After my recent meeting with Katie about our collaboration, I began to outsource further possible collaborations. During my research, I discovered some fascinating artworks that I could add as influences for my art pieces, specifically the exhibition ‘La Fabrique du vivant’ at the Pompidou centre. I found the influence of biotechnology within art, created interesting perspectives of artistic experimentation. The work of Elaine Whittaker, particularly inspired me with her piece ‘Contained’ (2018). Her piece communicates her mother’s experience of contracting tuberculosis, this resulted in several complications such a collapsed lung. Her work drew upon her mother’s experience in the sanatorium along with the combination of scientific processes that use biomaterials as scaffolds for humans. The collaboration with the Pelling Laboratory, also drew on research for my dissertation concerning the use of plant scaffolds for human repair. As part of her pieces, she creates a set of petri dishes with decellularised maple leaves with cultured human lung cells; this piece sparked an idea to use leaves in a different way.
I found a form of DIY art that reveals the skeleton behind the leaves; so, I decided to use the skeleton leaves to depict blood vessels in the brain.
Some other artists that sparked some interest was Daan Roosegaarde and Heather Barnett. Daan Rossegaarde’s work entitled ‘Grow’ highlights the significance of the agricultural system and how light can help plants grow more sustainably. Through using scientific photobiology, Roosegarde creates these beautiful glowing plants, that can extend sunlight hours and allow plants to thrive.
This light technology, inspired some ideas for my plant installations. I wanted to show the technology of brain tumour mapping through UV light, and echo this with my plant, the Bacopa Monnieri. If I could somehow get the plants to glow, it could reflect the technology of brain tumour mapping. However, there is the specific issue of how would I get the plant to glow or even change colour? This was something that I would have to experiment with further.
The last artist of interest is Heather Barnett’s piece ‘The Physarum Experiments’ (2008). In her pieces, she explores the possibilities of slime mould and the growth patterns that somewhat mimic human behaviours. A particular aspect I found most fascinating, is the dendritic pattern of the slime mould that imitate the pattern of blood vessels or plant roots. This could be an interesting aspect when conveying blood vessels in the brain.
However, upon further research I found artist Theresa Schubert ,who did the same experiment with slime mould to imitate blood vessels in the brain. Ah well, originality seems harder than expected!
After exploring this fascinating avenue, I was approached via LinkedIn by VR and immersive expert Dr David Tully. I found his interest in my project, initially very promising as I wished to see examples of my work in VR and my collaboration with Milo Simpraga. However, ultimately the collaboration did not progress further, as he offered his services on behalf of the company he worked for. This made me slightly suspicious about the possible payment he may require, as looking into the business, indicated to me that they create custom VR spaces for companies.
After making this initial connection, I decided to continue networking with people on the course to see if they could provide further insight. After having a discussion about our projects with other peers, I connected with Rachel Kersh, due to her project ideas to do with sound installation. As part of my project, I wanted to create a soundscape that would complement my pieces, and illustrate the overwhelming nature of the hospital landscape. Rachel Kersh, mentioned to me that she knew a connection that would be able to send over some hospital sound pieces. This seemed quite promising of a connection, so I followed up Rachel with an email, to which she replied confirming her interest. Therefore, I intend to follow her up and further incite collaboration.
One particular issue that I was beginning to find is whether I would need ethics for approaching these experts and creating these initial collaborations.
Based on several conversations I had with Mark Roughley who was on the board of the Ethics Committee, he indicated to me that I would only need ethics if I were directly quoting from experts or having structured interviews with questions. As I was only having casual conversations with these people, I reconsidered the need for ethics, I was not breaching any guidelines.
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