Monday, March 18, 2019

HYDRO_PERFORMANCE Night. Performances, Talks with New Cassettes and Vinyls!

With Kat Austen, Robertina Šebjanič and Fara Peluso as part of the exhibition Watery Ecologies. Artistic Research.

16 March 2019, 9 PM at Art Laboratory Berlin

Curator Regine Rapp

Artist and designer Fara Peluso
___TALKS

Short introduction into the ongoing exhibition WATERY ECOLOGIES and the three different artistic approaches on water – by curator Regine Rapp.

Then Fara Peluso, one of the artists of the show, will give an insight into her long-term research that focuses on potential uses for algae as an environmental regulator, source for sustainable materials, and aesthetic catalyser of biophilia. She proposes a closer relationship between humans and algae as an answer to our current environmental crisis. Her research and practice combine working with biotechnologists and DIY scientists in speculative and critical design to produce a myriad of innovative design and artistic solutions.

Fara Peluso is an artist/ designer based in Berlin working at the interconnection between design, art and science. Through a speculative design practice she wants to raise critical questions about which possible relationships between human beings and living organisms can be envisioned for near possible futures. After the successful eradication of the concept that the human being is the most important living organism on earth, she wants to contribute to cancelling the hierarchies between us and nature, to become more conscious and participative with ecological systems.
http://www.farapeluso.com/site/




Artist Kat Austen



___PERFORMANCES

Kat Austen

The Matter of the Soul | Symphony (Performance – today with Panke Water)

The Matter of the Soul | Symphony is a performance work that engenders empathy with a consequence of climate change: process of dispersal and transformation in the Arctic region. The work draws together stories of human migration and melting ice in the Arctic, and changing identity on and offline. The musical compositions for The Matter of the Soul are based around audio field recordings of Arctic waters made using hacked pH and conductivity meters. During this very special performance at Art Laboratory Berlin, Austen will weave together the global and local, accompanying the song of the Arctic along with live improvisation using her hacked instruments, playing the water from her closest river, the Panke in Wedding, Berlin.

Kat Austen’s work focuses on interrogating the boundary between what we think of as the self and other(s). Her work relates to redefining and enriching our relationship to the environment, with a particular focus on climate change.  Austen is a Berlin-based artist. She is Teaching Fellow at UCL Arts and Sciences BASc. She was Cultural Fellow in Art and Science at the University of Leeds 2018 and 2017-18 Artist in the Arctic for Friends of SPRI / Scott Polar Research Institute, sponsored by Bonhams and OneOcean. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from University College London and the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
http://katausten.com, http://katausten.bandcamp.com






Kat Austen

Kat Austen

Robertina Šebjanič and Kat Austen

Robertina Šebjanič and Kat Austen

Robertina Šebjanič

Robertina Šebjani
č
Aquatocene_Performance

Aquatocene / The subaquatic quest for serenity investigates the phenomenon of underwater noise pollution created by humankind in the seas and oceans. The sound compositions are a re-mix between the bioacoustics of marine life (shrimps, fish, sea urchins etc.), the aquatic acoustics and the presence of human generated noise in the world’s oceans and seas. The audio compositions of the subaquatic soundscape encourage us to reflect upon the anthropogenic sonic impact on the underwater habitat and marine life.


Robertina Šebjani
č, based in Ljubljana, is internationally exhibited and awarded artist. Her artwork deals with cultural, (bio)political and ecological realities of aquatic environments. With her projects she tackles the philosophical questions at the intersection of art, technology and science. She was awarded with an Honorary Mention @Prix Ars Electronica, nominated for STARTS2016 and for the White Aphroid award. She was SHAPE platform 2017 artist and in 2018 she was artist resident at Ars Electronica (EMAP/EMARE).
http://robertina.net/aquatocene/


Robertina Šebjanič

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Robertina Šebjanič, Aquatocene / The subaquatic quest for serenity vinyls
 All images © Art Laboratory Berlin 2019

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Watery Ecologies. Artistic Research

Kat Austen | Mary Maggic | Fara Peluso 


Opening 19 January 2019, 7PM
20 January - 17 March 2019

Fri - Sun 2-6PM and by appointment


16 March 2019, 9 PM: HYDRO_PERFORMANCE Night.
Performances, Talks with New Cassettes and Vinyls! With Kat Austen, Robertina Šebjanič and Fara Peluso

 

Installation view Kat Austen,(left), Fara Peluso (right)

Installtion view, Mary Maggic
 Watery Ecologies. Artistic Research presents three artists pursuing research in biology, chemistry and ethnography with distinct DIY methods. Diverse approaches to the hydrosphere, the sum of the planet's water, explore the foundations of life and the threat of human impact on both the environment and our own bodies.

Kat Austen, The Matter of the Soul/ Symphony, 2017-ongoing
Kat Austen, The Matter of the Soul, 2017-ongoing
The Matter of the Soul examines the impact of climate change in the Canadian High Arctic through sound composition, sculpture and performance. Here, Kat Austen, an artist with a PhD in Chemistry, combines scientific knowledge, hacked equipment and ethnographic research with a strong aesthetic approach. Crucial to the work is the lived experience of being in a time of melting in the Arctic. The compositions contain field recordings of acidity and salinity, affected by arctic ice melt, using altered pH and conductivity meters; as well as samples from interviews with visitors to and inhabitants of Baffin Island and Resolute, Canada.

Mary Maggic, installation view
Mary Maggic, Video: Housewives Making Drugs, 2017
The work of Mary Maggic focuses on the presence and effect of endocrine disruptors in water. Not just estrogen from birth control pills, but many pesticides and other chemicals produce estrogen-like chemicals that flow into wetlands and infiltrate drinking water. Maggic's work also questions our cultural notions of gender conformity at a time when our industrial drainage has changed the environment chemically and hormonally for over a century. Maggic's projects Open Source Estrogen and Estrofem! Lab generate DIY protocols for the extraction and detection of estrogen hormones from bodies and environments, reflecting micro-performability and a potential for sex and gender hacking. 

 
Fara Peluso, Installation view

Fara Peluso, VIVA, 2016
Fara Peluso, Algae based materials, 2017- ongoing
Artist designer Fara Peluso's long-term research focuses on potential uses for algae as an environmental regulator, source for sustainable materials, and aesthetic catalyser of biophilia. She proposes a closer relationship between humans and algae as an answer to our current environmental crisis. Her research and practice combine working with biotechnologists and DIY scientists with speculative and critical design to produce a myriad of innovative design and artistic solutions.
(More information)


All Photos © Tim Deussen 2019 

Friday, March 01, 2019

28 February 2019, 7PM Mind the Fungi: Update and Presentations


 
Mind the Fungi is a two-year collaborative project between the Technische Universität Berlin and Art Laboratory Berlin.

There will be short presentations of some of the project partners about the process so far: collecting, cultivating and identifying the fungi, as well as a discussion of upcoming events:

- Regine Rapp | Art Laboratory Berlin
- Prof. Dr. Vera Meyer
| Institute of Biotechnology - Applied and Molecular Microbiology, TU Berlin
- Bertram Schmidt | Institute of Biotechnology - Applied and Molecular Microbiology, TU Berlin