Hello George and Melinda

I feel taking projects, ideas and opportunities to the streets is a very
good statement, and I too believe that things are circular and
interlinked so I am also sorry if I repeat myself!

George I was wondering if you had heard of an organisation here in
Scotland that I work for, Art In Hospital? They are a charitable
organisation who employ graduate artists to facilitate a variation of
projects in hospitals and care homes. The approach is not prescriptive,
rather works with the interests and skills of both the artist and the
participants. This type of project management allows for a feedback
system that encourages a two-way exchange, so instead of an artist
delivering art therapy as such, they facilitate a range of activities
that allow for the development of new understandings of what the
creative process can be. Some of these projects particularly on the
East-coast are only short-term and in their infancy, but some of the
longer term ones in the Glasgow area are very interesting indeed. They
allow deep relationships to be built with the artists, patients and
hospital staff and take place in such places as kidney dialysis and
premature baby units, these types of departments playing out a daily
existence on a life/death knife-edge. One such artist is Kirsty
Stansfield, who has developed sound objects as part of her (now
completed) PhD research and is currently working on 'scores', discursive
and performative narrative based on the conversations that she has had
with parents of little kids who are hanging onto life. I wrote an
introductory paragraph to AIH here two years ago; there is also links to
Kirsty's site here http://www.thenextlayer.org/node/71

Getting back to the art/science issue, my own PhD research has spawned
simply from a need to understand my own process within the greater
scheme of research which, in the larger University (scientific) system
has become commodified thus is only verifiable through specific
methodological approaches. This has encouraged me to move me into the
low-tech DIY (I refuse to be known as an amateur!) sector, and as stated
before I find the notions of experimentation, residency and workshops of
extreme interest as a methodological approach, and the implications that
this may have for the presentation and curation of the final conclusion
of my thesis. I should say here that my very broad interests are water
and electromagnetism so I suppose I fall into the physics category,
although I do prefer 'explorer' as it is more open ended! Details of
recent work are here if any are interested
http://www.shiftfestival.ch/en/shift-2009/program/exhibition/#brown
http://vimeo.com/7198032

However as an artist I am 'against method' in certain situations, and
(as we all know) interesting discoveries can be lost when research
becomes too prescriptive and methodologically restrained. Because of
this I feel that I do fall between art and science, and this is allowing
my other work experiences with local authority and curriculum education
to come into play. At the end of September I co-organised Spectral
Ecologies - Wavelength, which was a three-day exploration into acoustic
and electromagnetic phenomena. The approach was artistic, as it was not
bound by pre-conceived notions, theories or testing frameworks,
therefore it encouraged a material and philosophical experimentation on
a number of veins. As this was a pilot workshop it was only attended by
artists, but was also advertised within the local hacking and student
communities. http://ptechnic.org/ecologies/spectral/index.html

The interesting thing for me also is the partnerships that allowed this
to happen. This was held at Mills Observatory, one of the few public
observatories in the UK. This is a scientific establishment that is
under local authority control, which allows a variation of educational
projects to happen with the support of the scientific and cultural
steering committee. This for m
e has been a relationship that I have
built up over time, botTeam at Dundee Council, and as an artist who is interested in science.
My first attempt at a solo curatorial project stemmed from a residency
at the observatory
http://lindsaybrown.wordpress.com/category/mills-observatory/

but in the future I would like to plan a more ambitious curatorial
project that utilises the experimental abilities of art to pick up the
ideas that both science and culture have left behind, perhaps with the
integration of a variety of sympathetic science/art partners further
afield, instead of just Tayside. As regards curriculum education, some
other things in the brain pipeline are sculptural objects that play with
unseen phenomena that introduces kids to a layered educational
experience such as electromagnetism, craft and spatial understanding,
this of course has to also be fun. This also tweeks my own interests of
the duality of purpose of the object, as givers of information in a very
measured 'scientific' way, yet allows layers of meaning so that the
object also has potential as an art object (please see link above for
Electric Chair at Shift Festival). Two further examples of these are the
Faraday Tent and the Whirly-gig Radio. These however have to wait a
while as this depends on funding which also depend on my limited PhD
time, although some schools are already interested.
http://vimeo.com/902520
http://lindsaybrown.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/radio-men/

As a last thing, this book is written by a scientist 'Performative
Science and Beyond: Involving the Process in Research' by Hans Diebner'.
I was wondering given the information on my interests above, if anyone
had read it and if it would be of use to me? Hans is also an ex-student
of Otto Rossler, the author of Endophysics- world as interface, so that
alone would suggest that I should read it. However as usual, the
academic/art world is charging for knowledge transfer so before I spend
£30 hard-earned AIH quid, it would be great to know if it would
really be of interest to me. Does anyone have a synopsis as the one
available online is quite general.

