Useful discussion today about possibilities of working with co-cultures - some work being done at the dental school that I may be able to investigate. Irrational and erratic cultures of impossibilities. That’s my take - not the dental schools.

This week I returned to Birmingham following two weeks concentrating on other activities.  Again picking up the threads of my work here is not so straightforward following a break so some of the time has been dedicated to considering how best to use the remainder the residency.

The residency folds in December and I am working on other projects so in reality I have 1 1/2 - 2 weeks broken up between now and Christmas. Conversations with Dr. Janet Smith have been encouraging towards working with the spider silk tissue culturing trajectory which I am remain compelled by. We’ve been discussing how best to introduce some explanted cultures on the silks for hopefully seeding.

I’ve also been seeking to establish whether there is actually a robust and developed enough amount of research to merit building a bid for fund raising for a further grant. It’s looking hopeful.

Science and Art, a dialogue

Hot ideas in science influence artistic practice in a diversity of ways. This public dialogue brings together four University-affiliated artists to discuss their personal engagement with cutting edge scientific enquiry.

A key event of interest to both the scientific and artistic communities.

The Artists

Lizzie Burns
Tom Espiner
Kira O’Reilly
Franziska Schenk

Moderated by Professor Shearer West.

December 13th 2007 5.00pm
Barber Institute Lecture Theatre
University of Birmingham

Followed by Drinks, Nibbles and a chance to develop the debate with the artists in person.

Sponsored by

One of the nice outcomes from hanging out in the med school a bit and looking at the tubule forming endothelial cultures has been to view the cultures over time.

Click here to see movie:
HUVEC matrigel timelapse

Human
Umbilical
Vein
Endothelial
Cells

Forming tubules in vitro overnight.

Made with Alan Zhuang - culture

John Daswon - camera

for Prof. Roy Bicknell’s lab.

Suggested sound tracks remain contested by the musically knowing in the Bicknell lab.

21 st November  Kira O’Reilly

Exit Wounds and Bioimaginings: Practices and Explorations into Body Collapse,  from the Integral to the Cellular and Back Again.

 QUORUM 2007-08  Performance Research Series, Department of Drama    All sessions begin at 5.15 pm and take place in Rehearsal Room Two, Arts Building,   Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, unless otherwise stated below.

Organised by Bridget Escolme and Dominic Johnson.

A DVD of SPILL festival of Performance ‘07 is now available from online shop Unbound.

Untitled (Syncope), comissioned for SPILL ‘07.

“On Wednesday afternoon, last week, curator Jens Hauser gave us the low-down on the upcoming SK-INTERFACES exhibition which will take place on 1st Feb - 30th March in the framework of Liverpool 2008 European Capital of Culture.

The event will demonstrates how artists today are artists using skin, materially or metaphorically, as an interface, and going beyond the descriptive surface of the skin, to explore issues of xeno-transplants, trans-species and trans-racial exchanges.

After an era of de-materialization (”everything digital”), contemporary art is showing a tendency of phenomenological re-materialization, a re-integration of corporality. Besides, instead of representing objects, graphic depictions or simulations, the art is gearing towards transformational processes with performance characteristics. Lastly, as the creation of the new Hybrid Art Category at Ars Electronica this year demonstrated, the existing categories are not sufficient anymore to represent the current state of technology-based art.”

See :http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009816.php

for the full entry which includes a reference to my work inthewrongplaceness.

Last night I begun watching Pasolini’s Porcile

Here’s a goodie if you happen to be in Prague:

Exhibition

UNSAFE DISTANCE

08. - 11.11.2007Â

Prague

A showcase of artistic practices that explore issues of safety, environment, and human/non-human identity. Many of the exhibiting artists have worked closely with scientists. Most of them have integrated emerging technologies in order to examine phenomena that may have stayed undisclosed. The artworks exemplify how fragile the notion of distance is in our society. What types of distance do men and women experience in the times of advanced scientific instruments which pilot our both private and public lives? What are the sounds from dangerous places like? Who is afraid of new teratologies? Do we live on a voodoo planet?

Exhibiting artists: Paul Adderley & Michael Young, Shawn Bailey & Jennifer Willet, Howard Boland & Laura Cinti, Peter Cusack, Beatriz da Costa & Cina Hazegh & Kevin Ponto, Louis-Philippe Demers & Garry Stewart, Florian Grond & Claudia Robles, Antony Hall, Boo Chapple, Ewen Chardronnet & Spectral Investigations Collective & RIXC Media Collective, Karen Ingham, Martin Kermes, Pavel KopÅ™iva, Kuda.org, Radim Labuda, Lukáš Machalický, Rachel Mayeri, Gordana Novakovic, Rob O’Neill, Andrea Polli, STELARC, Pavel Sterec & AleÅ¡ ÄŒermák & Jan Trejbal, Paul Thomas & Kevin Raxworthy

Curator: Pavel Sedlák

Stone Bell House (Staroměstské náměstí 13, Praha 1) 10:00 - 21:00

The exhibition is part of HYPERLINK “http://enter3.org” http://enter3.org festival, it was realized in collaboration with City Gallery Prague.

A project of CIANT - International Centre for Art and New Technologies in Prague.