IOTA is hosting a series of FREE public events and installations featuring Bio Art in Halifax, NS. Immerse your senses in this transcendent discipline through a series of free talks, workshops, and exhibitions designed to bring Bio Art into public and accessible forums.
This series will present the artistic and research practices of local, national, and international artists, while also creating a forum for discussion of interdisciplinary challenges surrounding artistic freedom, creation, ownership, and expression.
What is Bio Art?
Bio Art is a practice that transcends the fields of visual art, media art, and science –applied, social and political. This continuously evolving practice also tests (and sometimes breaks) the boundaries of these fields. Bio Art has emerged through sustained artistic practice, research, and dialogue and is a topic of critical relevance and controversy.
From working with live tissue and bacteria, to exploring what it is to be human through the lens of biotechnology—Bio Art raises more questions than it answers. A process that stimulates curiosity, a sense of personal politics, and creation by design.
Upcoming Bio Art Events:
IOTA’s Bio Art Series events are all free and everyone is welcome. All venues are accessible, although Anna Leonowens Gallery and ArtBar, unfortunately, do not have accessible washrooms in their facility.
Immersive Film Screening: Cyberhive by Ruth Marsh
Opening May 15 | 5:30-8:00pm
Discovery Centre
Runs Wednesdays from May 15 – June 15, 2019 | 5:15pm
Bio Art Workshop: Halifax Yeast with Jennifer Willet
Sun, May 26 | 10:30am-2:00pm
Discovery Centre, Flight Deck
Free with admission to Discovery Centre
Meet the Artist: Ruth Marsh
Sunday, May 26 | 1:30-3:30pm
Discovery Centre, Program Room (behind Flight Deck)
CYBERHIVE will screen in the Dome Theatre at 12:30pm and 3:30pm
Public Art Exhibition: Nina Sellars & Jennifer Willet
Opening Monday, May 27 | 5:30-7:00pm
Anna Leonowens Gallery
Runs May 27 – June 1, 2019
Followed by a Performance and Artist Talk at the Art Bar by Jennifer Willet | 7:15pm
Artist Talk: Stelarc & Andrew Pelling
Wednesday, May 29 | 7:00-9:00pm
Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library
Contestable Chimeras: Prosthetic, Fractal And Phantom Flesh by Stelarc
Building Augmented Living Systems from Trash, Spare Parts and Biology by Andrew Pelling
Bio Art Seminar: Andrew Pelling, Jennifer Willet, WhiteFeather Hunter, and Aaron Outhwaite
Thursday, May 30 | 10:00am-2:00pm
NSCAD Academy Building, Room A206
Email info@iotainstitute.com by May 27 to register | 20 spaces available
Performance & Interactive Public Exhibition: StickMan/miniStickMan by Stelarc
Opening Thursday, May 30 | 3:00-7:00 pm
Series Closing Reception | 7:00-8:00pm
Tell Tale Productions, 5562 Cornwallis Street
Runs May 30 – June 21, 2019
Stelarc
Artist, Performer, Speaker
Nina Sellars
Exhibiting Artist
Ruth Marsh
Exhibiting Artist, Resident Artist
Ruth Marsh's practice employs an absurdist approach which seeks to queer the intersections between DIY culture and science fact/fiction/fabulation/feminism to address absence, memory and healing in bodies and environments.
WhiteFeather Hunter
Resident Artist, Seminar Leader, Speaker
WhiteFeather positions her biotechnological art practice within the context of craft and feminist witchcraft, via material and performative investigations of the aesthetic and technological potential of vital materials.
Aaron Outhwaite
Seminar Leader
Aaron Outhwaite is currently pursuing his PhD in the Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science (PEAS) at Dalhousie University in Halifax NS, Canada, where his research focus is Additive Manufacturing, Bioprocess Engineering, and Biopolymers. Specifically, Aaron is working on developing bacterial biopolymers for use in the fabrication of engineering living materials for large-scale... Read More
Andrew Pelling
Seminar Leader, Speaker
Earthline Tattoo Collective
Tattoo School Leaders, Speakers