Does science outside the lab count as science? What happens when we take science to an art studio, or to a kitchen? Or when we use the lab to make art? With the steady growth of citizen science and bioart in the past 15 years, it has become less uncommon to see individuals attempting synthetic biology experiments in their garages and hunting for new antibiotics in their backyards. It is no longer rare for artists to extract DNA in the kitchen or studio and to use bacteria as their artistic medium. Thus, hybrid spaces and hybrid practices are definitely on the rise. But what does working in such diverse spaces mean, to artists and scientists? What are the implications for their work? Are these hybrid spaces encouraging new collaborations? We have invited the president of DIYbio Toronto, and a young bioartist to share their work and to discuss this important topic with the ArtSci Salon audience.
We are pleased to announce the next ArtSci Salon:
#SciArt
(the lab, the studio, the kitchen, the garage…)
With
Nicole Clouston – Artist, York University
Jasmine Alkin – Biologist and President of DIYBio Toronto
Wednesday, May 4, 2016, 6:00-8:00 pm
Rm 230, The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences,
222 College Street, Toronto
Facebook Invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/1091639397574893/
Follow us #ArtSciSalon
Bios
Nicole Clouston is a practice-based researcher currently completing her PhD in Visual Art at York University. Nicole uses scientific techniques as artistic medium in her sculptural work, creating a new context for engaging the ineffable aspects of scientific knowledge.
From normal flora to the ecology of mud
Nicole will discuss what compelled her to begin working with microbes as well as the challenges and opportunities that come with trying to collaborate with microbial life in a studio environment. She will also speak about the microbial sublime and how it functions within her practice-based research, looking specifically at her recent project Normal Flora as well as her ongoing work with mud.
Jasmine Alkin is the president of DIYBIO Toronto. She is an extreme science addict and dabbler in art. She has a B Sc. in Life Science and is taking her DIY Bio habit from a hobby to a career. Her vision is for the growth of open community biology where multi-disciplinary collaborations can happen. She enjoys all things biology (natural or synthetic) and has a keen interest in cell metabolism
The powerhouse of the Cell is the art-ichondria
A room full of strangely shaped glass and a vocabulary full of alien words, distances the world from science. It’s an intimidating landscape that seems inaccessible to anyone outside of the pristine white lab coats, so what place does Art have in it? Everything. Combining science and art would make it possible to show the beauty of a slowly simmering Florence flask with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of the cells that creep your veins, bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses. You can bottle affection (oxytoxin), brew adrenaline, and even lengthen telomeres. And maybe the place you can do it is not as far as you think.
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