Art apparatus and the technology
of a (fruit fly) encounter
In February and March Tatiana Istomina will work on her project ‘Art apparatus and the technology of a (fruit fly) encounter.’ Tatiana wants to redefine, expand and intensify the concept of technology, applying it to the practice of art making. In this context artworks should be viewed as physical apparatuses, which mediate encounters between humans and the world to generate specific versions of reality. Her project uses insights from experimental physics and biosciences to develop a theoretical framework and a physical model of an art apparatus: a sculptural/pictorial device mapping out the borderline between the notions of a mechanism and a living organism. During the residency, Tatiana focuses on the practices of hand embroidery and fruit fly (drosophila) rearing. Drosophila research is the backbone of contemporary genetic and biological sciences, but it involves ethical and philosophical problems that are largely ignored today. Tatiana’s work will touch on some of these problems, including the consciousness of the fly, the power dynamics between flies and humans, the extent of free will possessed by both species, and the conditions and limits of human knowledge about living nature.
Survey: (Un)limited artistic resource
AIR InSILo invites you to take part in a survey which aims to contextualise the upcoming open call 2023/24 (Un)limited Artistic Resource. As usual, AIR InSIlo will offer five fully paid slots and one emergency slot. Everyone who participates in the survey will receive an early reminder.
The Global COVID-19 pandemic, a full-scale war on the territory of Europe, and a devastating natural disaster in Syria and Turkey – are just a few examples that significantly exacerbated the life and work insecurity of people in general and artists/ cultural workers in particular during the last years. The conditions of artistic work can be described by the term 'precariat,' which means a newly formed class whose hallmark is a lack of job security, continuous search for employment (on average, one artist applies for 50-70 open calls, spending around up to 300 unpaid hours annually) and funding. The notion of artistic creativity continues to be romanticised to exploit the creators' pursuit of fame and success. It leads to the tragic stories of self-exploitations, burnout and severe inequality, where only 1-3% of successful artists get more than 50% of profits. AIR InSILo aims to create a space for reflection and self-reflection of an artist working in a neoliberal contemporaneity. What is more important: the time spent to master the work or the time given to fill in the open calls submissions; the ethical usage of materials or the belief in the dominant importance of artistic expression; a work for own name/ brand or work in the collective?
An emergency residence for Olexander Sirous, Danylo Siabro, and Dmytro Tentiuk. Development of a media installation, ‘Implicit basis,’ focusing on the topics of human interaction with the global ecosystem in the plane of the physical and digital world. April - June 2023 (supported by BMKOES, Grants for UA artists, and Artists at Risk (AR).
The artists focus on the topics of human interaction with the global ecosystem in the plane of the physical and digital world. In an attempt to understand the features of the formation of biodiversity, they came to the principle of analyzing phenomena from the point of view of chaos theory, an applied mathematical apparatus for a number of scientific disciplines.
Turning the spotlight on such aspects of structure as fluctuations, bifurcation point, nonlinear processes, they create a digital prototype of a plant organism, which develops in direct connection with the phenomena of the micro and macrocosm.
Ordinary interpretations consider various phenomena of our world - from social to natural - as discrete, closed structures. At the same time, the conclusions of modern science are increasingly talking about these phenomena, not only as an integral interconnected process, but also on a single principle of their structures.