Karolina Żyniewicz

The global pandemic outbreak in 2020 was a disturbing experience for most people worldwide. The primary way of protecting human life was social distancing and lockdown, often forcing people to stay at home. The confinement made the fear and uncertainty grow bigger and bigger. Fortunately, the online connection was still as possible and essential as never before. The text is inspired by a series of remote meetings under the working title Viral Culture: Bio Art and Society, initiated by academic curator Claire Nettleton to put together people working in art&science area. Recordings of the Zoom gatherings complemented by notes and chat transcriptions served as intriguing storage of topics and ideas. This article focuses on the three threads: being-with (other humans, the virus and other non-human actors), caring without touch and the pandemic interpreted as a vast bio art project. All the archived materials, including the present article, will potentially function as historical documen...

This paper is based both on my empirical experience, related to the implementation of artistic projects in biological laboratories, and on theoretical consideration. It focuses on the cultural and biological meaning of liminality. First, I introduce the idea of liminality derived from anthropology, and more precisely from the theory of the trigeminal structure of ritual as formulated by Arnold van Gennep and developed by Victor Turner. Then, to those anthropological theories pertaining to culture I add the voice of Susan Merill Squier, who draws attention to the fact that technological changes around our corporeality should affect the expansion of liminality and its biological significance. Finally, I refer to her concept of the existence of liminal beings − non-human agents living in the area of the in-between, between any current form of embodiment and a future one. In Squier’s opinion in being humans we become liminal while coexistence with liminal beings can help us to pass this...

In April 2020, artists Robertina Šebjanič, Louise Mackenzie, Karolina Żyniewicz and Isabel Burr Raty were invited by Dalila Honorato to develop research on the theme of “Staying in Touch: post-coronavirus art curating” as part of the collaborative digital art residency Braiding Friction. Working remotely across Slovenia, the UK, Poland, Belgium, Greece, USA and Portugal the group developed a speculative fiction in which art is the virus and art practitioners act as frontline workers. Braiding historical and contemporary art, architectural and bio-art practices, the group developed potential futures for post-pandemic art spaces, resulting in a fictional account of a series of art exhibitions that coincide with a pandemic event. The research was synthesised in the form of a pseudo-documentary premiered by the Creative Europe project BioFriction on 23rd July 2020. This article presents the transcript of the pseudo-documentary “Staying in Touch” (Honorato, Mackenzie, Żyniewicz, Burr Rat...

The aim of the text is to present the use of the analytical autoethnographic method in studying the “art&science” phenomenon. It is attempt to show that the role of the artist can combine with the role of the ethnographer. The objects of study are the multilevel relations emerging during the realization of artistic projects in biological laboratories. These relations concern both humans (the artist, the scientists) and non-humans (laboratory organisms, equipment). On the basis of actor-network theory, the author presents how the liminal status of ethnographic research is modified when it connects with art. The form of conducting the research is both an example of activity in the art and science field and a new methodological proposal for the study of science and technology.

Without a doubt, new forms of art, together with new (bio)technologies and bioengineering, challenge the well-established concepts, assumptions, and beliefs concerning the human and question the taken-for-granted parameters of what it means to be a human being. Given that bio/body art and new (bio)technologies influence our lives, significantly shaping the way we understand ‘the self’ and ‘the human,’ the extension of the discourse concerning these notions is greatly needed—the extension which will seriously take into account bio art and body art both as a tool of exploration and as a medium of transferring the findings to society. This new way of addressing the problems of human versus nonhuman will provide a platform for an interdisciplinary perspective that will enrich the debate by extending the anthropocentric vision of the world. The new vision of the world requires developing a new method of obtaining and sharing knowledge. The goal of this chapter is to show how the content ...

Thierry Bardini, in his book titled Junkware, proposed that the apt name for contemporary art would be junk art. He stressed the significant change taking place in art: that the narration and explanatory discourse run by an artist is more important than the visual outcome of the project. According to the knowledge from STS (especially Bruno Latour’s writing), knowledge production is based on multilevel translations. Art based on science can be seen as a kind of translation as well. The production of biological knowledge and bio art creation looks pretty similar, being based on the same laboratory protocols. However, something interesting is happening regarding bio art’s presentations in galleries or museums. The audience is usually unfamiliar with the laboratory work process, which results in something akin to getting just one layer of that translation cake. What is the role of an institution in making junk art readable? What does being lost in translation mean in this context? To w...

