Venue:BioBAT ART SPACE
Date: 2023-10-14 to 2024-03-16
* Visit @STUDIOPHORIA for more info.
* Pictured here: a few details from 4 of the 8 figures in the exhibition.
* Last updated May 1st. Additional entries about new works to be added Summer 2024.
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‘Signs of Life’ encompasses 8 mannequins of new and previous works, as part of Embodied Futures and the Ecology of Care. 'Meditations 1' is one of the new works.
MEDITATIONS 1: WHO TO SAVE FIRST?
This Meditation is in memoriam of David Buckel who took his own life through self-immolation 2018-04-14 in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, out of deep distress about the environment.
How do the ways we care for and value biological life change between their living, semi-living and non-living states? from birth to death? in public and private conversation? during times of conflict and peace? along the spectrum between health and illness? across cultures, religions, landscapes, realities, and industries as a source of information/data, nutrients, medicine, poison, the vessel of a person and material?
Meditations 1 brings these questions to life through projection-mapping red text sequenced from an upcycled military uniform with hand-stenciled black text all over. The red text appears to be scrolling on a LED ticker, spilling from the ceiling through the headless and handless figure, into a pool of decomposing pixels.
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David Buckel died Saturday April 14th, 2018 in Prospect Park, by self-immolation in protest for people to lead less selfish lives as a way to protect the planet. He was a prominent gay-rights lawyer and compost coordinator for the Red Hook Community Farm, the largest in the United States that processes entirely with renewable resources (solar, wind, human power). Part of his letter reads:
“Pollution ravages our planet, oozing inhabitability via air, soil, water and weather. Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result — my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”
Here are some links to more about the life and work of David Buckel:
• Finding Meaning After My Husband's Public Death
<2022-08-04, NPR - Death, Sex and Money >
When talking about the death of his husband, Terry Kaelber doesn't use the word suicide, "I tend to say he took his own life out of deep distress about the environment through self-immolation." Terry says it's out of respect for David that he chooses his words carefully — "It was a rational decision on his part."
• Fighting Climate Despair
< 2022-07-29, Vox - Today, Explained >
Climate change has driven some environmental activists to extremes. We talk about overcoming despair with Terry Kaelber, whose husband David Buckel took his life to protest inaction, and Tim DeChristopher, who was imprisoned for his activism.
•Institute for Local Self-Reliance
A tribute to David's spirit by Brenda Platt.
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In light of this moment in time, I also wanted to share these stories:
• CNN’s Coverage of Man Who Set Himself on Fire Show Challenges of Live News
< 2024-04-20, New York Times >
The network's legal analyst and anchor, Laura Coates, was doing a live interview with a jury-selection expert (for Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan) when Maxwell Azzarello began throwing a batch of conspiracy pamphlets into the air, then dousing himself with an accelerant and setting himself ablaze.
• ‘An extreme act’ – Why Aaron Bushnell self-immolated for Gaza
< 2024-02-28, Al Jazeera, The Take >
25 year old, Aaron Bushnell, a member of the US air force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC (Sunday, February 25th 2024) in an act of political protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. Bushnell livestreamed his death, saying he no longer wanted to be “complicit in genocide”. How will his message resonate?
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This exhibition is made possible by the collaborative efforts of Genspace, NARS Foundation, Makerspace, Sunset Park Open Studios, BioBAT Inc., SUNY Downstate, the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and the New York Economic Development Corporation.
Exhibiting Artists: Aradhita Ajaykumar Parasrampuria, Katie Hubbell, Elaine Young, Karen Ingram, Laura Kung, Juyon Lee, Lolo Ostia, John Roach, Iz Nettere, Shihori Yamamoto, Suzanne Head.
‘Embodied Futures’ is curated by: Elena Soterakis and Eve Barro. With Special Thanks to Co-Organizers: Clarinda Mac Low & Carolyn Hall of Genspace, Junho Lee & Katherine Plourde of NARS Foundation, and DB Lampman of Makerspace.
