BioDifference

Presented by SymbioticA: the Art and Science Collaborative Research Laboratory in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia in association with the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery as a part of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2004.

Exhibition dates: September 12 -October 3 2004.

Opening and Launch of LEONARDO, (volume 37 Number 4 (MIT Press): Launch by George Gessert – 10 September 2004.

From a pin-ball competition between humans and micro-organisms to the movements of rolling robotic fish bowls, the anti-aesthetic of breeding plants and fungi grown into textile stains. BioDifference explored Biological art with ideas concerning relationships with living systems and the interconnectivity of the different levels of life. It brought together an array of critical and activist voices and discourses engaged with ecosystems to single DNA strands.

BioDifference was sponsored by ArtsWA , Department of Culture and the Arts, The Australia Council, the School of Anatomy and Human Biology and Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science, UWA.

Untitled______________________________________________________________
Hans ARKEVELD (Australian)
Hans Arkeveld has collaborated with scientists on projects including embryological cell development drawings; mammary gland ultrasound drawings; laproscopic historectomy drawings; micro slides and fossil reconstruction. He is one of Western Australia's leading artists and has been Artist in resident in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at UWA for over 30 years. The trials of growing living materials on moulds of latex, casien, algimate, bone dust and osteoblast cells and the trials of growing in a confined space.

BIOTEKNICA__________________________________________________________
BIOTEKNICA | Jennifer WILLET | Shawn BAILEY - (Canada)
Shawn Bailey is a practicing artist working with digital print media, video and installation. His current research explores notions of authority, control structures, media and international biotech and pharmaceutical policies. www.chemicalwarfare.org. Jennifer Willet explores notions of self and subjectivity in relation to biomedical, bioinformatic, and digital technologies with an emphasis on social and political criticism. She exhibits, lectures and publishes, across Canada and internationally.

A fictitious corporation, which explores notions of reproduction and self/other distinctions in relation to evolving biotechnologies. Supported by SymbioticA and The School of Anatomy and Human Biology, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Programme Québec Multimédia Jeunesse, Hexagram Institut Canada Council for the Arts, Banff Center for the Arts and Articule Artist Run Centre.

www.bioteknica.org

Oyster-Mushrooms Eating up Hazardous Waste Sculptural Experiments____
Georg DIETZLER (Germany) in collaboration with Gary CASS (Australia)
Georg Dietzler is a culturally and politically engaged artist-curator who engages in socio-political environmental art and produces ecological future-visions as redevelopment schemes among Art and Sciences amongst other activities. This project is a collaboration with Gary Cass of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science, University of Western Australia.

A living still life - where flushes of growing cycles of oyster-mushrooms decompose a stack of information. Environments and Short-term Interventions in Public Peripheral Zones for Contaminated Industrial Sites-Experimental Sculptural Methods Between Art and Science.

http://www.dietzlerge.org

Fibre Reactive________________________________________________________
Donna FRANKLIN (Australian)
Donna Franklin's artistic practice delves into spaces of the pseudo-environment and relationships between the body and cloth. She is active in performance and costume design and has been worked closely with Gary Cass as artist in residence at SymbioticA for over a year.

Techniques of ancient and new technologies merge to stain a living garment grown over the course of the exhibition.

Family (1) and Family (2)______________________________________________
George GESSERT (USA)
George Gessert's work focus' on the overlap of art and genetics and has exhibited widely, including at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, France, and at the Science Museum in London. He is currently editor for art and biology for Leonardo magazine

The overlap of aesthetics and genetics is explored through breeding plants.

The Extended and Nuclear Family_______________________________________
Marta DE MENEZES (Portugal)
Marta de Menezes has been working in research laboratories for a number of years. She is currently artist-in-residence at SymbioticA and was until recently at the Structural Biology Department, University of Oxford. De Menezes' work was last seen in Perth at BioFeel at PICA as a part of BEAP2002 Supported by Dr. Miguel Santos, STAB-Vida and sponsored by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento; Ministério da Cultura / Instituto das Artes, Portugal.

