[rohrpost] Lecture: I. Reichle: When Life Becomes Art, KHM, 20.07., 19h

[Kathrin Friedrich]

pdf-version attached


When Life Becomes Art: Molecular Biology and the Arts

Evening Lecture by Dr. Ingeborg Reichle
(Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

Tues. 20 July 2010 19:00 hrs.
at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), Aula, Filzengraben 2, 50676 Köln

By contrasting contemporary art with recent scientific developments, it is
possible to demonstrate that art today not only serves to comment on
science, but also represents a form of research and knowledge production
in its own right, though one belonging to a radically different
epistemological tradition. Moving beyond the postulated dichotomy of the
“objective” sciences and the “subjective” arts, contemporary art shows us
that art is no longer limited to the production of beautiful artefacts,
but has established its role as a legitimate form of knowledge production
in its own right. Today the engagement of art with science ranges from
artists’ iconological handling of scientific imaging to research projects
executed as artistic endeavours by artists working in the laboratory. In
the last two decades we have seen a number of artists leave the
traditional artistic playground to work instead in scientific contexts
such as the laboratories of molecular biologists. Such artistic
interventions in genetics and biological forms have made possible new
means of artistic expression and art forms, like ‘Transgenic Art’ and
‘Bio-Art’. These new art forms differ dramatically from more traditional
artistic approaches that explore the natural and additionally have
developed new methodologies. More radically these new art forms have
crossed the boundaries between the artificial and the natural, provoking a
different understanding of ‘nature’.

Dr. Ingeborg Reichle is an art historian and theorist at the
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany. From 1998
till 2005 she was active at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. She has
done interdisciplinary studies in London and Hamburg and holds an MA in
Art History from the University of Hamburg and a PhD at the Art History
Department at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. Her doctoral
dissertation, dealing with Art and Biotechnology in the Age of
Technoscience, was published (Springer 2005, in German) 2009 at Springer
in English: “Art in the Age of Technoscience. Genetic Engineering,
Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art.“ From 1998 to 2003, she
lectured on gender studies and new media art at the Art History Department
at the Humboldt-University and was involved in the practical application
of electronics in the deployment of computers and new media in art
historical works like PROMETHEUS and she was developing relevant internet
resources. Since 2005 she is active as project leader of the
interdisciplinary research group “Bildkulturen” at the Berlin-Brandenburg
Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin and lectures at the Hermann
von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik at the Humboldt-University in
Berlin.

The evening lecture is part of the International Summer School 2010
“Living Matter. Art & Research & Science Studies in Biological
Laboratories” (KHM Cologne in cooperation with FU Berlin,
www.fu-berlin.de/embodiedinformation) and funded by the Federal Ministry
of Education and Research (BMBF)



Kathrin Friedrich
Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln
Peter-Welter-Platz 2
D-50676 Köln

Tel.: 0221/20189-313
kfriedrich at khm.de
www.khm.de