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BioArt + Assistive Device Art: Transformation of Ability and Perception, the Plasticity of the Mind, and Human Expansion
April 8, 2022 @ 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm EDT
Join us for this virtual session of the series BioArt Talks @CBIS, presented in conjunction with RPI’s Center for Biotechnology, the ARTS department & the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the Sanctuary’s NATURE Lab.
Glowing rabbits, ears on arms, female human sperm are artworks that apply scientific methods and technology to explore and sculpt living systems. BioArt and Assistive Device Art are contemporary art practices that incorporate biological sciences and assistive technology as a form of artistic inquiry into biosystems and the human condition. Seeing through your tongue, listening to music through your teeth, navigating space through sonic vision, are examples of interfaces that are functional and assistive, yet can serve as interactive portals to gain new cross-modal perceptual abilities. Bio-artworks aesthetically and conceptually apply materials and methods from bioengineering, health sciences, synthetic biology, and medicine, generating work that deals directly with these bio-fields’ socio-cultural implications. The convergence of expertise necessary to create these artworks is a platform to generate discussions and new directions for research between health practitioners, bioethicists, and artists to envision alternative biofutures that are humanistically, socially, and aesthetically conscious and concerned.
Dr. Aisen Caro Chacin is an artist and the medical prototyping lab lead at the University of Texas Medical Branch. She holds a BFA in sculpture and a minor in visual studies from the University of Houston (UH), where she is an Affiliate Faculty of New Media Arts. She has an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, The New School, NYC, where she was an Adjunct Professor of Physical and Creative Computing. She created a framework for assistive technology and Device Art while attaining her Ph.D. in Human Informatics at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. She is the Chair for LASER Houston, a series of art and science talks sponsored by Leonardo, IAST, and Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, and she is also a Board Member of the Medicine and Media Arts Program at UCLA. Her work lies within the intersection of art, science, and technology, with a focus on new media art, human-computer integration, medical devices, sound art, and Assistive Device Art. She has presented and exhibited at Ars Electronica, Cite du Design, TEI, NIME, NYC Museum of Art and Design, The New York Hall of Science, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, World of Haptics, SXSW. www.aisencaro.com/
See all BioArt Talks @CBIS here
BioArt Talks @CBIS are an online series of one hour lunchtime presentations given by internationally recognized bioartists. Bioartists work with biological materials, consider bioethics, and look at the materiality of biosystems and the technologies used in biotechnology and scientific research. These artists cover a broad range of fascinating topics including research into lost environmental microbial systems, cognitive states of mind and behavior, biomechanical prototyping of assisted device design, colony-building with non-humans, and queering hormone disruption. The BioArt Talks @CBIS artists include: Orkan Telhan, Heidi Boisvert, Aisen Caro Chacin, Anna Lindemann, and Mary Maggic.
We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.
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