Genetic similarities and differences of species are painted through DNA microarrays.

http://www.martademenezes.com

Augmented Fish Reality _______________________________________________
Ken RINALDO (USA)
Ken Rinaldo creates interactive multimedia installations that blur the boundaries between the organic and inorganic. Augmented Fish Reality was awarded the Distinction from Ars Electronica Austria in 2004 and he was the recipient of first prize for Avida 3.0 Spain Rinaldo last exhibited in Perth in BEAP2002.

An interactive installation of 3 rolling robotic fish-bowl sculptures designed to explore interspecies and transpecies communication. These sculptures allow Siamese Fighting fish to use intelligent hardware and software to move their robotic bowls - under their control.

http://accad.osu.edu/~rinaldo/
http://www.ylem.org/artists/krinaldo/emergent1.html

Junior_______________________________________________________________
Phillip ROSS (USA)
Philip Ross manipulates, nurtures and transforms a variety of living species into sculptures that are at once highly crafted and naturally formed, skilfully manipulated and sloppily organic. In 2001, Ross was Artist in Residence at the San Francisco's The Exploratorium. His writing featured in the spring 2004 issue of Leonardo.
Nature observed through the lens of human artifice through hydroponically grown plants in custom blown glass forms.

http://www.philross.org

Cell Track-Mapping the Appropriation of life materials____________________
SUBROSA (USA)
SubRosa (Faith Wilding; Hyla Willis and Lucia Sommer) is a cyberfeminist collective of cultural producers combining art, activism and politics. SubRosa has performed and lectured widely in the USA, and in Europe, Mexico, Canada, and Singapore and published SubRosa book Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices. (NY: Autonomedia, 2003). Sponsored by The Creative Capital Foundation, New York, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

A pilot project that investigates notions of the global dispersal, patenting and privatization of human and animal stem cells used in reproductive and therapeutic biotechnologies.

http://www.cyberfeminism.net

Light, only Light______________________________________________________
Jun TAKITA (Japan/France)
Jun Takita draws inspiration from the visual concepts of traditional garden - highlighting human attitudes toward confronting contemporary reality. He is working with the National Agriculture Research Institute (France) and the Information Unit for Life Sciences at the University of Nagoya (Japan) to realize his current sculpture.

Human's impossible desire to possess light is explored in the unrealised sculpture of a luminous brain.

Private Microbes______________________________________________________
Polona TRATNIK (Slovenia)
Polona Tratnik studied painting and sculpture and has has edited and published a book Spaces/Places of Art, co-edits the main Slovenian art magazine Art words and edits the sub-magazine of Art Words for the philosophy and theory of art, called Horizons. A collaboration with Dr. Metka Krasna and supported by The Community of Ljubljana and The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

Micro living organisms that live unseen in our bodies are explored and displayed in body casts as objects of value.

The Relative Velocity Inscription Device_____________________________
Paul VANOUSE (Jamaica/USA)
Paul Vanouse's work explores peculiar intersections of "big-science" and popular culture - addressing complex issues raised by varied new technologies through these very technologies. Funded by New York State Council on the Arts and Henry Art Gallery, Seattle

Today's genomics compared with 20thCentury eugenics via a live scientific experiment in which the artist literally races skin colour genes from his Jamaican-American family against one another.

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~pv28

Anarchy Cell Line_______________________________________________
Cynthia J VERSPAGET (Australian)
Cynthia J Verspaget's work has encompassed notions and issues of ownership of space be it bodily or locatative.Verspaget developed this work as artist in residence at SymbioticA.

Funded by ArtsWA, LotteryWest and BEAPWORKS; Sponsored by Crown Scientific with thanks Dr Stuart Hodgetts, Steve Parkinson Jason White, Dr Luis Filgueria and Henrietta Lacks for her contribution to Science and Art.

A biological cell line that acts as a dialogue on issues surrounding bio-commerce, ownership of the body, gender and race.

http://members.westnet.com.au/moth/t_art/

Protozoa Games_______________________________________________
Steve WILSON (USA)
Stephen Wilson is a San Francisco author, artist and professor who explores the cultural implications of emerging technologies such as biosensors, gps, and artificial intelligence. He has published numerous articles and books including the latest Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology (MIT Press ,2002).

Interactive installation that allows humans and live protozoa to compete in a pinball-like environment mediated by digital microscope and motion tracking technologies.

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~swilson/