20th May 2017 10-15h

Oulu Museum of Art

Kasarmintie 9, 90100 Oulu, Finland

Seminaari on englanninkielinen. The seminar will be held in English.

The seminar is open and free for everybody who wants to attend, no registration necessary.

Since time immemorial we have observed and admired the fundamental order in nature while searching for inspirations, interpretations and solutions. Lately the terrestrial landscape as well as our communal mindscape is being reshaped by both intentional and unintentional developments. Within this transforming process, established and contemporary entities are merging to form previously unforeseen connections and potentials. The seminar accompanies the SPLICE exhibition which presents a showcase of interdisciplinary works that investigate contemporary artistic perspectives on Nature with the aim to unfold a new understanding of "our environment" or "the new world around us". During the SPLICE seminar artists, scientists and curators discuss the emerging paradigms in our individual and collective contemporary attitude towards Nature from an art&science perspective.

10:00h Morning coffee and welcome by Erich Berger, director Bioartsociety

10:15-11h IN SEARCH OF LOST AIR - Keynote by Judith van der Elst

11:15-12h EXHIBITION WALK with curator Nina Czegledy and contributions by the exhibiting artists including Q&A by audience

12-13h Common sandwich lunch

13-14h SPLICE PANEL I
with Seppo Vainio, Kira O'Reilly, Tuula Närhinen and moderated by Antti Tenetz

14-15h SPLICE PANEL II
with Tibor Szemzö, Jussi T. Eronen, Olga Kisseleva and moderated by Erich Berger

The seminar is supported by the University of Oulu - Genes and Society Argumenta Project.

Judith van der Elst is an anthropologist/archaeologist specialized in humanistic approaches in the geosciences. Her work focuses on understanding multimodal perception of the land, through merging embodied learning, sensing technologies, and ubiquitous computing within a biosemiotic framework.

Nina Czegledy, artist, curator, educator, works internationally on collaborative art& science& technology projects. The changing perception of the human body and its environment as well as paradigm shifts in the arts inform her projects.

Seppo Vainio is professor for developmental Biology at the University of Oulu where he leads a group researching how multipotent cells assemble in a spatially and temporally controlled manner to well organized three dimensional functional structures during organogenesis is a major challenge.

Kira O’Ŕeilly is an artist and leads the MA program for Ecology and Contemporary Performance at the Theatre Academy in Helsinki. Her practice, both wilfully interdisciplinary and entirely undisciplined, stems from a visual art background; it employs performance, biotechnical practices and writing.

Tuula Närhinen is visual artist based in Helsinki. Images derived from scientific investigation are the core of Närhinen’s art, along with a dry sense of humor. She is an investigative artist, inventive and methodical. Her topics are landscape, natural phenomena and environmental issues.

Antti Tenetz is currently regional artist for bioart based in Oulu. He is an intermedia artist, adventurer and naturalist. Tenetz’s works are situated on the interface between media arts, bio arts and urban art and fearlessly uses different forms of expression, media and technological platforms.

Tibor Szemző is a Hungarian composer, performer and media artist who graduated from Liszt Academy and Moholy-Nagy University of Arts Budapest. His work is oriented by his diverse lines of interest towards the borderline areas of the various genres. Beside music compositions he creates films and installations.

Jussi T. Eronen is a researcher affiliated with the Evolutionary Palaeontology Group at the University of Helsinki and working at BIOS, a new independent research unit, where he is active in investigating how humankind and society are capable of solving the looming environmental and climate crisis.

Olga Kisseleva is an artist who calls upon exact sciences, on genetic biology, geophysics, and also on political and social sciences. She proceeds with her experiments, calculations and analyses, while strictly respecting the methods of the scientific domain in question. Her artistic hypothesis is thus verified and approved by a strictly scientific method.

Erich Berger is the director of the Bioartsociety as well as an artist and curator. His current interest in issues of deep time and hybrid ecology led him to work with geological processes, radiogenic phenomena and their socio-political implications in the here and now.