Artscience in Practice
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ARTSCIENCE IN PRACTICE: Exploring the Critical and Creative Potentials of Transdisciplinary Art and Science Practice using a Methodological and Conceptual Framework of Creative Becoming. Svenja J. Kratz Bachelor of Creative Arts (Contemporary Art and Creative Writing) First Class Honours (New Media Art) Biotechnology and Contemporary Visual Art Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (Cells and Tissues Domain) Creative Industries Faculty (Visual Art) Queensland University of Technology Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy November, 2013 KEYWORDS: ArtScience, Becoming, Bioart, Biological Art, Contemporary Art, Creative Evolution, Deleuze and Guattari, Ethics in Contemporary Art, Experiential Ethics, Interdisciplinarity, ArtScience Strategies, Practice-led Research, Rhizome Methodologies, Transdisciplinarity i ABSTRACT: Over the last decade we have witnessed a move towards greater convergence, hybridisation and an increased interest in the blurring of disciplinary boundaries, particularly between the arts and sciences. In the context of ArtScience scholarship and integration, much attention regarding the value of such cross-disciplinary partnerships has focused on education and training, as well as science communication and contextualisation. However, I argue that intersections between art and science should be regarded as sites of multiplicity that are capable of producing transformative cross- pollinations with meaningful outcomes for both disciplines, that extend beyond education or public engagement strategies. With this viewpoint in mind, my research project examines the critical and conceptual affordances of ArtScience practice, with attention to practical strategies, as well as the realities of working and producing outcomes in a transdisciplinary and integrative ArtScience context. The value of employing an experiential methodological and conceptual framework of creative becoming that embraces change and uncertainty is also discussed, with emphasis on the value of this strategy for ArtScience and transdisciplinary practice. Investigations are focused through the development of a series of contemporary bio and fine artworks developed in direct response to my engagement with contemporary biotechnologies. Three primary projects form the basis of discussion: The Absence of Alice, a series of mixed media exhibitions originally inspired by my engagement with the Saos- 2 cell line; The Immortalisation of Kira and Rama, a living bioart display of fetal calf cells, and; The Human Skin Experience/Equivalent Project, a jewellery project incorporating tissue engineering practices. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Keywords ................................................................................................................................... i Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iii - v List of Figures .................................................................................................................. vi - ix Statement of Original Authorship ........................................................................................ x Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ xi - xii ArtScience in Practice: Research Overview [INTRODUCTION] ................................................................................................................. 1 -7 1. Art and Science|ArtScience: Situating the Study ................................................... 1 - 4 2. Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................ 4 - 6 3. Exegetical Structure ...................................................................................................... 6- 7 CHAPTER 1: Between Things: Practice-led research in ArtScience [METHODOLOGY] ............................................................................................................. 8 - 31 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 9 - 13 2. Feeling, Sensing, Thinking: An Experiential Approach to Creative Development across Art and Science .... 13 - 25 2.1 Method........................................................................................................... 14 - 16 2.2 Value...............................................................................................................16 - 25 3. Research Tools and Strategies.... ............................................................................. 25 - 31 3.1 Research/Reflection in Action ................................................................... 25 - 26 3.2 Reflection on Action.................................................................................... 27 - 30 3.3 Literature Review .................................................................................................30 3.4 Data Collection ............................................................................................... 30-31 CHAPTER 2: Becoming: Underground Roots, Assemblages and Lines of Flight - Rhizome Processes across Art and Science [CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK].............................................................................32 - 54 iii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 33 - 35 2. Key Terms .................................................................................................................. 35 - 38 1.1 Becoming ....................................................................................................... 35 - 36 1.2 Rhizome .................................................................................................................36 1.3 Machinic Assemblage .................................................................................. 37 - 38 3. Application and Value .............................................................................................. 38 - 54 3.1 Thinking across and between: Facilitating Transdisciplinarity and Multiplicity in Creative Practice ............................................................. 38 - 42 3.2 Theory as a transformative and creative tool ........................................... 43 - 45 33 Emphasising process in creative production ............................................ 45 - 54 CHAPTER 3: The Absence of Alice and her Lines of Flight: Mapping the Development of the PhD Project [CONTEXTUAL REVIEW AND DESCRIPTION OF PRACTICE]........................................55 -123 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 56 - 57 2. Preceding Alice: The Foundations of the PhD Project ....................................... 57 - 70 2.1 Preliminary Contextual Review ................................................................ 58 - 69 2.2 Revised Research Plan ................................................................................. 69 - 70 3. Encountering Alice: Working in the Lab .............................................................. 70 - 88 3.1 Cells and Their Connections: Experiment, Observation and Trains of Thought .............................. 70 - 78 3.2 Cells and their Connections: Translating Science into Art .................... 78 - 88 4. Overview of Creative Works ............................................................................... 88 - 116 4.1 The Absence of Alice ............................................................................... 88 - 91 4.2 The Absence of Alice: Alice Ants and the Armyworm .......................... 91 - 94 4.3 The Absence of Alice: Lines of Flight and Self-Assemblage ........... 95 - 100 4.4 The Absence of Alice and the Things that open their Wings and are otherwise not Noticeable ................................................................... 100 - 103 4.5 SymbioticA and The Absence of Alice and the Elasticity of the Almost: Towards the Immortalisation of Kira and Rama .......................... 104 - 110 4.6 The Absence of Alice: Alice Ants and the Armyworm ..................... 110 - 116 5. Reflecting on The Absence of Alice....................................................................116 -123 5.1 Transformation................................................................................................. 116 5.2 Storytelling................................................................................................ 116 - 117 iv 5.3 Multiplicity ............................................................................................. 118 - 120 5.4 Creative Practice as Evolution: Towards Affordance .................................. 120 5.5 Thinking Differently: the value of ArtScience practice ................. 121 - 122 5.6 Towards Equal Transformative Flows ................................................ 122 - 123 CHAPTER 4: Bodies in Bioart: Ethics in Contemporary ArtScience [EXPERIENTIAL ETHICS] ............................................................................................. 124 -154 1. Introduction...........................................................................................................125 - 126 2. A Brief History