Entangled: bio/media缠绕:生物/媒介

Chronus Art Center
July 30, 2022 – February 06, 2023
Artists: CAO Shuyi, Mads Bering Christiansen & Jonas Jørgensen, Yunchul Kim, KU Kuang-Yi, LO Yu-Chun, and TIEN Zong-Yuan, Ani Liu, Iris Xiaoyu Qu, Anastasiia Raina & HUANG Danlei & Meredith Binnette & Georgina Nolan & HU Yimei, Casey Tang, WANG Yueyue, XU Haomin, XI Lei, and Yakushimaru Etsuko
Concept: ZHANG Ga
Curated by BI Xin, CAO Jiamin and ZHANG Ga
In the development of biotechnology and bioinformatics, the biological process is able to be read, measured, and researched in the formats of information, programs, and codes. Media theorist Eugene Thacker in his book “biomedia” (2004) explicated this ongoing recontextualization of a life form that transitions from carbon-based to silicon-based material, as well as the converging of computer science, molecular biology, genetic codes, and computer codes. When a living entity can be interpreted as a medium, the biological process of corporealizing itself is “a process of mediation,” which resonates with Thacker’s principal concept in his media theory that regards mediation as a necessary process for the formation of mediums. From this point of view, a biological system does not function in a reductive manner that would resort to the mechanical Newtonian paradigm. Instead, it evolves in nebulas, myriad particles and related situations that require living organisms to “exist in time, be modulated according to different contexts and situations.”
Entangled: bio/media further explores this condition by rethinking the notion of biomedia. Whereas all entities are in the constant process of grasping and adapting to the unpredictable entropic cosmos, the fluctuating, evolving, and compilable materiality of nature is also reflected in the organization and execution of information, programs, and codes. A unique perspective for the exploration of the biophilic properties in artificial intelligence, electronics, algorithms, and informatics is of great importance. The exhibition Entangled: bio/media is conceived as a contemplation and enactment of this perspective.
By unveiling the participating art projects progressively throughout the duration of the exhibition in four phases: Transcoding, Evolution, Agentic Entity, and Symbiosis, the exhibition not only elevates and liberates bioart from an art discipline that works primarily with bacteria, genetic, or transgenic material via technological means, but also responds to urgent contemporary inquiries including transformative substrates and the definition of life, the shifting paradigms of the evolving natural process, the emerging agency mediated by both the biological and technological milieus, and the yearning for a symbiotic relationship between physical beings (so-called nature), technical beings (the artificial namesake), and psychic beings (living things), in order to rethink a Simondonian concept in a post-human world order.






新时线媒体艺术中心
2022.07.30 – 2023.02.06
艺术家:曹舒怡、马兹·贝林·克里斯蒂安森&乔纳斯·约根森、金允哲、顾广毅&罗伃君&田倧源、安妮·刘、曲晓宇、阿纳斯塔西娅·瑞娜&黄丹蕾&梅雷迪思·宾尼特&乔治娜·诺兰&胡一玫、王月悦、徐昊旻、奚雷和やくしまるえつこ
展览构思:张尕
策展人:毕昕,曹佳敏,张尕
放眼生物技术和生物信息学的发展,生物过程(biological process)能够以信息、程序和代码的形式被阅读、测量和研究。媒体理论家尤金·萨克尔(Eugene Thacker)在其2004年出版的著作《生物媒介》(Biomedia)一书中,阐述了生命形式正在发生的语境重置——从碳基质料到硅基质料的过渡,以及计算机科学、分子生物学、遗传密码与计算机代码的融合。当一个生命实体被理解为一种媒介,生物过程之实现(corporealizing)便是“一段调节过程”(a process of mediation),这也应和了萨克尔的媒介理论,即介质化是媒介物形成的必要过程。从这个角度来看,生物系统并不是以一种可以追溯至牛顿机械范式的简化方式来运作的;相反,它在星云、无数的粒子和情景中演化,生物体需要“与时俱进,根据不同的语境和情况得到协调”。
展览“缠绕:生物/媒介”通过重新思考生物媒介的概念来进一步探索这一情况。所有实体都处于不断把握和适应不可预测的熵宇宙的过程之中,自然的波动、演化和可编译的物质性也反映在信息、程序和代码的组织和执行中。而重要的是,我们要以独特的视角去探讨人工智能、电子学、算法和信息学中的亲生物特性,“缠绕:生物/媒介”既是对这种视角的思考和行动。
本次展览不仅将生物艺术从一门主要通过技术手段处理细菌、基因或转基因材料的艺术学科中提升和解放出来,还回应了当下的紧迫诘问,其对象包含了生命基质的转变性与生命的定义;不断变化的自然过程演化范式;在生物和技术域的影响下所涌现的新主体;以及对物理存在(自然)、技术存在(人工)和精神存在(生物)之间共生关系的渴望,并以此在后人类世界秩序中重思西蒙栋式的概念。