Opisując proces realizacji jednego z moich projektów artystycznych, ,,safe suicide'' , przeprowadzonego od marca 2016 roku do października 2017 roku w kilku laboratoriach (Instytut Genetyki i Biotechnologii Wydziału Biologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Pracownia Moleku- larnych Podstaw Starzenia, Instytut Biologii Doświadczalnej im. Nenc- kiego PAN, Pracownia Mikroskopii Konfokalnej Wydziału Biologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego), postaram się poddać analizie świat laboratoryjnej postnatury. Termin „postnatura” jest umowny i posłuży mi w tym tekście do podkreślenia różnicy pomiędzy naturą laboratoryjną a naturą w ogóle. Szczególną uwagę zwrócę na miejsce i formę ciała w laboratoryjnej rzeczywistości, jego liminalny charakter oraz udział artysty art&science w tej liminalności. Liminalność od jakiegoś czasu jest mocno obecna w moich rozważaniach. Postrzegam art&science jako intencjonalną postawę pozostawania w obszarze „pomiędzy”. Istotna jest tu definicja liminalności zaczerpnięta z antropologii, a dokładnie teorii trójdzielnej struktury rytuału przejścia Arnolda van Gennepa109, rozwijanej następnie przez Victora Turnera. Z jeszcze jednym rozumieniem liminalności, o którym pisała Susan Merill Squier w swojej książce ,,Liminal Lives. Imagining the human at the frontiers of biomedicine'', wiąże się pojęcie bio artu , odłamu art&science opartego na metodologii biologii i biotechnologii. O obu obliczach liminalności będę pisać szerzej w dalszej części tekstu.

This text aims to present  autoethnography as a method of examining the art & science phenomenon. The meaning of art & science is not limited here to the area of contemporary art. Instead I try to show it as a social phenomenon. In my research autoethnography is combined with art based research and the role of the artist is connected with the role of an academic researcher. This combination is quite complicated, but by preparing an appropriate order of work involved in the case it might lead to really interesting cognitive processes.

http://wnkatedra.pl/pl/p/A-fe-Spoleczno-kulturowe-konteksty-wstretu-i-obrzydliwosci-red.-Aleksandra-Drzal-Sierocka%2C-Malgorzata-Kowalewska/22522506
Podstawową zaletą monografii A fe!, przygotowanej pod redakcją Aleksandry Drzał-Sierockiej oraz Małgorzaty Kowalewskiej, jest panoramiczność ujęcia. Mówi się więc o „wstręcie” i „obrzydliwości” jako narzędziach dystynkcji językowych i poznawczych oraz kulturowych przejawach i konsekwencjach tych dystynkcji. Mówi się o rzeczonych kategoriach jako wyznacznikach współczesnych strategii artystycznych, ich związkach ze współczesną obsesją cielesności (czy wręcz: somatyzacją kultury), traktuje jako pojęcia kluczowe dla rozumienia gatunków popkultury (horror, mangi yaoi) oraz poszczególnych dzieł, wreszcie – last but not least – umieszcza je w kontekście praktyk kulinarnych, dyskusji o „inności” oraz „wstrętnej kobiecości”. Nie mam wątpliwości, że prezentowana Czytelnikowi monografia spotka się z zainteresowaniem i zgoła nieobrzydliwym przyjęciem bez poczucia wstrętu.

The aim of the text is to present the use of the analytical autoethnographic method in studying the “art&science” phenomenon. It is attempt to show that the role of the artist can combine with the role of the ethnographer. The objects of study are the mul- tilevel relations emerging during the realization of artistic projects in biological laborat- ories. These relations concern both humans (the artist, the scientists) and non-humans (laboratory organisms, equipment). On the basis of actor-network theory, the author presents how the liminal status of ethnographic research is modified when it connects with art. The form of conducting the research is both an example of activity in the art and science field and a new methodological proposal for the study of science and tech- nology.