[rohrpost] BioArt and Public Sphere Conference, October 17, 2005, University of California, Irvine

[Ingeborg Reichle]

BioArt and Public Sphere Conference
October 17, 2005, University of California, Irvine

A Project, Research, and Conference Initiative

This initiative aims to bring together artists, biologists, and science 
studies scholars, to address a broad range of questions about science in 
the public sphere. The list of possible research domains to be 
investigated includes, but is not limited to, genomics, tissue 
engineering, genetic engineering and stem cell research.

   1. What types of models of interdisciplinary engagement might 
facilitate rich, well-informed public participation in scientific discourse?
   2. How do we go beyond the "demo" model often used by science museums 
and approach the subject matter in an experiential hands-on way that 
allows for failure, redirection of research questions and the promotion 
of agency towards an area that is usually reserved for the expert community?
   3. What types of epistemological questions emerge at the intersection 
of biology, art, and the public sphere? How would an exchange mutually 
benefit the research areas of each discipline? Under which umbrella 
could research collaborations of this kind be supported?



9.00 am     Coffee/Breakfast Reception
9.30 am     Conference Introduction (Beatriz da Costa & Kavita Philip)

10-12.30pm     OPENING PLENARY: "CROSS-CATALYSIS"*

Sujatha Byravan: "Using the CRG as a case study for public engagement in 
science."
SymbioticA: "SymbioticA Biotech Art Workshop"
Paul Rabinow: "Contemporary Nature: On Modernism and Romanticism in Paul 
Klee, Gerhard Richter, and Synthetic Biology"
Jens Hauser: "Bio Art - Taxonomy of an Etymological Monster"

12.30-1.30pm     Lunch Break

1.30-3pm     SESSION I: "SYNERGETIC SYMBIOSIS"*

Claire Pentecost:"Outfitting the laboratory of the symbolic: towards a 
critical inventory of bio art"
Michael Dorsey: " "
Tau-Mu Yi: "The Aesthetics of Biological Design"

3-3.30pm     Coffee Break

3.30-5pm     SESSION II: "SURFACE TENSION"*

Charis Thompson:"Stem Cells and the Politics of Things in Science"
Abha Sur: "In the contradiction lies the hope": Reflections on Science, 
Race, and Caste"
Gabriella Coleman: "The Performance of Rationality: Psychiatric 
Survivors Critique of Bio-medical Psychiatry"

5-6.30pm     SESSION III: "FERMENTATION"*

Jenny Reardon:"Reckless Driving: Race Through Global Capital and Mass 
Spectrometry on Highway 5 " (multimedia presentation)
Faith Wilding: "A Cyberfeminist Politics of BioArt"
Rachel Mayeri: "Stories from the Genome" (screening)

Location:

University of California
Humanities Research Institute
338 Administration
Irvine CA 92697-3350

Tel: (949) 824-8180
Fax: (949) 824-2115

http://www.publicsphere.parasitelab.net/