SOFT CONTROL » Artworks Slovenj Gradec

Andrew Gracie

samo — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:12:48 +0000

Deep Data prototype_1 forms the first stage of the long term Deep Data project, which uses data from deep space probes to recreate elements of solar system environments within cultures of organisms currently used in astrobiology research. The piece uses magnetometer data from the Pioneer and Voyager probes to recreate magnetic field experiments on cultures of polyextremophile tardigrades, an organism which has already proven it can survive the harsh space environment.

Bill Vorn

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:14:24 +0000

DSM-VI is a robotic art installation that stages creatures expressing symptoms of “abnormal” psychological behaviors and stuck with some serious “mental health” problems, such as neurosis, psychosis, personality disorders, paranoia, schizophrenia, delirium, and other forms of behavior and mental disorders. The project title is inspired by the famous reference manual published by the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM-IV. The robots are abstract structures made of aluminum, plastic and silicone it is mainly their behaviors that give them an organic and living aspect.

Produced with the help of Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Polona Tratnik et al.

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:11:14 +0000

Production: Horizonti, co-production: Biobanka, d. o. o., Educell, d. o. o.

Initiation conducts regeneration of a functional human heart muscle developing the capacity of autonomous pulsation. Regeneration involves implantation of a resorbable organic matrix, i.e. decellularized heart organ, with cardio-myocytes differentiated from human adipose derived stem cells. Initiation accelerates the maturation of the tissue and aims to achieve muscle response – it performs the initiation of the cells into functional i.e. contractive tissue and initiates the pulsation of an “in vitro” engineered organ.

Concept: Polona Tratnik (project leader), tissue engineering: Biobanka, d. o. o., Educell, d. o. o. (Ajda Marič, Miomir Knežević and his team), electrical engineering: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering (Damijan Miklavčič and his team). Support: The Slovenian Ministry of Culture, European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012.

Credits: Tehnooptika Smolnikar d.o.o. and Iskra Pio d.o.o.

The Tissue Culture & Art Project:Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:06:52 +0000

Crude Matter is an artistic meditation into the notion of the substrate as the main context for life. Loosely based on the story of the Golem we explore the “alchemical” transformation of materials into substrates that support and act on life. The piece destabilises the engineering logic of the transformation of life into raw material; to question the logic that seems to privilege the information embedded in DNA over the context in which life operates. Crude Matter is touching upon the creation of life from crude matter and human knowledge; when human hubris and life should not mixed.

The Tissue Culture & Art Project is hosted in SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia.

Credits: Laboratory center of the University of Maribor and KZ Rače

Leo Peschta

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:51:52 +0000

Der Zermesser is a physical object whose purpose is to feel its way around and to articulate the relation between its own shape and its surroundings. By changing the length of its sides, this object breaks its own perfect symmetry and can feel the surrounding room with sensors attached to each of its corners. The knowledge of the position and the extension of the individual modules and of the interrelationship among their respective positions enables the entire object to move freely within the space by shifting its center of gravity.

Seiko Mikami

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:33:44 +0000

Based on the ideas of “observing the act of observation” and “consciously and unconsciously established lines of vision”, this installation generates traces of two participants’ respective lines of sight. The participants experience an almost “haptic” kind of communication based on their own visualized lines of sight in a three-dimensional virtual space. In this process, their respective lines of vision enact a complex, organic architectural construct that could be considered as “bioarchitecture”. The first version of eye-tracking project (Molecular Informatics) was realised by Seiko Mikami in 1996.

Credits: Takayuki Ito and Richi Owaki (YCAM InterLab), evala (sound), Norimichi Hirakawa (programming), Kazunao Abe (YCAM), “The EyeWriter ver.2.0”, photo: Ryuichi Maruo

EU-Japan Fest Committee

Kuda begut sobaki

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:30:39 +0000

Alexey Korzukhin, Vladislav Bulatov, Natalia Grekhova, Olga Inozemtseva

Fields 2.1 is an attempt to create an illusion of consciousness in non-living matter. A moving eye is a property that allows the viewer to perceive the “inanimate” as the “conscious”. Using magnetic fields and ferrofluid technologies the artists build up a model of how non-living matter evolves which has an inherent organic characteristic to undergo random specific changes at specific moments of time. In the project consciousness (or its signatures) appears as a reaction to another consciousness (or its signatures) and comprises various relations between matters – from observation to interaction.

Credits: Programming Denis Perevalov. In collaboration with Dr. Prof. Vladimir Shur at the Ural Center of Shared Use “Modern Nanotechnology”, Ural State University and Artpolitika Creative Agency, Ekaterinburg, Russia

Floris Kaayk

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:26:11 +0000

The Origin of Creatures is inspired by the biblical story of the Tower of Babel and is set in an imaginary future where the world is hit by a catastrophe. Among the remains of a devastated city lives that what is left of humanity. Human bodies are divided into separated parts of the body and are fused to special beings. Together, these creatures form a colony. In the rubble of destroyed buildings they are trying to build a nest as large and as high as possible, so that their queen gets enough sunlight to reproduce.

Credits: Director: Floris Kaayk, Producer: SeriousFilm / Marc Thelosen, Director of Photography: Reinier van Brummelen, Composer: Lennert Busch, Sound design: Bart Jilesen

Andrew Gracie

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:22:07 +0000

Drosophila titanus is an attempt to breed a species of fruit fly that would be theoretically capable of living on Saturn’s largest moon Titan, so far the most ‘Earth-like’ place that we know. By necessity the project needs to adhere to a rigourous scientific methodology, however it endeavours to extract artistic metaphor, poetry and ambiguity from these apparent creative restrictions. Concurrently the work embraces several interwoven narratives and concepts related to issues of species, artificially created organisms and the disquieting quest for biological perfection.

Ursula Damm

samo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:00:27 +0000

Water enriched with atmospheric gases, especially carbon dioxide, is pumped from a fountain via an air supply into an aquarium. This aerated water feeds an algal culture which – influenced by light – produces biomass and oxygen from the carbon dioxide. The blue light in the aquarium reads as the word “beloved”, which is a reference to the endosymbiosis theories of Lynn Margulis. The water fleas eat the algae adhering to the display. The word therefore remains visible. If the algae growth is excessive though, the ecological balance is likely to tip over. The legibility of the word “beloved” serves then as the index of this little ecosystem’s state or rather of its relationship with the greater external biosphere.

Credits: Deutsche Botschaft Laibach