Collection: ANTHROPO MA-1 Bomber Jackets
Title: IF EARTH IS 24 HOURS OLD - HUMANS APPEARED AT 23:58:48 (Graphic #3)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Exhibition info: Design Museum of Chicago, Confluence•20+
Description: ANTHROPO Graphic #3 < IF EARTH IS 24 HOURS OLD - HUMANS APPEARED AT 23:58:43 > is based on the Golden Record, a time-capsule funded by NASA in 1977, and launched aboard Voyager 1 and 2.
The Golden Record is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk, containing 116 images, music selections from different cultures across a wide span of genres, greetings in 55 languages and audio recordings of sounds like a baby crying and a kiss. The collection was curated with the intention to be a ‘greeting from’ and ‘a story about’ human civilization, and the diversity of life and culture on Earth for an extraterrestrial audience - but it did not include images of: war, poverty, religion, disease, ideology or crime.
23:58:43 asks us to consider: How do the images and sounds that represent us today differ from those of the Golden Record? What statement do these omissions make about us?
The exterior bomber graphic reimagines the 116 images in a collage style to address these omissions; with the interior showing the 116 images in their original format accompanied by a list of all the contents.
The pocket graphics address these omitted aspects of our existence and contemplate a line from a letter included on the Golden Record from President of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter: “We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”
Images: (1) jacket detail, (2) 116 images in chronological order, (3) Voyager and the Golden Record, (4) Jimmy Carter’s letter, (5) exhibition at Chicago Design Museum (2017); (6) gallery view, workshop+talk; (7) workshop, (8) NEW MUSEUM Store window installation featuring the jacket, Amula DNA Jewellery and the LUNA bag in 3M reflective; (9) LUNA product tags with information about our relationship to the moon. Interested to experience the Golden Record? You can own it now at Ozma Records.
Collection: Amula DNA Jewellery
Style: (* Various)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
• Amula is available for purchase - please enquire through the contact page.
Description: Amula is a collection of modern lockets personalized with DNA from a person, pet or plant. DNA is extracted and purified from hair, fur, petals or leaves.
Amula is similar in sentiment and function to a traditional locket containing a photo or lock of hair – worn as a reminder of a moment or some one that means a lot to you.
Wear you. Gift yourself to a beloved one. Wear your lover. Wear you and your beloved together. Wear you and your animal best friend.
The connections are yours to customize.
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The Amula concept and conversation has evolved as a part of my art and design practice with different names and designs since officially launching as the brand in its current form at 100% DESIGN TOKYO in 2008. Amula was featured at the Mori Art and Design Store as a part of the gift shop for the exhibition ‘Medicine and Art: Imagining a Future for Life and Love” (28 November, 2009 - 28 February, 2010), launched in the US at the 2019 NYC Jewelry Week. Stockists in NYC include The Evolution Store in Soho and the NEW MUSEUM STORE on the Bowery.
Images: (1) TRIos - a modular design from an earlier collection embracing a ‘TRON-esque’ spirit, (2) WestEast Magazine feature, (3) Palm’s dual capsule magnetizing design, (4, 5, 6) images for Amula’s launch as a part of NYC Jewelry Week 2019, (7) Amula’s gift box incorporates a display and a frame for portrait or landscape photos, (8) the Panda-O, Reindeer, and Panda-V DNA Necklaces containing the DNA of the animal.
Collection: HOST for your living things
Title: STING (Honey Bee)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Description: HOST graphics are inspired by beauty that is invisible to the naked eye. The STING graphic is made from microscopic details of a honey bee.
The invention of the microscope over 400 years ago and the electron microscope in 1931 revolutionized the way we see the World. Previously invisible to the naked-eye, ultramicroscopic objects (less than a millionth of a meter) could now be observed and recognized – forever changing our visible landscape.
