Workshop. Vital micro-ecologies: splice, dice, duplicate

Tuesday 14 – Friday 17 April

Workshop leader: Niki Sperou

Venue: Flinders University, Health Sciences Building 4.41
Department of Medical Biotechnology

As a part of the Biotech Art – Revisited project the Experimental Art Foundation has organized a workshop: Vital micro-ecologies: splice, dice, duplicate.The workshop, led by the South Australian biotech artist Niki Sperou and hosted by the Department of Medical Biotechnology at Flinders University, will serve as a theoretical and practical introduction in the creation of biotech art.       Image Trish Adams separating stem cells from her blood, by Dr. Vic Nurcombe, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland (2003-4). Video still. Image courtesy the artist

workshop focus

The program has been designed to give participants a good range of lab skills and to inspire them with concepts relevant to broader ethical and philosophical concerns. It will include an introduction to laboratory work and laboratory practice in the context of bio-tech art and relevant international work. The workshop aims to cover areas like plant tissue culture techniques, chromatography,
gene transference etc. See below for more detail about areas to be covered.

applying

Applications are now invited from artists interested in participating. In an email addressed to info@eaf.asn.au with the subject line Biotech Art Workshop, tell us in no more than 200 words why you want to attend the workshop & what you hope to get from it etc. Also send a 1 page CV.

Application deadline is Thursday 12th March c.o.b

Notifications sent by email Tuesday 17th March

location & costs

Participation in the workshop is free but places are limited. The EAF is not able to provide assistance for travel or accommodation. Participants will need to travel to Flinders University, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park. Buses leave regularly from the CBD and the trip takes approximately 30 minutes.

bio

Niki Sperou

Adelaide artist Niki Sperou investigates the nexus between art, science and culture and the role of this connection in the shaping of human identity. She favours no particular medium but chooses materials and techniques which best suit her concepts. Experimental in process Sperou's work combines sculpture, textiles, photography, moving image, painting/drawing, traditional crafts, biological organisms, and lab products and processes. Influenced by her cultural background Sperou creates ‘Chimeras’ which allude to cultural hybridity, biotechnology and the fanciful object or idea.

Since 2006, Niki Sperou has been the Artist in Residence at the Department of Medical Biotechnology, Flinders University. Exhibiting regularly since 2001 her work has included a solo exhibition for the AusBiotech 2003 Convention and a short video shown at Heath Bunting’s DIY DNA DAY in London (2004). As part of the 2004 Art of the Biotech Era project produced by the Experimental Art Foundation she participated in workshops by internationally renowned biotech artists Oron Catts and Eduardo Kac. In her text "Verisimilitude: Biotechnology and ancient Greek narrative for the Art in the Biotech Era"* Sperou explores themes which link her interest in contemporary technological innovations, the body and her own cultural background. Niki Sperou exhibited with some of Australia’s premier artists in the exhibition Undiscovered Country for the Cultural Diversity Cluster Project, part of the inaugural OzAsia Festival (2007).  Focused on the art of artefact display was her site specific installation Ethnographica produced for South Australian Museum’s Inside SAM’s Place project (2007). She also wrote an associated text for ArtsHub online magazine and conducted scientific classification workshops for students. Sperou was a core group coordinator, presenter and exhibitor in the with the body and mind, art and science event at Flinders Medical Centre (2007).

During 2007/2008 Sperou worked on cross cultural collaborative projects with Indonesian artist Heri Dono at the University of South Australia and the Adelaide Festival Centre, and exhibited in Breeding Ground at the Jam Factory Gallery, a group exhibition based on the idea of the multiple, curated by Annabelle Collett. Early in 2009 she travelled to Greece to research the theme of identity and craftwork, and upon her return produced traditional Greek shadow puppet workshops for the Womad festival. Niki Sperou was the recipient of the 2006 Fringe Festival Individual Artist Award. With a BA (Hons First Class) in Visual Art and an Advanced Certificate in Dress Design and Garment Construction Sperou is also a freelance writer for arts and culture publications and tutors in art theory at the University of South Australia.

*Art in the Biotech Era, Melentie Pandilovski, ed., (Adelaide: Experimental Art Foundation, 2008) p 90-97

timetable