Roundtable Statement

Semipermeable explores the membrane as a site, metaphor and platform, with SymbioticA (UWA) acting as a quarantine zone to test cultural and biological membranes and borders. From the earliest life forms to newest life to be created, the membrane acts as the definition of self. The membrane is active, selective and fragile. The most fundamental requirement for life is an intelligent barrier that selectively separates the inside from the outside, a way to allow useful resources, materials and information in, while keeping the undesirable out. Scientists working on developing protolife and synthetic life are researching the importance of the membrane in the communication, development and specialisation of cells. This physical, biological membrane has become a powerful metaphor for other systems, including cultural, political, national and economical. Humans have evolved a high dependency on edge detection; the strongest visual (and auditory) cues deal with where one thing ends and another begins. This is also how humans tend to arrange – from perceptions of individual self to societies and nations. In Semipermeable (v.1) physical theatre, media and sound disciplines interact with biological possibilities and scientific modes of research to explore notions of containment, hybridisation and contested zones. A space where creative, political, social and biological disciplines illuminate collaborative opportunities as artistic practice, Semipermeable reflects on:
* native/ introduced
* pure/hybrid
* puncturing the body/puncturing the nation
* parasitic/symbiotic
* protolife/synthetic life
The semipermeable membrane is gaining importance in scientific research including attention directed at developing ‘intelligent’ barriers. It is now time to culturally articulate and re-visit the notion of the membrane.

• Oron Catts 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 undertaking. In 2000 Catts Co-founded SymbioticA, an artistic research centre in the School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology at The University of Western Australia. He is currently the Director of SymbioticA, a Visiting Professor of Design Interaction at the Royal College of Arts, London, and a Visiting Professor at Aalto University’s Biofilia- base for Biological Arts, Helsinki. Catts’ work reaches beyond the confines of art, often being cited as an inspiration in areas as diverse as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction and food.