With very best wishes from sunny Scotland
Lindsay




Lindsay Brown
PhD Researcher in Art and Media

DOJCA
Visual Research Centre 
University of Dundee

Mobile: (0044) 7845 955087
Email: [log in to unmask]

http://www.lindsaybrown.wordpress.com
>>> Melinda Rackham <[log in to unmask]> 11/13/09 1:07 AM >>>
hi George and list

this is completely on topic for me as it pivots on what ones  
definition of scientific research is..
I'm familiar with the work you've  been doing individually and  
collaboratively over the years and i know that you works have fabulous  
user friendly interfaces, which give direct visual feedback to  really  
engage diverse audiences, and i personally find your work a joy  
amongst a myriad of sometimes overly engineered shiny steel art  
science art works with lengthy explanations where the creators have  
gone too far to try to display scientific rigor.

I know you have worked with other/alternate health practitioners, who  
come from a different more holistic approach to medical research and  
knowledge, like Feldenkris etc,. again, this sort of work is more  
underground and self initiated due to funding models, and 'national  
research priorities". science is such a highly regulated field,  
because its so powerful.. both dangerous and life threatening to the  
planet, and life enhancing and miraculous. Roger  knows much more  
about this...  the art arena looks like meandering river compared to  
the grided world of science. And again I'd echo other voices who look  
to the narrow perspectives of our education systems from kindergarten  
to post doctoral research - and perhaps id go back to Orons missive  
about whose interests art and science serves..

  Sorry to be circular.. but it is actually all connected.

So i see the progress of these field of enquiry happening mostly  
either at policy level or the DIY model, as e
ven tho we have all made  
great inroads and built many brearly adopters and quiet restrained by the institutions and legalities  
of our cultures. When I  was in a former position we funded an  
Australian artist to work in an international lab to do genetic work  
which was not legal in Australia.. it was an issue which could have  
quiet serious ramifications for  the organization and the the  
Australian sector as a whole, but the decision to take that risk was  
ratified at Board level.  Steve Kurtz's collaborator geneticist Robert  
Ferrell  Professor of Human Genetics  used his University of  
Pittsburgh account with a biological supply company to order bio  
organisms for Kurtz's projects. He took that risk to supply CAE with  
material and his life was wrecked by it..  suffereing severe health  
problems from the stress of being labelled a bioterrorist and facing  
20 years jail- he had two minor strokes and a major stroke which  
required months of rehabilitation through the trial.

Even with working top down or bottom up we are culturally constrained  
in the 30 year cycle it takes to shift educational thinking and  
curricula.. however it is possible and it is happening -  i'm a great  
fan of "glocalness." the holism which is appearing around the  
globe/..   the eat local movement, the organic and farming diversity  
movements, in the renewed craft movement, the slow movement, the sloth  
club, the free software movement - all part of a cultural shift which  
we will see change the face of society in our lifetime..

and its pretty obvious that we need to change after that hughly costly  
lofty hight of modernism slumped, -  its just that a it takes a little  
time to overcome the concept that the momentum of progress is  
unsustainable rather than unstoppable . the slump, the laying fallow,  
the fear and the futility of todays culturally norms are just cyclical  
-- and the renewal of interdisciplinary is a far wider-reaching issue  
than just in art~science curatorial practice - so take it to the  
streets and the people I say :)

warm regards,
                     Melinda

Melinda Rackham (PhD)
Emerging Artforms Curator
Adjunct Professor of RMIT University

