Panel Statement
Panel: Testing New Ground: An Interdisciplinary Discussion on Hybrid Habitats
My research explores the nature of corporeality in the biomedical sciences and queries the status of our “humanness” at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In this panel I will present the intersections between art and bio-medical practices that are illustrated through my research. I will give an overview of the groundbreaking biomedical experiments I carried out to ‘change the fates’ of adult stem cells from my blood into beating cardiac cells ‘in vitro’ and link this corporeal malleability with my on-going explorations. My recent investigations into the small brains of the European honey bee and their communal ‘hive consciousness’ will also be addressed through the virtual and real-time interactive artworks that have resulted from this research. I will demonstrate how my overall emphasis on hybridising virtual and real-time experiences create alternative habitats that place the viewer in the role of a participant who can examine the ‘shivering boundaries’ between mind-body-self at first hand.
- Patricia Adams is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University School of Art, Melbourne and a visiting artist at the Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. She has worked at the art/science nexus for over ten years and her doctoral research project involved a cross-disciplinary collaboration with a biomedical scientist during which she explored the impact of experimental techniques in biomedical engineering on expressions of corporeality. In addition to her artworks Trish has presented her research outcomes through publications and at conferences such as: New Constellations: Art, Science & Society, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006; Perth Digital Art & Culture Conference, 2007; ISEA2008 Singapore, Eye of the Storm, Tate Britain, 2009 and ISEA2011.
Full text (PDF) p. 23-25