Items with the STING graphic are accompanied with product tags that share some interesting facts about honey bees, such as:
• a mass of approximately 500 bees vibrating together can kill an intruder by heating it to death • one pound of honey takes 556 worker bees and 2 million flowers to make • pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35% of the world’s food crop production • honey bees have existed for 30 millions years
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The word ‘HOST’ refers to an organism/cell in or on which another lives/feeds; and thus, refers to a symbiotic, codependent relationship that assists one/both to survive.
There are many types of intimate relationships between organisms that are characterized by codependence for survival – ‘symbiosis’ describes the various degrees of intimate relationships between organism, which include: an organism living on another (ectosymbiosis), or inside another (endosymbiosis) or necessary to the survival of at least one partner (obligate symbiosis).
HOST is an invitation to WEAR THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.
Collection: ANTHROPO MA-1 Bomber Jackets
Title: Wealth=Health? Case study - HIV/AIDS (Graphic #1)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Description: This graphic is made from details of an American dollar bill, microscopic images of the HIV virus, cartograms of wealth growth and new cases of HIV infection; and is a part of ongoing research entitled In Memoriam of Medical Data.
Cartograms are maps of the real world that express a statistic through exaggerating and distorting geography with pinches and swells that result from a particular thematic mapping variable being substituted for land area or distance.
The inside of the jacket includes the phrase Volenti Non Fit Injuria (Latin), which is a common law doctrine that is essentially defined as ‘voluntary assumption of risk’; meaning that if a person knowingly and willingly puts themselves in a dangerous situation where they know that some kind of harm may be possible, they cannot sue for any resulting injuries. In the context of this graphic, it is included to question, “What do we really know and understand about the healthcare we receive?”
The pockets contain difficult thoughts, and links to uncomfortable stories about AIDS in different countries - such as the situation in Cuba where a community of punks known as Los Frikis infect themselves with the AIDS virus as a form of protest.
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ANTHROPO is an ongoing series of original graphics for MA-1 bomber jackets featuring visual essays that transform geo and bio political information, data visualizations and scientific images into wearable statements that question the quantification of biological life in making qualitative assessments about the state of our survival.
ANTHROPO is an action towards restoring the bomber jacket and the appropriation of military dress in popular culture to its position as a historically significant icon of social unrest.
Every bomber’s graphics are generally organized according to the same logic - where the outside is the visual experience; the interior is the legend that assists the viewer in navigating the elements of the exterior, with links to additional resources; and the pockets are where you’ll find the ‘difficult thoughts’ - the uncomfortable, often unresolvable questions about the issue the bomber explores.
Collection: ANTHROPO MA-1 Bomber Jackets
Title: Disability and Diversity (Graphic #2)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Description: ANTHROPO Graphic #2 = “Disability + Diversity,” uses population pyramids, world life expectancy rankings, and images of in vitro fertilization to examine our thoughts about what constitutes a good life within the context that 15% of the world’s population is disabled.
It asks us to consider:
• what physical, intellectual and psychological abilities make up the basic standard of health that deems a life to be worth living
• what are we saying about the types of lives that we’ve eradicated in routine health practices for expectant families, such as screening for downs syndrome
• how might reflecting on the reality that "the disability community is the only minority that we will all join at some point in our lives" influence our current actions
• how do advancements in medicine redefine the border between an able and disabled body, and how do these shifts influence how we think about what kinds of lives are worth living?
• how should we think about the ableist view that it is impossible for people with disabilities to ever live a life equally worthy of living as an able-bodied person can? In the words of the late disability rights activist Stella Young, are disabled people relegated to be “inspiration porn”?
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ANTHROPO is an ongoing series of original graphics for MA-1 bomber jackets featuring visual essays that transform geo and bio political information, data visualizations and scientific images into wearable statements that question the quantification of biological life in making qualitative assessments about the state of our survival.
