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Biomedicine in museums

Virtual Symposium, "Visual Culture and Bioscience", March 5 – 13, 2007

By January 6, 2007No Comments

The Office of Exhibitions and Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences and the University of Maryland are inviting to a virtual (sic!) meeting on “Visual Culture and Bioscience”, March 5-13, 2007.

This international event will create a virtual meeting space for experts from many disciplines to discuss the intersections between visual culture and the biosciences. Artists, scientists, historians, ethicists, curators, sociologists, and writers will present a variety of perspectives on topics of visual representation in art and science and its implications on culture and society. Suzanne Anker, visual artist and theorist, will facilitate this online discussion. Anker teaches art history and theory at the School of Visual Arts in New York where she is chair and editor of ArtLab23. She is also the host of BioBlurb on WPS1 Art Radio.

They don’t say how the meeting is going to take place — I’m quite curious to see how they will solve the technical problems. [Added 10 January]: The symposium consists of two parts: First, there will be a listserv where invited panelists are discussing issues such as artists in the lab, imaging in art and science, and the social dimensions of the science-art connection. Visitors are invited to view the discussion but only panelists are permitted to post comments(link will be active after March 4, 2007). The second part of the symposium will consist of a public blog. Visitors can post their responses to the discussion here (link will be active after March 4, 2007).

The list of panelists is impressive:

Panelists include:

  • Bergit Arends, Historian and Curator, Museum of Natural History, London, United Kingdom
  • Andrew Carnie, Artist and Consultant, Greater London Arts professor at Winchester School of Art, Winchester, United Kingdom
  • Oron Catts, Artistic Director, SymbioticA – The Art & Science Collaborative Research Laboratory, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, University of Western Australia
  • Catherine Chalmers, Artist
  • Helen Chandler, Former Scientific Manager, The Arts and Genomics Center, University of Amsterdam
  • Carl Djerassi, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University
  • Florian Dombois, Professor and Head, Institute for Transdisciplinarity, Berne University of the Arts, Switzerland
  • Troy Duster, Professor of Sociology, New York University
  • Sian Ede, Arts Director, UK Branch of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Applications
  • Sabine Flach, Lecturer, Center for Literary Studies, Berlin, Germany
  • Giovanni Frazzetto, Molecular Biologist, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
  • David Freedberg, Professor and Director, the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University
  • Karl Grimes, Professor, School of Communications, Dublin City University, Ireland
  • Jens Hauser, Independent Curator, Writer, and Artist
  • Marvin Heiferman, Professor, New York School of Visual Arts
  • Vladimir Mironov, Research Associate Professor and Director of Bioprinting Center, Medical University of South
  • Carolina Orlan, Performance Artist, France
  • Nancy Princenthal, Senior Editor, Art in America
  • Ingeborg Reichle, Art Historian, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Berlin, Germany
  • Miriam van Rijsingen, Professor of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Holland
  • Michael Sappol, Curator – Historian, National Library of Medicine
  • Brad Smith, Molecular Biologist, University of Michigan
  • Andrew Solomon, Writer and Board Member, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
  • Susan Squier, Brill Professor of Women’s Studies and English, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Eugene Thacker, Assistant Professor, School of Literature, Communication, and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Richard Twine, Principal Investigator, ESRC Center for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics
  • Catherine Waldby, International Research Fellow, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Catherine Wagner, Photographer
  • Peter Weibel, Chairman, Center for Art and Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Richard Wingate, Lecturer, Center for Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College, London

For more information: (202) 334-2436 or arts@nas.edu

(website here)

Thomas Söderqvist

Author Thomas Söderqvist

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