SymbioticA - Activities

SymbioticA has developed five streams to facilitate the utilisation of science for creative and cultural outcomes. Along side core research into life sciences and technologies, bioethics, and ecology, the residency programme, and the academic programme (undergraduate and postgraduate), SymbioticA runs intensive hands-on workshops and disseminates research outcomes and engagement with the field of biological art through exhibitions, symposiums, weekly seminars and a variety of projects. Explore the navigation bar on the left hand side for detailed information on SymbioticA’s activities.

Current and upcoming activities in Western Australia, nationally and internationally from SymbioticA, core researchers and residents is listed below.

Activities held in Western Australia & Australia

2009: WA
SymbioticA Friday Seminars >
Visit Friday Seminars for more information

June/ July: WA
SymbioticA’s Adaptation workshop
29 June – 3 July
SymbioticA, UWA, Mandurah and Lake Clifton

July: Newcastle, NSW
Minding Animals conference
13 - 18 July, 2009, at Civic Precinct, Newcastle, Australia
Dr Ionat Zurr, SymbioticA Academic Co-ordinator, and SymbioticA residents: Perdita Phillips (WA) and Kathy High (USA)
A transdisciplinary conference exploring the interrelationships between animals and society
http://www.mindinganimals.com/

July: Melbourne, Vic
State of Design
Design Capital Speaker Series 16-17 July, BMW Edge Melbourne
Oron Catts: Designing the Future of the Semi-Living
Design Day, 17 July, Session 2
Oron describes a future where we have semi-living, biotech products—a challenging and exciting prospect with deep, ethical ramifications. Imagine their non-medical applications and how design will engage with them.
https://www.stateofdesign.com.au/business/design-capital/oron-catts
Full program: http://www.stateofdesign.com.au/business/design-capital

November: Melbourne, Vic
SymbioticA’s Biotech Art Workshop
16 – 20 November.
More information:

National and International Activities

June: UK
Eye of the Storm
Tate Britain Auditorium, UK, 19- 20 June
This two-day symposium brings together scientists, artists, social scientists and policy-makers to explore scientific controversy from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Oron Catts, Director, SymbioticA
The Salamander and the Slime Mould - Mixing the Regenerative Bodies
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/eventseducation/symposia/18169.htm
Full program: http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/global/eyeofthestorm.html

June: UK
Biorama2
Using the underground of caves and mines and the organic life they contain as a form of parallel terrestrial biology, we develop a ‘parallel science’ through the study of extreme and/or ‘removed lifeforms’ and through the science of astrobiology.
Presentations: June 25th, Peak Cavern, Castleton, Hope Valley, Derbyshire S33 8WS, 11am to 9pm
Workshops: June 24th and 26th, University of Huddersfield
Program: http://bioramaevent.wordpress.com/

Ongoing 2009: USA
Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge
MOMA New York November 26, 2008–Ongoing
Design is not always pretty. Sometimes it is blunt and aggressive, especially when it is meant to deliver a clear message or depart from tradition and express new ideas. Rough Cut presents a selection of bold designs from MoMA's collection, ranging from striking posters to fierce chairs, and from incisive videos to vehicles designed for harsh terrains and unforgiving circumstances. Design is not always pretty—but when it is good, it is undeniably powerful, meaningful, and beautiful.
Featuring The Tissue Culture and Art Project’s Pigs Wings, researched and developed at SymbioticA
More information: http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=11123#events

Archive Activities

Archived Activities held in Australia

FREE SymbioticA Workshop at PICA
Saturday 18 April 2009, 10am - 5pm
Learn how to isolate dna, work on gel electrophoresis and build a sterile hood at SymbioticA- Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, an artistic research laboratory within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at The University of Western Australia.
SymbioticA's artistic research into the life sciences enables artists to engage in hands on biological art practices. As part of HATCHED09 a one-day introductory workshop, including a tour is on offer.
Bookings: 08 9228 6308

Biotech Art – Revisited
Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, Exhibition 9 April. 10 April – 2 May / Symposium 8 April 2009
Artists: Guy Ben-Ary & Tanya Visosevic, Tissue Culture & Art Project (Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr), Paul Thomas & Kevin Raxworthy, Donna Franklin & Gary Cass, Niki Sperou, Andre Brodyk, Trish Adams, Catherine Fargher & Terumi Narushima. Curator Melentie Pandilovski
The theme of art and biotechnology will be revisited by the EAF in 2009. In an exploration of the connections between art & culture with biotechnology & genomics, leading Australian and international artists and theorists will present their recent works. Biotech Art – Revisited includes an exhibition (of the same name), a workshop titled Vital micro-ecologies: splice, dice, duplicate, and a free public symposium titled Life, death & biotechnia (symposium details will be posted here asap). It will bring together the general public with artists, biotechnologists, sociologists, ethicists, and, cultural theoreticians and practitioners.
More information: http://www.eaf.asn.au/2009/biotech09.html

