Oron Catts
Associate Professor Oron Catts is the Academic Lead/Director of The Institute of Advanced Studies, The University of Western Australia and Head, SymbioticA, hosted by The Art Gallery of Western Australia. He was the Director of SymbioticA, The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia.
Oron Catts is an artist, researcher, designer and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA, a biological art research centre at The University of Western Australia. Under Catts’ leadership SymbioticA has gone on to win the inaugural Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) the WA Premier Science Award (2008) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008.
In 2009 Catts was recognised by Thames & Hudson’s “60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future” book in the category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of the top 20 Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”.
Catts interest is Life; more specifically the shifting relations and perceptions of life in the light of new knowledge and it applications. Often working in collaboration with other artists (mainly Dr. Ionat Zurr) and scientists, Catts have developed a body of work that speaks volumes about the need for new cultural articulation of evolving concepts of life.
Catts was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School, a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor of Design Interaction (2009-2012), and a Professor at Large in Contestable Design (2015-2017) at the Royal College of Arts, London. In 2012-2013 he set up a biological art lab called Biofilia - Base for Biological Art and Design, at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, where he was a Visiting Professor.
Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.
Catts curated nine exhibitions, developed numerous artistic projects and performances. His work was exhibited and collected by museums such as MoMA NY, Mori art Museum, NGV, GoMA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Ars Electronica, National Art Museum of China and more.
His work was covered by The NY Times, Washington Post, Wired, New Scientist, Time, Newsweek and other TV, radio, print and online media
Phone: +61 (0)411686121
Oron Catts is an artist, researcher, designer and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA, a biological art research centre at The University of Western Australia. Under Catts’ leadership SymbioticA has gone on to win the inaugural Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) the WA Premier Science Award (2008) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008.
In 2009 Catts was recognised by Thames & Hudson’s “60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future” book in the category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of the top 20 Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”.
Catts interest is Life; more specifically the shifting relations and perceptions of life in the light of new knowledge and it applications. Often working in collaboration with other artists (mainly Dr. Ionat Zurr) and scientists, Catts have developed a body of work that speaks volumes about the need for new cultural articulation of evolving concepts of life.
Catts was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School, a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor of Design Interaction (2009-2012), and a Professor at Large in Contestable Design (2015-2017) at the Royal College of Arts, London. In 2012-2013 he set up a biological art lab called Biofilia - Base for Biological Art and Design, at the School of Art, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, where he was a Visiting Professor.
Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.
Catts curated nine exhibitions, developed numerous artistic projects and performances. His work was exhibited and collected by museums such as MoMA NY, Mori art Museum, NGV, GoMA, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Ars Electronica, National Art Museum of China and more.
His work was covered by The NY Times, Washington Post, Wired, New Scientist, Time, Newsweek and other TV, radio, print and online media
Phone: +61 (0)411686121
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As we are in the midst of the biotechnological turn, bodies of all types are being transformed into canvas for artistic expressions. This panel will explore a range of artistic practices that both invade and disturb biological bodies through acts of manipulation that constitute a kind of invasive aesthetics. In this panel, broader questions of functionality, excess, and sustainability will be explored through artworks which are intended to engage the full spectrum of aesthetics which go beyond what can be seen, but also to what can both be felt and eaten. From the Alternate Anatomies of Stelarc, through the Disembodied Cuisine of the Tissue Culture & Art Project, to the Human Honey Bee of Mike Bianco, this panel of artists will explore the notion of invasive aesthetics and its focus on the distribution of life and it’s re-integration into new and non-traditional spaces for both art-making and exhibition.
It's a whole new 'Antennae'! After twelve years, we've given 'Antennae' a good makeover. Check out our new issue #47 titled 'Experiment', the first of two installments (the second, out this summer titled 'Interface') exploring the intricacies and rewards involved in "art and science" collaborations. This issue includes exclusive interviews with artists and scholars whose work has impacted the way we think about disciplinary boundaries, ethics, and aesthetics in modern and contemporary art. From the collaborative network-experiments of Crochet Coral Reef, and Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr's ability to challenge our conception of the living, to mathematics, color perception, storytelling, outer space, and vaccination this certainly is one of our richest issues. And, make sure to check our new flip-book format at the bottom of our home page.
Download free here: www.antennae.org.uk
A team of scholars and artists has also helped us select some of the most exciting representatives of this ever-growing movement. We are thankful to Andrew Yang (Associate Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Daniela Silvestrin (Curatorial Assistant at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg), Julie Marie Lemon (Program Director & Curator of the University-wide Arts, Science + Culture Initiative,at the University of Chicago), Julia Buntaine Hoel (Conceptual Artist and Director of SciArt Magazine), Ken Rinaldo (artist and professor of robotics at The Ohio State University), and Piero Scaruffi (research on cognitive science and art) for their help and advice. And as always, we would like to thank everyone involved in the making of this issue.
With contributions from: Jenny Rock and Sierra Adler, Roberta Buiani, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, Jim Supanick, Melissa Dubbin & Aaron S. Davidson, Helen J. Bullard, Liz Flyntz & Byron Rich with Marnie Benney, Carolyn Angleton, Pei-Ying Lin, Jonathon Keats, Eugenia Cheng, Margaret Wertheim, Alex May, Andy Gracie, Daniela de Paulis, Bettina Forget and Gemma Anderson