Medientheorie: Suzanne Anker, Frank Rösl

13:45 - 16:15
Suzanne Anker (New York City) and Frank Rösl (Heidelberg)

On October 15, 2019, the Department of Media Theory will host two talks: one by U.S. artist Suzanne Anker (Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts, New York City) on The Afterlife of Particles, and one by German scientist and cancer researcher Frank Rösl (Head of the Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg) on The Art and Science Experiment: A Critical View.
Suzanne Anker will focus in her talk on the circumstance that for Aristotle, the distinction between the organic and inorganic is a categorical given. However, in the twenty-first century such distinctions are under review. As synthetic biology breaks down the boundaries between discrete entities, forms in nature have become a hybrid mix. Her talk will consider the ways in which molecular mix and match is in keeping with the history of life’s complexity. Frank Rösl will offer a critical perspective on the fact that these days art is also emerging from laboratories: art and science are two disciplines where creativeness and imagination are the driving forces. Based on these attributes, the direct interaction and collaboration between artists and scientists can be very productive through exchanging ideas and insights from different, unbiased perspectives. Moreover, there are also many examples where “bioart” has been used as a medium to transfer a message to the consumer/observer as a kind of a metaphorical interpretation of cultural and scientific changes and their impact on our society. However, in the current discourse of contemporary bioart manipulating life has ethical implications and even limitations. In his talk, Frank Rösl will discuss these issues from the viewpoint of a scientist working in basic research who is open-minded enough to work together with artists, but who also sees the limits that must not be exceeded.

Programme

Introduction
Ingeborg Reichle, Department of Media Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna

The Afterlife of Particles
Suzanne Anker, Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts, New York City, USA

The Art and Science Experiment: A Critical View
Frank Rösl, Head of the Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany

18:00 - 20:00
Leonardo LASER Talk

Since 2018 the Department of Media Theory is serving as co-host of Leonardo’s LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Talks - an international programme of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversations.
On October 15 the LASER “The Art and Science Experiment in the Age of CRISPR” with Suzanne Anker (New York), Frank Rösl (Heidelberg) and Margarete Jahrmann (Vienna / Zurich) chaired by Ingeborg Reichle and Klaus Spiess will take place: In recent decades science-based art emerged, enhancing progressive encounters of the art world with cutting-edge technologies and the technosciences. With the rise of bioart, a variety of new materials, such as DNA, bacteria, cells, tissue cultures, and transgenic organisms, entered art studios as a means of artistic expression. Obviously, this made it necessary for artists to get acquainted with new epistemologies and a new logic of producing reality within the techno-scientific regime. By bringing their artistic endeavour to the public’s attention, science-based art has provoked greater reflection on the limits of manipulating and creating life with biotech tools, highlighting Genome Editing tools like CRISPR. Therefore, it is high time to shed some light on the relationship of ontology and aesthetics in the age of technoscience by focusing on the production of art that is related to technoscience; not only because of the technologies and tools it uses—but most importantly because from this relationship a new model emerges which is fruitful for understanding and interpreting our reality. Contributions will come from bioart, cancer research, cutting-edge artistic research, and media theory.

Contributors:

Suzanne Anker (US) The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age (10 min)

is a visual artist and theorist working at the intersection of art and the biological sciences. She is chairing Fine Arts Department at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in NYC since 2005 and continues to interweave traditional and experimental media in her department’s new digital initiative and the SVA Bio Art Lab.

Frank Rösl (DE) The Art and Science Experiment: A Critical View (10 min)

is a professor and head of the Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms Research Programme “Infection, Inflammation and Cancer”, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. This field of research received considerable publicity when Harald zur Hausen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008, his mentor and colleague with whom Frank worked together for more than 15 years.

Margarete Jahrmann (AT) The Ludic Method: A playful form of artistic research or how to design more naturalistic experiments in cognitive sciences (10 min)

is an Austrian media epistemologist and artist working on activism, urbanism and play. She holds a professorship for Game Art and Game Design since 2006 at the University of the Arts in Zurich and since 2019 she is also active as Professor for Artistic Research at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Chair
Klaus Spiess (AT)

is an internist, psychoanalyst, medical anthropologist, and a specialist in metabolic psychosomatics, who runs the cross-disciplinary Arts and Science programme at the Medical University of Vienna, where he is Associate Professor of Arts in Medicine at the Center for Public Health.

Co-Chair
Ingeborg Reichle (DE)

is the Chair of the Department of Media Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her primary area of research and teaching is the encounter of the arts with science and cutting-edge technologies such as biotechnology and synthetic biology.

LASER Talks were founded in 2008 by Bay Area LASER Chair Piero Scaruffi and are taking place in over 30 cities around the world. The mission of the LASERs is to provide the general public with a snapshot of the cultural environment of a region and to foster interdisciplinary networking. The host of Leonardo’s LASER Talks in Vienna is Klaus Spiess, an internist, psychoanalyst, medical anthropologist and a specialist in metabolic psychosomatics, who runs the cross-disciplinary Arts and Science programme at the Medical University of Vienna, where he is active as Associate Professor of Arts in Medicine at the Center for Public Health. His performances and installations have been shown in Europe and the USA. He has published on the subject of his work in Leonardo, The Journal of Performance Research and The Lancet, among other publications. The co-host Ingeborg Reichle is the head of the Department of Media Theory and serves as full professor of Media Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her primary area of research and teaching is the encounter of the arts with science and with cutting edge technologies like biotechnology and synthetic biology.