[spectre] Laboratory Life - produced by Lighthouse & The Arts Catalyst

[Honor Harger]

Dear Spectres,

Please find below some information about a new project we're working 
on with The Arts Catalyst, which features artists Andy Gracie, Adam 
Zaretsky, Kira O'Reilly, Bruce Gilchrist, and Anna Dumitriu.

If you are in the Brighton area, please come and visit.

Best wishes,

Honor Harger
Director, Lighthouse
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk

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Laboratory Life

An art-science laboratory, led by artist Andy Gracie & organised by 
Lighthouse and The Arts Catalyst, staged as part of Brighton Science 
Festival.

Open Laboratory: 		22 - 28 February 2011
Exhibition: 		2 - 6 March 2011
Talks:			3, 5 March 2011
At:			Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton, UK
More information:		http://www.lighthouse.org.uk

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Medicine is being transformed by new technology - genetic 
engineering, robotics, new materials and informatics. But many of us 
feel ambivalent about these changes. Technology is both progress and 
a threat.   Laboratory Life addresses this ambivalence by creating a 
unique, interactive art-science laboratory, open to the public.

Conceived and led by artist Andy Gracie, a group of international 
artists and scientists from the UK, Spain and the US will be working 
with young doctors, scientists and emerging artists, to create a 
series of projects exploring the cutting edge of medical technology 
in a living laboratory at Lighthouse in Brighton.

What makes this project unique is its open nature. Most laboratories 
are closed to the public, and we have little idea of what goes on 
inside them. But Laboratory Life is adopting a radically open 
structure, inviting the public to come and visit the laboratory, meet 
the artists and scientists as they're working, and discuss what they 
are doing.

Visitors are welcome any afternoon between 1200 - 1800.  Visitors 
will meet artists Andy Gracie, Adam Zaretsky, Kira O'Reilly, Bruce 
Gilchrist, and Anna Dumitriu.  They will be working in close 
collaboration with scientists, John Paul (Health Protection Agency), 
Helen Smith (Brighton & Sussex Medical School), and Tom Shakespeare 
(World Health Organisation).

Joining them are sixteen exceptional young doctors, scientists and 
emerging artists, Sarah Roberts, Brian Degger, Melissa Grant, Kate 
Genevieve, Simona Casonato, David Louwrier, Daksha Patel, Kuiashen 
Auson, Janine Fenton, Meredith Walsh, Valerie Furnham, Columba 
Quigley, Genevieve Maxwell, Zack Denfield, Helen Bullard and Simon 
Hall.

Laboratory Life is inspired by the Interactivos? production workshop 
model, developed by Medialab Prado in Madrid. The title of the 
project - Laboratory Life - is taken from the title of Bruno Latour 
and Steve Woolgar's well-known book of the same name, which is an 
anthropological study of a scientific laboratory.


____ Exhibition
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/whatson/laboratorylifeex.htm
The artists and scientists will create five art-science projects 
which will be the basis of a fascinating exhibition at Lighthouse, 
featuring DNA tattooing, astrobiology, microbiological textiles and 
much more which is open to the public 2-6 March 2011, as part of 
Brighton Science Festival.

____ Talk
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/whatson/laboratorylife.htm
On 3 March, Andy Gracie, Kira O'Reilly and Anna Dumitriu will speak 
about their experiences of taking part in the Lab, and will discuss 
the process of making work using biomedical technology.

____ Forum
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/whatson/laboratorylifeforum.htm
On 5 March, Lighthouse hosts a public forum, where the public can 
debate the role of new technology in medicine.

____ About the Lead Artists
Anna Dumitriu is an artist who's installations and performances use a 
range of digital and biological media to blur the boundaries between 
art and science. Her project at Laboratory Life is Infective Textiles 
- a series of microbiological textile artworks.

Bruce Gilchrist is one half of London Fieldworks, an art collective 
who explore ecology as a complex inter-working of social, natural, 
and technological worlds. His project, Public Misunderstandings of 
Science, explores our relationship with scientific information.

Andy Gracie works with robotics, sound, video and biology to create 
exchanges between natural and artificial systems. His project The 
Quest for Drosophila titanus is an astrobiological experiment.

Kira O'Reilly employs performance, biotechnical practices and writing 
consider speculative ideas around the body. her project, The Garden 
Shed Lab is a DIY creative space using yeasts, eggs and plant tissues.

Adam Zaretsky is an artist who's radical practice encompasses 
biology, ecology, biotechnology, live art and gastronomy.  His 
project, Tattoo Traits, explores the feasibility of tattooing our DNA.

____ About the Organisers
Laboratory Life is organised by Lighthouse 
<http://www.lighthouse.org.uk> and The Arts Catalyst 
<http://www.artscatalyst.org>, with support from the Wellcome Trust 
<http://www.wellcome.ac.uk>.

It is conceived by artist Andy Gracie <http://www.hostprods.net>, 
based on the Interactivos? model developed by the Media Lab Prado in 
Madrid <http://medialab-prado.es/interactivos>. The project is part 
of Brighton Science Festival <http://www.brightonscience.com/2011>

____ More information
Lighthouse
Tel: 01273 647197
email: info at lighthouse.org.uk
web: www.lighthouse.org.uk
Address: Lighthouse, 28 Kensington Street, Brighton BN1 4AJ




-- 
Honor Harger

Director
Lighthouse
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk

Address: 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK
Tel: +44 1273 647197
email: honor at lighthouse.org.uk

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