[ISEA2013] Artists Statement: Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr & Corrie van Sice — The Mechanism of Life (after Stephane Leduc) (2013)

Artists Statement

Custom design rapid prototype printer, computer, chemicals and dyes.

In his 1911 book Stephane Leduc tried to prove that life is merely a chemical process. In a series of experiments he was showing the emergence of life like phenomena of different degrees of complexity. This piece recreates Leduc’s experiments using custom made rapid prototyping printer to create “protocells”. The work deals with cultural amnesia and reimagining. With current attempts in creating synthetic life, it is important to culturally probe into the ideas of the Mechanism of Life.

  • 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
  • Ionat Zurr, artist, curator, researcher and academic coordinator of SymbioticA, University of Western Australia
  • Corrie Van Sice, US, is a researcher developing new materials and methods of fabrication. She earned her Masters at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, the self-proclaimed “center for the recently possible.” As a professional fabricator, Corrie has worked with individual artists and institutions doing hardware engineering, mold-making, sculpture and generative digital modeling. Her research initiative, Designed Morphologies, applies concepts of bio-mimesis, sustainability and ecological design to the production of fabrication technologies (Source: Linked-in)

Assisted by Biofilia, Base for Biological Arts, Aalto University, Finland and developed with funds from the Department of Culture and the Arts Western Australia.