ARS ELECTRONICA in the KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL vol.02

A new collaborative exhibition and program by Knowledge Capital and Ars Electronica, a creative culture organization from Linz, Austria

“What is life?” It is said that our body is made up of nearly 60 trillion cells. A new exhibition of Bio Art, which utilizes tissue engineering to create a new organization and incorporates the blueprint of life, DNA, into works of art, is coming to the Knowledge Capital.
“A cultured and living art work composed of cells” “A project to implant human genes into a tree” Artists who pursue artistic inquiry into new ideas of life through research in life science are emerging all over the world. The artists are exploring human beings as complicated life systems, in hybrid views combining art and science.
HYBRID – Living in Paradox: Explorations in Art x Life Science introduces two artists.One is Oron Catts, who is a director of SymbioticA, a well-known international center of bio art. The other is BCL, who is exploring the social impact of bio-technologies like genetic modification. Through the exhibition and special programs such as talk sessions and a workshop, we will discuss “what is life” with the participants.

Experience the world's most advanced art and research, and think about “life“!

Special ProgramA chance to interact and talk with global artists—a special 3-day program hosted by Knowledge Capital

Day 1 Opening Event: Please click the following photo archive of talk session.

Day 2 Talk Session: Please click the following photo archive of talk session.

Day 3 Workshop: Please click the following photo archive of talk session.

ARS ELECTRONICA

photo: Nicolas Ferrando,Lois Lammerhuber

Ars Electronica is a cultural institute for media arts, located in Linz, Austria.The Ars Electronica is consisted of 4 departments of “Ars Electronica Festival” for art, technology and society held in every September,“Ars Electronica Center” as museum of the future, “Prix Ars Electronica” international completion for media arts and “Ars Electronica Futurelab” as R&D function. Also many Japanese creators participates in their activities.

ARS ELECTRONICA : http://www.aec.at/

Participating Artists

Oron Catts

Shiho Furkuhara（BCL）Georg Tremmel Yuki Yoshioka

Oron Catts is an artist, researcher and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA, an artistic laboratory for life science in The University of Western Australia and he is the director of SymbioticA. Under Catts’ leadership SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) the WA Premier Science Award (2008) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008. Catts interest is Life; more specifically the shifting relations and perceptions of life in the light of new knowledge and it applications. Often working in collaboration with other artists and scientists, Catts have developed a body of work that speaks volumes about the need for new cultural articulation of evolving concepts of life.

Exhibits Better Dead Than Dying 2014

The BCL is an artistic research framework that aims to explore the relations, congruences and differences of biological and cultural codecs through artistic interventions, social hacking and basic research. BCL is interested in the relationship between art and science in general, and between media art and bio science in particular. The interest is not so much in the new possibilities of artistic expressions, that the emerging biotechnologies make possible, but rather in the social implications that the widespread adoption and application of biotechnology will create. The research of the BCL is speculative and forward-looking, whereas the projects are firmly situated in the present social context and current climate. The projects aim not to be simply answers to real problems, but rather aim to be explorations of the context and systems behind the artistically and socially relevant issues.

Exhibits Common Followers / White out 2009-

■Special advisor: Hideo Iwasaki(Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University; Leader of metaPhorest)

■HYBRID ARS ELECTRONICA presentation

●Exhibition cooperation/EK JAPAN Co., Ltd.

■Special Program Guests

Martin Honzik

Director of the Ars Electronica Festival. Every year, he features a different part of the City of Linz, and creates a festival with a focus on the interaction of city dwellers and urban spaces. Preparations for the September 2015 get-together are currently in full swing.

Hideaki Ogawa

Artist, curator and researcher working in Ars Electronica Futurelab.As a key person in Ars Electronica, he has carved out inspiring projects all over the world.