding to the
political, ethical and material implications of manipulating life. The
exhibition concept arose out of concern about continuing gender gaps in
art and science, which are even greater for queers and first nations
peoples. The manipulation of and discrimination towards these bodies has
been justified through scientific endeavours and is particularly
disturbing in contemporary biotechnology, where life is increasingly
industrialized and manipulated. We are not all equally affected by this
manipulation. The exhibition explores whose lives are manipulated and
exploited, who can manipulate and who cannot. Check it out at Old
Customs House, Fremantle if you are local or https://thismesswerein.com/
if you are not.
-empyre- provides us with an opportunity to extend the explorations of
the material, conceptual, political and philosophical implications of
the scientific creation and/or manipulation of life. Artists and writers
from “This Mess We’re In” invite you to join us in expressing the untold
legacies of the last 200 years of colonialism, industrialization and
biotechnology, giving voice to the creatures that emerge from and escape
the creation and control of life and drawing on the themes of
fragmentation, emergence, reproduction and ethics that are the
cornerstone of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” We encourage you to
explore the diversity and complexity of life, escape individualism and
undermine utilitarianism and revel in the messiness of life and
technology, our mess-mates and the mess we have made.
I am very honoured to introduce the guests for Week 1 of this mess:
*Hege Tapio*, whose artistic practice has pursued the interest in
emerging media interconnecting art, new technology and science. With a
kitchen bench DIY attitude and through artistic practice she has been
inspired to how apparatuses and new technology opens to renewed
interpretation, creative misuse and critical thinking. Art driven by
curiosity, knowledge, ability to convey and contextualize aspects of
technology and research, both through speculation and critical attitude,
have been the basis for many of the projects. With her latest work
HUMANFUEL, Hege problematizes biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuel,
and she scrutinizes how we humans view ourselves in an ecological
perspective. With the slogan GET THIN – GO FAST, Hege claims that in the
process of searching for new solutions to the energy crisis and for
alternative fuels, we have overlooked how we ourselves may constitute an
invaluable resource. Hege is also the founder and artistic manager of
i/o/lab – Center for Future Art where she has established and curated
Article biennial – a festival for the electronic and unstable art. Art
encompassing and intersecting with technology and science has been the
main objective for the development of projects for i/o/lab. www.tapio.no
Working in the kitchen, *Lindsay Kelley* explores how the experience of
eating changes when technologies are being eaten. Her art practice works
at the intersection of food and technoscience to produce sculpture and
performance that incorporate tasting and eating. She has performed and
exhibited internationally. Her published work can be found in journals
including parallax, Transgender Studies Quarterly, Angelaki, and
Environmental Humanities. Her first book is Bioart Kitchen: Art,
Feminism and Technoscience (London: IB Tauris, 2016). Bioart Kitchen
emerges from her work at the University of California Santa Cruz (Ph.D
in the History of Consciousness and MFA in Digital Art and New Media).
Kelley is a Lecturer at UNSW Art & Design in Sydney as well as a
Co-Investigator with the KIAS funded Research-Creation and Social
Justice CoLABoratory: Arts and the Anthropocene (University of Alberta,
Canada).
*Laura Barendregt* is a researcher-in-the-making from Sydney via the
Netherlands, now in Perth to complete a research internship at
SymbioticA, University of Western Australia. She is currently enrolled
in the MSc Arts and Culture (Culture of Arts, Science and Technology) at
Maastricht University, Netherlands, and graduated with a BA (Performance
Studies) in 2016 from the University of Sydney. While her research
interests are ever evolving, today they include; relationships of art
and science, sociology and ethnography of the arts, alternative
knowledge cultures, public engagement with the arts, ethics of
speculative design, auto-ethnography, situated learning and artistic
research.
and myself as curator of the exhibition.
Future weeks:
October 8 to 14 Week 2: Alize Zorlutuna, Rachel Mayeri, Špela Petrič
October 15 to 21 Week 3: Abhishek Hazra, Kathy High, Sue
Hauri-Downing, Svenja Kratz, WhiteFeather Hunter
October 22 to 29 Week 4: Helen Pynor, Marietta Radomska, Mary
Maggic, Mike Bianco, Sarah Hermanutz
Jump in!
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EMPYRE GO TO:
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Tarsh Bates
PhD (Biological Art) Survivor
SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia
w: tarshbates.com <http://tarshbates.com/>
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
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