[-empyre-] Mediated Matters

[Adam Nocek]

Hi all,

I'd like to thank our invited guests, Ross and Adrian, for participating
this past week, as well as all those who joined in the discussion! I'm
really encouraged by what has been developing over the past week,
especially in relation designing for/with uncertainty and wearable
technologies.

I do want to draw attention to the notion of the "urban" that Ross
highlighted, which will be picked up again, I believe, in the last week. In
any case, what you suggest re: urbanization seems to resonate with Neil
Brenner’s work in important ways (e.g., his  insightful introduction to the
edited volume, Implosions/Explosions: Towards A Study of Planetary
Urbanization), especially his central provocation that the urban has no
outside (extending Lefebvre’s work). Though what I'm particularly intrigued
by is your final question: How can we imagine a spatial organization truly
beyond the urban? I think this responds in a really insightful way to how
urban design in particular needs to become unrecognizable to itself. Though
I wonder whether and how urbanization functions in other design practices,
that is, continues and extends urbanization in different and often
unrecognizable forms?

In any case, I'd like to invite you all to continue the conversations from
last week, as well as welcome Oron Catts who contributed to the month on
bioart I hosted last September. I don't want to derail any important themes
that are emerging here, but I'm sure that Oron will be able to offer some
insight into the use of biodesign/tech that is  geared toward more
aesthetic and ethical forms of experimentation. Perhaps this will open up
some interesting questions for Johannes and Susan as well.

Welcome Oron!

(Unfortunately, Luciana Parisi will not be able to join us due to a family
emergency. Our thoughts are with you, Luciana.)

Here is a bio for Oron:

Oron Catts (AU) is an artist, researcher and curator whose pioneering work
with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is
considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded
SymbioticA, an artistic research centre housed within the School of
Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia.
Under Catts’ leadership SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars
Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) the WA Premier Science Award
(2008) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008. In 2009 Catts was
recognised by Thames & Hudson’s “60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future”
book in the category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of
the top 20 Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”.

Catts interest is Life; more specifically the shifting relations and
perceptions of life in the light of new knowledge and it applications.
Often working in collaboration with other artists (mainly Dr. Ionat Zurr)
and scientists, Catts have developed a body of work that speak volumes
about the need for new cultural articulation of evolving concepts of life.
Catts was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School, a visiting Scholar
at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, and a
Visiting Professor of Design Interaction, Royal College of Arts, London.
Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is
often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials,
textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.
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