ANTHROPO is an action towards restoring the bomber jacket and the appropriation of military dress in popular culture to its position as a historically significant icon of social unrest.
Every bomber’s graphics are generally organized according to the same logic - where the outside is the visual experience; the interior is the legend that assists the viewer in navigating the elements of the exterior, with links to additional resources; and the pockets are where you’ll find the ‘difficult thoughts’ - the uncomfortable, often unresolvable questions about the issue the bomber explores.
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Images: (1) kids version, (2) pregnant mannequin, (3) jacket interior; (4) isolated data diagrams > Black and White images of IVF, first and last portions of life expectancy ranking; legend for reading population pyramids and collections of population pyramids for Barbados, Qatar, Rwanda, Azerbaijan and China for the years 1950, 1990, 2016 and 2050; (5) ‘difficult thoughts’ pocket graphics, (6) exhibition scene and guide cover, (7) exhibition panels that pertain to ‘Disability + Diversity’ graphic, (8) elements of jacket, (9) detail of world population by billions panel interspersed with timeline that includes significant dates related to civil rights or milestones in birth related technologies such as birth control pills or IVF (in-vitro-fertilization).
Exhibition: Imminent Domain - Designing for the Life of Tomorrow (Group Show)
Curator: Fumio Nanjo (Mori Art Museum - Tokyo, Japan)
Title: Pattern Recognition
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Venue: Hong Kong Asia Society
Date: 2013, January 31st to March 31st
Description: The work features: a moving galaxy projection of stars on an atomic/cellular canopy that can be observed from laying on reflective pods below; three long and narrow light boxes - two containing 7 vials each of my DNA, engraved with the name of characters or plants from science-fiction stories, and the third displays a negative film strip of 36 images. A partial list of names and images appears below.
Artist Statement: The Universe is so vast, that the star from which the starlight originated may no longer exist… This is because light travels at a finite speed of 300,000 kilometers or 186,282 miles per second. It takes light years (1 light year = 5.8 trillion miles) for starlight to reach Earth, 8.3 seconds for sunlight to reach Earth, and light can circle around the Earth 7.4 times in 1 second.
So, in the time that it takes starlight to reach us, something might have happened to the star. This is what is meant by the saying that looking at stars is like looking back in time.
We are here today through the scientific and imaginary tales of the becoming of our nearest star, the Sun. We have bent, dissected, reflected, focused, captured and played with waves of light through all kinds of lenses, filters, barrels, circuits and cables at different time intervals to see the beauty of supernovae in the nucleus of our cells.
We are spun from the stuff of stars – hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen … coiled tightly within the history of life, coded in our DNA. We look within and beyond – at the past.
Images - engraved names (selections): TRUFFULA TREE The Lorax, Dr. Seuss / FAUST Der Tragödie erster Teil (German) - Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy, Johan Wolfgang von Goethe / ENSAIO SOBRE A CEGUEIRA (Portuguese) Essay on Blindness, José Saramago / ICARUS (Greek Mythology) Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth / MOLY Odyssey, Homer / LOTUS TREE Odyssey, Homer / PROMETHEUS (Greek Mythology) Deity known as the creator of mankind / MORS ONTOLOGICA a flower from A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick.
Images - negative film strip (selections): photo by Lennart Nilsson of the face of a five week old embryo which is approximately 9mm long and in the process of developing openings for the mouth, the nostrils and eyes; below this main image are a few of the others from the film strip: a bomb testing audience - Operation Greenhouse, Enewetak Atoll, 1951; Photo 51, Rosalind Franklin, 1952; I think - Darwin’s first evolutionary tree - Charles Darwin; and an MRI of a baby at the moment of birth.
Genspace is my lab-studio. It is where all the DNA extractions and purification for the Amula Personalized DNA Jewellery are processed.
