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Staging Authenticity, Open Lecture on 27.5
The Finnish Bioart Society together with the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts cordially invites to the open lecture:

Staging Authenticity: Transhistorical Approaches to Biotechnological Art by curator Jens Hauser

Time: 27th of May, 18:30
Place: Kuvataideakatemia / Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, U113 Doctoral Programme, Kaikukatu 4, 00530 Helsinki (Taiteen talo, inner courtyard)



Lecture abstract:
The use of biomedia in art can be characterized by an oscillation between an immediate presence, and a complex hyper-mediated construction of underlying meaning. Biological objects, subjects or processes are staged in their apparent aliveness, prompting the viewers’ feeling that mediality has disappeared, while, in turn, this very illusionism is being unmasked and its principles made apparent. This often takes place thanks to a strategy dubbed remediation, according to Bolter and Grusin’s definition of a medium as that “which remediates and refashions older media in the name of the real.” Biotechnological artworks therefore often employ three functional features that historically granted “authenticity”: the hyperreal (artistic representation, which is extremely realistic in detail), the ephemeral (expression lasting for a very short time) and the indexical (expression whose meaning is dependent on the context in which it is used). Contemporary artworks using biotechnologies as their medium by Jun Takita, Paul Vanouse, Orlan and Tissue Culture and Art project are subjected to a transhistorical analysis leading from Still Life and Vanitas, the imprint and photography as ‘the pencil of nature’ to today’s gel electrophoresis and ‘genetic fingerprints’.

JENS HAUSER is a Paris-based curator, author and arts and culture critic. With a background in Media Studies and Science Journalism, he focuses on the interactions between art and technology, as well as on trans-genre and contextual aesthetics. He has curated exhibitions such as L’Art Biotech (Nantes, 2003), Still, Living (Perth, 2007), sk-interfaces (Liverpool, 2008/Luxembourg, 2009), the Article Biennale (Stavanger, 2008), Transbiotics (Riga 2010), Fingerprints... (Berlin,
2011) and synth-ethic (Vienna, 2011). Hauser organizes interdisciplinary conferences and guest lectures at universities and international art academies. In his current research at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, he investigates the biomediality paradigm. Hauser is also a founding collaborator of the European culture channel ARTE and has produced numerous radio features.

Lisätietoja ja yhtydenotot:
More information and contact:
Erich Berger, Ars Bioarctica coordinator Suomen Biotaiteen Seura - Finnish Bioart Society
erich.berger@bioartsociety.fi
http://bioartsociety.fi/