[artinfo] (fwd) Call for contributions to the review "Plastik Art & Science"

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:59:24 +0200
Subject: Call for contributions to the review "Plastik Art & Science"
From: plastik <plastik.art.science at gmail.com>

call for contributions

In vivo
The artist on display?


[Plastik Art&Science]
http://art-science.univ-paris1.fr/

Art that is created out of the living world 
(bio-art, body-art, environmental art...) is 
today commonly directed by a desire that one 
could define using the prefix: "trans-".  One is 
of course immediately reminded of the transgenic, 
and Eduardo KAC's research, for example, on the 
genetic marker Lucifrase which he transmits to 
mice, or his creation, Edunia, a petunia carrying 
fragments of his own DNA. One is also reminded of 
transmutation, and the doll's clothes made out of 
animal skin cultures by the SymbioticA group. Or 
of transgression in relation to contemporary 
ethics, which could apply to the two preceding 
examples, but also to more performatives 
experiments, such as Blue by Yann Marussich, a 
performance in which, installed in an airtight 
box, he sweats blue methylene from every pore of 
his skin, when the substance is declared 
dangerous if ingested even by the manufacturer. 
The preoccupation with transmission is also 
omnipresent in artistic practices involving the 
living, as one can see in works such as The 
cosmopolitan chicken project by Koen Vanmechelen, 
in which the artist is attempting to produce a 
genetically universal hen by marrying hens of 
different origin each season in order to obtain, 
within a few decades, the absolute mixed race 
hen. And certainly, such considerations also 
remind us of the question of transversality and 
transdisciplinarity, processes which these 
artists inevitably touch upon as they work 
towards their goal: a comprehension that differs 
from the living world in its analysis that is 
jointly artistic and scientific.  In fact, we are 
obliged to note that the artists who are 
interested in the living world are increasingly 
distancing themselves from the notion of the 
reproducibility of reality to experiment with the 
transformation of this world. This type of art 
seems to seek a way of going beyond the criteria 
of representation, and perhaps even of the design 
of the living world, through an almost 
necessarily experimental confrontation with 
reality, which is why we have decided to use the 
prefix "trans" here: "beyond", "through".   The 
question almost immediately arises on the 
definition of the artist as auto-experimenter. Up 
to what point might he or she be ready to 
experiment on the living and on his or herself in 
particular in order to succeed in going beyond a 
new frontier of artistic representation?  We 
would like to present a reflexion on the 
performative dimension of this type of art. In 
the search for a form of transformer art related 
to the living world, it seems indeed essential 
that we question the creator's position, as he or 
she is perpetually obliged to reconsider his or 
her experience, in order to allow the spectator 
to apprehend a world living itself in the process 
of transformation. How does the artist therefore 
plan to address the spectator in an artwork on 
the living that he or she is the first living 
being to test? Is the spectator's comprehension 
of an artwork increased or decreased by the 
experimentation? Does the spectator feel 
mobilized by such procedures? Many questions 
aimed at suggesting the state of the analysis of 
the contemporary living world by artists, whose 
experiments reach sometimes improbable 
dimensions, and can remain at the project stage. 
This is why we want to insist on the prospective 
dimension, which leaves enough room for fiction 
and research, in this call for projects.
Limit for the reception of entries:

Please send your entries by email before the 15th of September, 2010.

Rédaction [Plastik]
plastik.art.science at gmail.com
CERAP - Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
47 rue des Bergers 75015 Paris - France

Olga Kisseleva
olga.kisseleva at univ-paris1.fr

Conditions for the reception of entries:
Authors are invited to propose texts of 3000 to 
10000 characters.  Up to 10 images can be 
included, with a resolution of 72 dpi.  They 
should be sent separately, with mention of their 
place, title and source.  The same goes for 
pictures and other illustrations in an image 
format.  The first page should contain: the title 
of the article, the name(s) of the author(s), 
their affiliation(s), their email and postal 
addresses, a summary of 10 to 15 lines and a list 
of key words characterising the content of the 
article.  It is important to specify that we are 
not referring here to "live arts", i.e. with the 
performing arts, but with the visual artworks 
dealing with the questions of the living world, 
in the scientific sense of the term, including 
biology, ecology and the behavioural sciences 
(ethology).