Emerging artist Benjamin Forster relocated to Perth to complete simultaneous residencies at PICA and SymbioticA in 2010.

Biography

Benjamin Forster was the winner of the 1020 Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award Non-Acquisitive prize.

He received a Bachelor of Visual Arts with First Class Honours from the Australian National University, and was an artist in residence at Canberra Contemporary Art Space in 2009.

Forster's practice explores drawing, bringing together digital and bio technologies, installation and print to trace the boundaries of logic, economy and the role of the artist in art making.

Research project 

Cynicism!

"My research residency can be seen as a tangential continuation of my drawing machine project.

"My drawing machine project centred around my attempt to program a computer to draw in a way that was distinctly human, rather than stylistically digital or mechanistic. This had two concurrent aims: firstly to explore ideas about drawing, and secondly to raise questions about the validity of the specific method that I had employed.

"Whilst at SymbioticA I will continue to explore the question “what is drawing?” although instead of utilising programming, this project will use materials and techniques from the biological sciences.

"This research project is primarily aimed at exploring new methods and potential extensions of drawing offered by the relatively new field of Biological Arts. This will concern both the technical and theoretical aspects of biological drawing. It’s important to note that by biological drawing, I mean drawings produced from biological materials, and not drawings depicting biology."

Funding

This residency is supported by the ACT Government.

Period of research

May-November 2010