Genspace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting science literacy through citizen access to biotechnology. Driven by the belief that the best way to inform 21st-century dialogue about science is to have stakeholders understand it from a hands-on perspective, Genspace provides STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) educational outreach, cultural events, and a platform for science innovation at the grassroots level.
I was especially grateful to be a part of the Genspace community when the global pandemic landed in NYC, March 2020. Building curriculum together on zoom for online workshops in 2021, to being able to take my Biodesign Challenge X Pioneer Works students from South Brooklyn Community High School on a visit Spring 2022 - the Genspace community has weathered through this time together!
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Images: Covid-19 covers used for Instagram post promoting Giving Tuesday 2020 (May 5th), Genspace artist member social media post, Harvest Festival 2019 at Brooklyn Bridge Park (that included one of my favourite initiatives ~ Drag Queen Story Hour ~ check them out if you’ve never heard of them!).
Title: LUNA Bag
Role: Design, Production, Creative Direction
Description: The LUNA bag collection comes in a variety of textiles, colour ways and graphics. This is LUNA iridescent in Earth (Green/Blue), Aurora (Pink/Blue), Mars (Orange/Green) and Venus (Purple/Green).
You can find them at the NEW MUSEUM Store in NYC.
Past stockists: Museum of Modern Art Design Store (NYC, Tokyo), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Carbon38, Bandier.
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Images: (1) LUNA shoot at Makhtesh Ramon in Israel’s Negev Desert, (2) various luxury athletic wear Press for LUNA, (3, 4) LUNA shoot, (5) LUNA at the Museum of Modern Art Design Store, (6) LUNA at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for the ‘David Bowie is…’ exhibition.
Collection: HOST for your living things
Title: CACTUS (Flea)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Description: HOST graphics are inspired by beauty that is invisible to the naked eye. The CACTUS graphic is made from details of a flea’s armour.
The invention of the microscope over 400 years ago and the electron microscope in 1931 revolutionized the way we see the World. Previously invisible to the naked-eye, ultramicroscopic objects (less than a millionth of a meter) could now be observed and recognized – forever changing our visible landscape.
Items with the CACTUS graphic are accompanied with product tags that share some interesting facts about fleas, such as:
• a flea is a parasite • fleas are wingless, but can jump +30cm or 12 inches, which is approximately 200X their own body length - nearly the equivalent of a person jumping 350 meters.
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The word HOST refers to an organism/cell in or on which another lives/feeds - and thus, a symbiotic, co-dependant relationship that assists one/both to survive.
There are many types of intimate relationships between organisms that are characterized by co-dependence for survival – ‘symbiosis’ describes the various degrees of intimate relationships between organism, which include: an organism living on another (ectosymbiosis), or inside another (endosymbiosis) or necessary to the survival of at least one partner (obligate symbiosis).
HOST is an invitation to WEAR THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.
NEW INC is the first museum-led cultural incubator, for creative entrepreurs working at the intersection of art, design and technology. NEW INC was conceived of as a not-for-profit platform, furthering the NEW MUSEUM’s ongoing commitment to new art and new ideas.
I was a Member from 2018-2020, and am a 2024 Mentor.
The NEW MUSEUM was officially founded by Marcia Tucker, January 1st, 1977 - it was the first museum devoted to contemporary art established in New York City since the Second World War. Positioned between a traditional museum and an alternative space, the NEW MUSEUM’s stated mission was to be a catalyst for a broad dialogue between artists and the public by establishing “an exhibition, information, and documentation center for contemporary art made within a period of approximately ten years prior to the present.” The Museum presented the work of living artists who did not yet have wide public exposure or critical acceptance to a broader public.
