[spectre] Press Release - Synapese May eList: Impairment & Augmentation

[ANAT Communications]

What to do with what you've (not) got: Impairment & Augmentation

Media Release  **Apologies for cross posting**

The Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) is pleased to
announce the May discussion on the Synapse elist which, throughout
2008, is investigating the leading-edge of art and science research
collaboration.

The use of augmenting technologies for different types of bodies
results in very different things. Issues related to functional
impairment and the use of prostheses to extend ability are not the same
as those raised by the use of prostheses to achieve a type of
'super-functionality' on the one hand, or to question what bodies are
and could be, on the other.

Throughout the month of May the Synapse elist will discuss impairment
and augmentation and, specifically, artistic engagement with this
field. The discussion will look at different types of augmentation
practices and tease out the impacts of each on how we think about,
inhabit and use our bodies. Also under investigation will be the way in
which artistic concerns intersect with experiences of impairment and/or
augmentation - from the synaesthesic nature of communication aids, to
the questions raised by an artist's use of network-driven prostheses.

 DISCUSSION GUESTS

LIZBETH GOODMAN is Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute and
Magic Gamelab at the University of East London. She established (and is
now Director of) the Trust Project for children in hospital, which uses
gaming and haptics to enhance the physical well-being and learning of
those with limited physical ability.
http://www.smartlab.uk.com/1about/director.htm

JU GOSLING, aka ju90, is a London-based artist, writer and activist who
works primarily with digital lens-based media, but also with
performance, text and sound. In 2006-07, she undertook a residency at
the UK's National Institute of Medical Research, where she explored how
science affects the way we perceive ideas of disability and normality,
leading her to develop a scientific model of disability.
http://www.ju90.co.uk

BRAD NUNN, an artist, has been exhibiting since the late 1980s. He
holds a PhD in Visual Arts and teaches sculpture and fine art programs
at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In 1993 Brad had a serious
brain haemorrhage, leaving him with physical and neurological deficits.
Since then, his artistic practice has explored and engaged with the
prevailing ideas of the prosthesis in contemporary culture.
http://www.synapse.net.au/people/brad_nunn

STELARC is an Australian performance artist who has presented his work
extensively in Japan, Europe, and the USA. His projects have included
the Third Hand, a Stomach Sculpture and Exoskeleton, a six-legged
walking robot. His present project involves surgically constructing an
extra ear on his arm that will be internet enabled. He is Chair in
Performance Art at Brunel University and a Senior Research Fellow at
the MARCS Labs at the University of Western Sydney.
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au



To subscribe to the elist visit: www.synapse.net.au and select
'Discussion List'

 ___________________________________________________
ANAT is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia
Council http://www.ozco.gov.au its arts funding and advisory body, by
the South Australian Government through ArtsSA http://www.arts.sa.gov.au
and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian,
State and Territory Governments.