a	P.O. Box 1109
	North Adelaide
	South Australia 5006

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On 11/11/2009, at 11:19 PM, George Poonkhin Khut wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I'm wondering if anyone on this list has any experiences they'd like  
> to
> discuss concerning arts-science interactions OUTSIDE university and  
> art
> gallery contexts? Sorry if this is off topic!
>
> I'm thinking here of science museum interactive exhibitions, but  
> equally
> things like permaculture villages for school children, arts-health
> programmes etc. - and interested in examples that incorporate art- 
> like foci
> - requiring participants to articulate their subjective response,  
> map their
> situation etc. imagine alternate scenarios, consequences etc.
>
> For the record - I'm a great fan of John Dewey, and the kind of  
> second-wave
> Pragmatist Aesthetics currently being championed by Richard  
> Shusterman - the
> work of art (the work that art does) as deeply embodied/situated -  
> both
> physiologically and socio-politically.
>
> I presented my interactive art project The Heart Library at St.  
> Vincent's
> Public Hospital, in Sydney, this year. It was a small pilot project  
> - my
> first in a hospital. My aim with this show was to access new  
> audiences for
> my work, and to explore what it could mean to present a body-focused
> interactive artwork in a busy public hospital setting. To recover  
> some sense
> of wonder, delight, intrigue and playfulness from an otherwise highly
> problematic and/or painful experience for many of the people in this
> building.
>
> The exhibition was promoted to hospital community as being open to  
> all:
> patients, their families and friends, and all hospital staff. The  
> response
> on the 
whole was good, but interestingly I had no participation> doctors. I suspect this has something to do with the headspace they  
> need to
> be in. The existing art programme consists mostly of changing  
> exhibitions of
> 2D works around the hospital corridors - and this programme is well
> supported by all staff and visitors. A longer exhibition period (the  
> show
> only lasted 12 days) may have led to eventual engagement from the  
> doctors
> and specialists....
>
> In terms of a set of communities that I work to engage with - and  
> that I
> situate my practice within - its always been important to me that  
> the work
> remain open and accessible to people without a 'professional'  
> interest in
> the arts (or design and science/technology for that matter. To this  
> end I
> try to work with organisations that I know put a lot of work into  
> engaging
> with a more general and or local community - beyond the highly  
> specialised
> networks of the contemporary art scenes, and university research  
> centres -
> though these networks are crucial to the survival of my practice!
>
> My main interest as an artist is in engaging with a more general  
> public (for
> want of a better word) - my work doesn't depend on a high degree of
> art-historical literacy, though this can add to the experience . I  
> see my
> work as facilitating experiences of wonder, quiet contemplation and  
> playful
> exploration around autonomic nervous system process - and our  
> experience of
> our own bodies more generally - which hopefully extends to broader
> speculations concerning our embodiment and the values and meanings  
> we assign
> to this situation.
>
> To this end - I've been working with interview processes in my  
> exhibitions
> where ever the situation permits - using interviews as a way of
> consolidating the visitors experience - and embedding it within  
> their wider
> set of life experience and models of the world. After their  
> interaction with
> the biofeedback part of the work - I invite participants to create an
> illustrated map of their experience -located inside and across a  
> simple
> outline of a human body. The drawing helps participants gather their
> impressions of the interaction - and in many instances - represents  
> the body
> as a site imbued with subjectivity, life experiences and imagination.
>
> My priority so far has been on just having these conversations and
> exhibiting the drawings that people make - along side the sensor-based
> component of the work, but I will be working on publishing selected
> transcripts in 2010.
>
> Biosensing technologies and biofeedback interaction (and by default -
> learning) are central to the work that I have been pursuing for the  
> past
> seven years - and to this end I am regularly being asked which  
> scientists or
> medical researchers I have been collaborating with. Truth is I've  
> had a hard
> time getting any of these folks interested at all - the technology  
> for this
> work has been around for a long time - and technically - there's not  
> much a
> project like my own has to offer to the vast body of technical  
> research all
> ready out there.
>
> What interests me is how I can collaborate with others to facilitate  
> a more
> nuanced and engaged process of critical enquiry on the part of the
> audiences I like to engage with. What IS critical enquiry in this  
> context?
> Art practice considered here as as sub-set of semi-formal social
> interactions that combine imagination, sensuality, play,  
> speculation, and
> curiosity.
>
> In these exhibitions, I find it tremendously challenging to strike a  
> balance
> between providing people with - on one hand - some understanding of  
> the
> psychophysiological principals behind the interaction - without
> oversimplifying the facts to the point of misinterpretation - and on  
> the
> other - the risk that in describing things in too great a detail - can
> detract from a more sensual quality 
of engagement that I hold to be
> fundamental to the> talk about sensuality here - I refer to qualities of sensing, acting,
> reflecting and imaginatively extrapolating from - a given aesthetic
> situation, that describes you the participant and some aspect of  
> your being
> in this world.
>
> This has led me to start thinking about how we can better  
> understand, value
> and support very basic types of experimentation and skill/knowledge
> acquisition that takes place at a very individual level - through  
> attention
> to our body and its being in the world -  learning to talk, ride a  
> bike,
> dance, or re-learning these things after a stroke for example - and  
> to what
> extent  aesthetic experience might tap into these deeply sensual  
> forms of
> growth and learning.
>
> I find this area so exciting, but at this point equally very hard to  
> talk
> about!

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