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Images: (1) NEW INC is located beside the NEW MUSEUM on the Bowery in New York City, (2) working in the FabLab at NEW INC, (3) Fashion + Tech NEW INC Showcase with fellow NEW INC Members DiMoDA Digital Museum of Digital Art and Wearable Media by wallplay, (4-7) NEW MUSEUM Store Window, (8,9) Artists in the Lab series with fellow NEW INC Member Jakob Kudsk Steensen by Ruinart + NEW INC at Bouley Botanical ~ Sebastien Vitry (Ruinart), Jakob Kudsk Steensen, David Bouley, Julia Kanganskiy (NEW INC Director 2018), Karen Wong (Deputy Director, NEW MUSEUM and Co-Founder of NEW INC).
Clients: Hong Kong Biotechnology Organization, Scottish Development International.
Venue: Hong Kong Science and Technology Park
Role: Communications and Design, Producer, Event Manager.
2012 Seminar entitled "Global Opportunities in Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine" with Professor Sir Ian Wilmut - renowned for his expertise in stem cell research and his success with Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell in 1996.
Other notable events and clients building strategic relationships for the Hong Kong biotech industry (2005-2008, 2010-2013) include:
• HKBIO , Hong Kong Biotechnology Organization
• HKTDC , Hong Kong Trade and Development Council
• GBABA , Greater Bay Area Biotech Alliance
• BIO International Convention
• HKSTP , Hong Kong Science and Technology Park
Images: Professor Sir Ian Wilmut with Dolly, TIME Magazine cover (1997-03-10), meeting Professor Wilmut, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park; An Evening with Bruce Alberts (Editor-in-Chief of Science Magazine) - 2011, attendees included Leung Chun Ying (4th Term Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong, 2012-2017); logo collection - HKBIO and GBABA (Role: logo designer).
Venue: 2018 London Design Biennale ‘Emotional States’
Panel Discussion: Hierarchy of the Senses - Hong Kong Perspectives
Exhibition: Hong Kong Pavilion
Role: Curator of Design Objects, Producer, Moderator, Designer
Description: Cross-promotional panel discussion celebrating Hong Kong art, design and culture at the 2018 London Design Biennale.
It marked the closing of the inaugural exhibition at Duddell’s entitled ‘Doubting Thomas’ (featuring artists Suki Chan, Gordon Cheung, Jonathan Baldock, Aoife Collins, Gayle Chong Kwan and Tang Kwok-Hin) and the opening of the Hong Kong Pavilion at the London Design Biennale - which included a tour of The Old Operating Theatre that shares the historic St.Thomas’ Church with Duddell’s.
Panel discussion featured Alex Rhys-Taylor (Goldsmiths), Gayle-Chong Kwan (Artist) and Julie Mathias (Head of Education, Old Operating Theatre).
This was a companion event to the Hong Kong Pavilion, for which I was the Curator of Design Objects.
In the transient, fast-paced, sub-tropical metropolis of Hong Kong, the scents tied to its identity are as varied as its constantly changing population and landscape. “The Hong Kong Pavilion is an aromatic journey that blends stories about the emotional connection of aroma to food cultures, cha chaan tengs [Hong Kong diners], worship and the very origins of the meaning of the name Hong Kong – which translates as ‘Fragrant Harbour’ – within personal and collective memories. I hope the experience reminds visitors of the power of smell as a transporter and time machine.”
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Hong Kong Pavilion object artists, designers and cultural conservationists include: Susanna Pang (SOIL), Xavier Tsang and Michael Leung (BeCandle), Oriana Reich (Cultural Confectionary), Morgan Wong (Artist), Mary Chan (MCCM, Hong Kong independent publisher), Jodie Chan (esscentric), John Batten (Curator, Writer, Advocate for Preservation of Hong Kong Heritage), Julie Progin and Jesse McLin (Latitude22N, Julie and Jesse), Kevin Cheung-Wai-Chun (Upcycling Designer), Martin Cheung (Photographer).
* Frog King was not a part of the 2018 Pavilion, but as a Hong Kong cultural icon, it was very exciting for him to have been seen visiting the exhibition! Thanks to a friend who was visiting while I was back in New York who caught this moment!
