stellasDESMA9

Bioart is a new art form that uses biological sciences and technology and at times live tissue and live processes to produce artistic pieces. The original aim of art was to produce aesthetically harmonious and pleasing objects. In Bioart, artists work alongside scientists, often in laboratories, and some of the time on tissue engineering which is genetically engineered organisms or transgenic animals (fluorescent mice). Zaretsky, endeavored to bring to the public a sharp awareness of science behind the scenes while others like the French artist Orlan, placed herself at the center of her art by continuous modification of her own body to convey the  message of 'trying to get out of the frame'. Orlan uses her art to highlight to her audience that issues of race, gender and culture are fluid and that 'good and bad' merge as opposed to traditional preaching of 'good or bad'. Many Bioart pieces cannot be easily shown in art Galleries since they are confronting ...

Last week I was able to attend the “Brainstorming” event. This session was very interesting and still has me thinking of everything that was spoken about. The event was a collaborative project amongst our Professor Vensa and Mark Cohen of whom is a neuroscientist. The whole event was concentrated around brain-to-brain communication. Brain-to-brain communication, is interaction without the help of vocals, gestures and sound.   This is done by two volunteers seated at each end of a table with a magnificent octopus headpiece that has electrodes embedded and make contact to the head. Once turned on, the EEG signals transmit to a computer which then makes the lights in the headpiece light up in many different ways. If the lights align in color, then the volunteers are in “sync” or are on the same line of thought. I was picked to demonstrate how the experiment would occur but the electrodes were not attached. It was very exciting to see how it all worked and how the music an...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9LEgi7PT8qEd29rUTBKbHRhX3c

Maybe regularly seeing Stephen Hawkins in his wheelchair when we lived in Cambridge as a young child got me used to the idea of machines supporting humans to be more effective. Since then I have become a gymnast and it is this that has brought me into continuous touch with medical technology, in particular scanning machines of all kinds – x-rays, CT scans, MRIs – as doctors have checked for injuries of all kinds.  I love the impossibility of what I do as a gymnast; when I was a child I called it ‘flying through the air’. I have to be curious about what is happening beneath my skin. To do the impossible I must train my body to achieve the strength, precision and reliability of a machine, but I do so to produce a performance that is beautiful and seemingly without effort.  I am sure that it is this daily familiarity with the mechanics of my body that is the ground of my ambition to be an orth...