[spectre] Trust Me, I'm an Artist

[Annick2]

Dear Spectrites,


This year 2015 starts with a new exciting project for 
Leonardo/Olats as we are a partner in the european project 
Trust Me, I'm an Artist (2015 -2016) exploring ethical 
issues in art that engage with biotechnology and medicine.

http://olats.org/trustme/trustme.php

You will find below the description of the project

Annick

"Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Developing Ethical Frameworks for 
Artists, Cultural Institutions and Audiences Engaged in the 
Challenges of Creating and Experiencing New Art Forms in 
Biotechnology and Biomedicine in Europe" (yes, the title is 
a bit long ...)

is a collaboration between Waag Society, Brighton and Sussex 
Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery, 
Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo/Olats.

The lead artist on the project is Anna Dumitriu, the lead 
ethicist is Professor Bobbie Farsides, the lead organization 
being De Waag.

The aim of “Trust Me, I’m an Artist” is to investigate how 
artists and cultural institutions can best engage with 
biotechnology and biomedicine in order to drive innovation 
in artistic production, ways of presenting artworks, and 
developing new audiences in Europe.

The main goal is to provide artists, cultural institutions 
and audiences with the skills to understand the ethical 
issues that arise in the creation and exhibition of artworks 
made in collaboration with biotechnology and biomedicine.

Additionally the project will provide science and technology 
collaborators with new ethical frameworks for successfully 
working with cultural and creative players. By giving 
confidence to stakeholders it will open up opportunities for 
artists and creative organisations to work in new 
partnerships across Europe and internationally.

Lead artist Anna Dumitriu said:
“Artists tend to work at the forefront of innovation and 
push boundaries, whilst engaging in ethical and 
philosophical challenges that resonate through society 
around new technologies, and this project has the potential 
to situate them at the forefront of the latest research. Our 
high impact outputs will prompt new ways of thinking about 
how art, biotechnology and biomedicine can intersect, and 
bring together diverse stakeholders and audiences to create 
new ways of working at the cutting edge of art, science and 
technology.”

Trust me, I’m an Artist will involve a series of practical 
and discussion-based participatory workshop activities; a 
major series of performative events (before a live 
audiences) where a specially selected artist will propose an 
ethically complex artwork to a specially formed ethics 
committee (following the rules and procedures typical for 
the host country), the ethics committee will then debate the 
proposal and come to a decision, the artist will then be 
informed of the ethics committee’s decision and, alongside 
the audience, they can enter into a discussion about the result.

The learning from the project will be shared through a major 
symposium; a touring exhibition; a series of publications; a 
website; and an exciting distributable format designed to 
give other cultural institutions, artists groups, community 
groups, students and individuals the opportunity to 
stimulate dialogue by creating their own DIY Trust Me, I’m 
an Artist events, leaving a strong legacy for what we learn.

This new project builds on the strong foundations laid by 
the previous "Trust Me, I'm an Artist: Towards an Ethics of 
Art and Science Collaboration" project. The book of that 
project is available here 
http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Artist-Dumitriu-Bobbie-Farsides/dp/1320097383/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408814598&sr=1-1 


The Trust Me, I'm an Artist project is supported by funding 
from the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

The UT Dallas ATEC ArtSciLab supports and participates in 
the Trust Me, I'm an Artist project through the Leonardo 
Initiatives projects in Experimental Publishing including 
the Creative Disturbance platform 
(www.creativedisturbance.org) channel on art and biology 
(http://creativedisturbance.org/channel/meta-life) 
associated to Audiolats and the Meta-Life project website 
(http://synthbioart.texashats.org).