Images: (1) Portrait of me at the Hong Kong Pavilion wearing custom designed Mahjong dress, (2) Frog King spotted at the Hong Kong Pavilion, (3) views of the objects displayed on the mahjong tables (4) Kasper Ng of the HKETO, Gayle Chong Kwan (Artist), Julie Mathias (Head of Education at The Old Operating Theatre), me, Alex Rhys-Taylor (Goldsmiths); (5) Somerset House entrance to London Design Biennale and excerpt of flyer for the panel discussion.
Collaboration: Joe and I worked together on the Hoodie Labcoat that he wore to accept the 2012 Ars Electronica’s (Linz, Austria) Golden Nica Award in the Hybrid Art Category for Bacterial Radio.
Description: We went through a few prototypes before arriving at an optimized design, that has become as iconic with Joe, as it has with his colleagues and friends, like George Church one of the founding members of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
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Joe Davis (b. 1950) is a research affiliate in the Department of Biology at MIT and in the George Church Laboratory at Harvard Medical School.
For more about Joe as the pioneer of Bioart: Heaven+Earth+Joe Davis (2010, documentary by Peter Sasowsky), Hexagram.
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Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in 1979. It runs an annual festival, and manages a multidisciplinary media arts R&D facility known as the Futurelab. They are headquartered at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which also houses the Museum of the Future.
Images: accepting the Golden Nica, Bacterial Radio, Joe in the lab, George Church in the Hoodie Labcoat, Joe as Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, documentary poster.
Collaboration: Environmental Health Clinic (New York) x LAByrinth (New York, Hong Kong) x Ark Eden (Hong Kong) for the International Symposium of Electronic Art [ISEA]
2016 Symposium: Cultural R>evolution [Hong Kong]
Description: ISEA International (formerly Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) was founded in the Netherlands, 1990. ISEA is a non-profit organization that fosters and promotes high quality interdisciplinary creative practice, education, learning and research in art, science, design, the creative industries and emergent technologies through its nomadic, annual international symposia.
ISEA2016 topics: The New Geopolics of Art-Making, The Animal and the Technological, Code-Language-Network-Politics, Biopolitics/biopower (Genetics, Nanotechnology, Robotics), Crypto-Finance, TechnoSex.
Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist, engineer and inventor based in New York. She directs the Environmental Health Clinic and is also an associate professor in the Visual Art Department at NYU, affiliated with their Computer Science Department and Environmental Studies program. Natalie’s practice develops the emerging field of socio-ecological systems design, or xDesign, crucial in the Anthropocene, using participatory research spectacles that address the 21st Century challenge to reimagine our collective relationship to natural systems.
“Health is the only and best metric for the common good.”
Natalie’s TED talk: The art of the eco-mindshift
Collection: HOST for your living things
Title: (*Various)
Role: Concept, Design, Production
Description: HOST FORMS was the debut collection of experiments in how to create angular forms from plush fabrics and fluid forms from tech fabrics.
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Images: (1, 2) FOVEAL short - back+front, (3, 4, 5) FOVEAL long - side+ back+front, (6, 7, 8) AERIAL front+ back with skirt, (9, 10) SOLEIL front+back+pants, (11, 12) HORN top+skirt.
Collection: HOST for your living things - by LAByrinth
Title: Ter(r)AformA
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Description: HKDX (Hong Kong Designer’s Exchange) 2011: GERMANY. LAByrinth PROJECT presents Ter(r)AformA.
TERRAFORMING: ‘Earth-shaping’/// TERATOLOGY (biological term): the science or study of perceivable abnormalities in the natural world of physiological development in all life forms.
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Images: (1) flyer featuring the top from the Ter(r)AformA set that lays flat when not worn, (2) flyer front and back, (3) exhibition scene featuring various map projections and a table with a glass top protecting LED lit electric lime bullseye spirit levels, (4) superimposed and separate map projections, (5) Ter(r)AformA set.