SymbioticA

Current Residents

Nathan Thompson [AUS]

(Early 2016-current)

Nathan John Thompson‘s work examines the role of humans in ‘nature’ by mapping sono-kinetic territories that act as filters for understanding inhabited space. In these ‘spaces’ Thompson experiments with new possibilities for man/machine interaction, mechanical sentience and the complexities produced from these relationships. He uses machines (self built, analogue, lifelike in their behaviour) to explore questions of consciousness, mechanical sentience and object oriented ontology.

Lucie Ketelsen [AUS]

(June-December 2021)

Callum Siegmund [AUS]

(July-December 2021)

Callum Siegmund is an emerging biotechnological artist who dedicated the past 4 years studying neuroscience and skeletal muscle tissue engineering, learning the language of science and crafting a brush with which to paint biotechnological artworks.

His current project at Symbiotica revolves around the development of phallic DNA origami nanobots, the problematization of utility, the absurdity of biotechnology, and the issue of dual-use.

Donna Franklin [AUS]

(May-December 2021)

Dr Donna Franklin’s research advocates environmentalism, empathy, and politicises the manipulation of living material through arts praxis. Her doctorate (2015) extends these agendas across the contexts of education and curation. Awarded a MAVA at SymbioticA (2004) and ECU, Franklin has exhibited nationally and internationally.

Her research project entitled: Regeneration of Body as Host or Parasite takes in medicine, alchemy, mycology, entomology, parasitic fungi, placental evolution, and virus mediation.

"Along the border of living and dying, mycelia sense, digest, interpret and destroy. More visibly than bacteria with which they work, the fungi walk between worlds, acting as custodians of the darkness. Some species are so intimately tied to decay that they primarily live and fruit from dead animal parts".

Marta Ferracin [IT/AUS]

(May-August 2021)

Matt Gingold [AUS]

(May-August 2021)

Matthew Gingold is an audiovisual designer and electronic artist with over 15 years professional experience. His practice spans theatre, dance, museum, and gallery contexts. He is particularly interested in the social and cultural meanings that technology create in and of themselves – the visceral, social and political phenomena of technologies – and how these can be harnessed in the creation of unique, live(d) experience.

Andrea Rassell [NZ/AUS]

(Forrest Fellow 2021-)

Andrea Rassell is a media artist and interdisciplinary researcher in science art. Working in nanoart — artforms that engage with nanoscience and nanotechnology — she creates experimental films and moving image installations that explore technological mediation and the multisensory perception of the sub-molecular realm. Her work has been shown at the New York Imagine Science Festival, Oaxaca FilmFest in Mexico, the New Zealand International Film Festival, White Night in Australia and Sónar+D in Spain. Andrea was the 2019 recipient of the Australian Network for Art and Technology's Synapse residency, where she developed moving image works that explore the social and cultural implications of diagnostic systems in collaboration with the Ian Potter NanoBioSensing Facility. In 2020 Andrea was an artist-in-residence with Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), and a member of the ANAT Ideate programme. In 2021 she began as a Research Fellow at SymbioticA and the School of Molecular Sciences, University of Western Australia.