Art: Business & Research
Friday 8 May, Forte Mandurah Quay Resort, 5.30-8pm
Art & Research: SymbioticA’s Adaptation project.
Oron Catts Director, SymbioticA

ANHB 1st Semester Seminars
24 March 2009 Tuesdays 1 –2pm
Oron Catts.
SymbioticA,School of Anatomy & Human Biology:
The works of SymbioticA and new directions
Room 1.81, 1st Floor, SCHOOL OF ANATOMY & HUMAN BIOLOGY, UWA

Brisbane Ideas Festival
Friday 27 March 2009
State Library of Queensland, Auditorium 2

artscience@theinterface 2009
3:30pm – 6.30pm
Hosted by Dusan Bojic, this symposium charts the ways in which art and science gravitate towards one another within contemporary culture.
Practising artists, curators, scientists, and academics will present individual, collaborative and interdisciplinary perspectives on key issues in the field of artscience.
Speakers include Dr Keith Armstrong, Svenja Kratz, Dr Sam Bucolo, Dr Greg Hooper, Dr Patricia Adams and Oron Catts.
http://www.ideasfestival.com.au/02_cal/details.asp?ID=59&varPeriod=1

Artscience - Biology and Art
7pm – 8:15pm
What can we get from coupling biology and art?
Oron Catts, a West Australian artist and researcher at the forefront of Bio-art, addresses the ethical and social implications of life sciences research.
His work includes three-dimensional sculpture and installation composed of live tissue, such as the Pig Wings Project in which wings were grown from pig bone marrow stem cells.
Oron explains his unique commentaries on the interface of art and science.
http://www.ideasfestival.com.au/02_cal/details.asp?ID=63&varPeriod=1

Archived National and International Activities

February-April 2009: USA
Corpus Extremus (LIFE+)
Exit Art, New York
February 28 – April 18, 2009, Opening: Saturday February 28, 7-10pm
Corpus Extremus (LIFE+) will present work by artists who are using bio- and media- technologies to investigate questions of life and death.
Featuring projects researched and developed at SymbioticA: NoArk by The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr); The Living Screen by BioKino (Guy Ben-Ary and Tanya Visosevic); and Silent Barrage by Guy Ben-Ary and Phil Gamblen in collaboration with the Steve Potter Lab.
Public talk dates to be announced.
More information: http://www.exitart.org/
SymbioticA’s participation at Exit Art has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

February 2009: UK
Seminar Royal College of Art, London
12 February 2009
Seminar by Oron Catts, Director SymbioticA
More information: http://www.rca.ac.uk/

February 2009: UK
Bartlett School of Architecture International Lecture Series ‘The (Im)Possibility of the Semi-Living’
Darwin Lecture Theatre, London, 13 February 2009, 6.30pm
Oron Catts, Director SymbioticA-The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts
Developments in the life sciences have created new forms of life that challenge perceived boundaries of what is considered to be 'alive'. Advances in the regenerative medicines of therapeutic cloning, stem cell research, and tissue engineering can be traced back to early 20th century.
More information: http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/events/lectures/lectures.htm

February-April 2009: USA
Talk: Oron Catts on "Semi-Living Tissue"
Cabinet, 300 Nevins Street, Brooklyn
Wednesday, 25 February, 7 pm - 9 pm
Oron Catts, director of SymbioticA and founder of the Tissue Culture & Art Project, will present his research into the use of tissue technologies for the purpose of creating semi-living entities located on the fuzzy border between the living and the non-living. Past projects include "Disembodied Cuisine," in which a Xenopus cell line was used to grow frog skeletal muscle for human consumption, and a "victimless leather" coat made out of living mouse stem cells that was on view at MoMA in the exhibit "Design and the Elastic Mind." For the strange fate of the later project, see this New York Times article . More info on SymbioticA available here and more info on Tissue Culture & Art Project here.
More information: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/events/eventspace.php

Visit the archive section for activities prior to 2009.