Corpus Extremus (Life+)

Corpus Extremus (Life+) is intended to reveal how scientific and technological advances change our cultural, social, and technological notions of life and the co-related notions of death. The aim of this show is to initiate public discussion of these issues raised by these artists and scientists. All the artists in Corpus Extremus have experience in laboratories--some of them even work as professionals in labs. The artists in the exhibition have a profound understanding of science and work in collaboration with scientists. This approach to artmaking was a criteria for inclusion in the show, as opposed to artists who have read few scientific articles and made paintings on the topic.

Central to the exhibition is the notion of the "extended body" (a concept proposed by Tissue Culture and Art (TC&A) Project: Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, University of Western Australia (UWA). It refers to a new class of being, a new category of life of cultured cells dissociated from the body and used predominantly for tissue culture technology. This "extended body" doesn't fit within any of the existing categories of life. It also doesn't belong to any particular race, gender, species, ethnicity, nationality, or religion, and it might promote non-human intelligence. But the most important thing is that it is alive. Therefore it suggests a new understanding of the properties of life and could change our traditional notions of the above mentioned cathegories. It can also become a philosphical model that can help us overcome borders that foster hatred and hostility. In the show TC&A present their work NoArk as an "extention" of the traditional natural history museum. It consists of a vessel sustaining cells and tissues that exist outside of the body, displayed along side stuffed animal specimens labeled with classical taxonomic categories.

Although this new concept of life might change our future--we still live in our bodies and in a society divided by issues of gender, race, class, religion and species. Therefore, the other works in the show examine these concepts and how they relate to our current notion of life and its properties.

Paul Vanouse (University at Buffalo) with his Latent Figure Protocol comments on genetic fingerprinting and patenting of life. Silent Barrage-- a continuation of the famous MEART the Semi Living Artist, a collaboration between Guy Ben-Ary, Phill Gamblen (UWA) and Steve Potter's Lab at Georgia Tech, presents an interactive three dimentional model of the brain controlled by a mice neuron culture hosted in Atlanta. The audience is invited to "walk within" the embodiment of this non-human intelligence. This project challenges our antropocentric value system and our hierarchies of species and non-human intelligence, which are based on this value system's principles.

This idea can be seen also in Kathy High's Petition for Lab Rat Shelter-- an enriched environment for research lab rats that she envisions as collaborators and heros, rather than just research subjects. This project is a result of years of communication with transgenic rats that she adopted after their retirement. The entertaining Living Screen (by Biokino: Tanya Visocevic, Guy Ben-Ary, Bruce Murphy (UWA)) satirically presents the stereotype that creative activity (science and art) are a freak show. This artistic strategy of exaggerating stereotypes is an excellent tool for questioning them. The artists refer to early cinema and feature a series of self-created nano-scale movies projected onto actual living screens grown from skin and blood cells. Stelarc's documentary of his recent implantation of a third ear is an ongoing exploration of his well known concept of the "obsolete body." For the experimental film pFARM :: Organic Fetish Biotech , Adam Zaretsky and the pFarm collective participate in an art and life experience that juxtaposes traditional and high tech farming, but the collective is not in favor of either of these two.In Shelf Life Suzane Anker grows plants under LED light, exploring technologies of food production. The educational installation Transgenic Organisms in NY State presented by the Center for PostNatural History introduces us to these "untraditional" organisms within a traditional natural history museum display.

The issues of media representation of science in diverse cultural contexts is addressed in the Mirror of Faith by Ultrafuturo: Oleg Mavromatti and Boryana Rossa (Rensselaer). Combining the aesethetcs of amusement park and scientific documentation, the artists base their work on the controversial public reactions to the genetic predisposition for human spirituality. Questions of scientific methods based on reading images are explored by Soyo Lee, through exposition of artistic and scientific photos she makes as a histologist and an artists in residence at the departments of Art and Biology at Rensselaer.

Rensselaer is one of the institutions widely presented at the show. The short-lived Bioart Initiative (2007-2008), created by Kathy High, Rich Pell and Daniela Kostova, delivered its fruits not only in the strong presence of artists and scientists from this institution in the show (six), but also by bringing a wide audience of people who have been introduced to the field by the Bioart Initiative events. The Corpus Extremus (Life+) was also curated by Boryana Rossa--a current student at the newly opened practice-based PhD program in Electronic Arts (RPI) and advised by Mary Anne Staniszewski--the acting head of the Arts Department at the same institution. SymbioticA at the UWA is also widely presented in the show as an institution with a great deal of experience in the field. Most of the artists in the show, such as Paul Vanouse (Buffalo University), had made their R&D in a residency there. The Arts & Genomics Centre at Leiden University, Netherlands was the host of the Inside Out: Laboratory Ecologies-- a spectacular installation and performance of biology classes for everyone by Canadian artist Jennifer Willet.

The public events program has been planned to offer an expanded perspective on reproduction technologies and the cultural and technological aspects of male pregnancy, which will discussed by Irina Aristarkhova, professor at Penn State. A presentation on Russian Cosmism as a philosophy that influenced the Soviet science is intended to give perspectives other than a Western Centric view on collaboration among disciplines. Senses Alert by the Russian artist and curator Dimitry Bulatov and the hilariously creative comment on eugenics, the film Kefir Grains Are Going Onto the Flight by Yurii Leiderman and Andrei Silvestrov, also add to this critical perspective on Russian Cosmism.

Centuries ago Leonardo crossed borders of knowledge through his interdisciplinary practice. Now in postmodern times, after the split of sciences and arts we are crossing borders of disciplines again and by that we are "crossing borders" of knowledge. For some, this task is technological or simply illustrational. Often these collaborations don't enter the territories of philosophy or sociology. Corpus Extremus is integrated with a strong interest in the social side of science and technology. But how does it work? The scientists propose hypotheses and promote new tech advances and create future scenarios about the development of humanity. Social scientists, philosophers and historians analyze what are the possible benefits or threats of the application of these new technologies. What is the role of the artists in all that? The artists are the ones who can make simultaneously an embodiment of future scientific scenarios   and expose the ethical issues that the social scientists are concerned with. Artists have the advantage of visual language--which can be understandable or attractive for wider public.

This "new," but also old, marriage of disciplines gives an opportunity for non-professionals to make intelligent decisions about the application of science and tech research. Ignorance and lack of dialogue is what creates ground for manipulation.