2010 Synapse residencies
16 June 2010
Synapse: enabling collaborations between artists and scientists since 2004
The Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) has announced the Australian artists and their innovative art/science collaborations which have been awarded 2010 Synapse residencies.The Synapse residency program is a core element of the Synapse Initiative, supporting collaborative partnerships between artists and scientists. The Synapse Initiative is supported by ANAT and the Inter-Arts office of the Australia Council of the Arts. ANAT’s Program Manager Vicki Sowry comments, "Artists and scientists approach creativity, exploration and research in different ways and from different perspectives; when working together they open up new ways of seeing, experiencing and interpreting the world around us".
The 2010 Synapse artists and residencies are:
- Robin Fox and the Bionic Ear Institute (Melbourne, Australia) - to create musical compositions specifically for cochlear implant users.
- Chris Henschke and the Australian Synchrotron (Melbourne, Australia) - to create an audio-visual interface exploring the nature of the synchrotron’s ‘tune’ – the complex frequency harmonics generated from the synchrotron’s beam status and position data – and to make this real-time data available to other artists and researchers.
- Erica Seccombe and the Department of Applied Mathematics, Australian National University (Canberra, Australia) - working with visualisation and animation of complex datasets to explore the interrelationship of mechanical 3D components of physical objects.
- Meredith Walsh and the Pier Luigi Luisi Synthetic Biology Laboratory (Rome, Italy) - to investigate the design and modification of proteins using aesthetic criteria rather than random selection, addressing the ethical implications of designing new biological systems.
- Ken & Julia Yonetani, Sunrise 21 and The Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre (Mildura, Australia) - developing their collaborative practice working with scientists to produce artworks engaging with the fragility of the environment.
Andrew Donovan, Inter-Arts Director at the Australia Council for the Arts notes, "Each of the Synapse residencies demonstrates an exciting and genuine collaboration between artists and scientists. They create awareness that artists can contribute to the building of new knowledge in disciplines well beyond those we'd normally associate with artistic practice".
The Synapse initiative supports creative partnerships between artists and scientists through the residency program, a database of international art/science collaborations, an archived discussion list and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage program, which supports longer-term partnerships between artists and scientists in academic research settings.
See further details of Synapse residencies and the Synapse database of arts science collaborations.
Image credits: 'Hoechst live x10 0006’ by Meredith Walsh (menu). Video credits: ‘Henschke vs Synchratron’, a video showing the developments of Chris Henschke’s Artist in Residence at the Australian Synchrotron, supported by ANAT and Arts Victoria’s Innovation Residency program from October to December 2007.
Tagged: