March 5 to 13, 2007

NAS Announces Virtual Symposium on Visual Culture and Bioscience

WASHINGTON – The Office of Exhibitions and Cultural Programs of the
National Academy of Sciences will co-host the “Virtual Symposium on Visual
Culture and Bioscience” from March 5 to 13, 2007, with the Center for
Art and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
(UMBC).

Experts from around the world will discuss the intersections between the
visual arts and the life sciences at this international event, which will
take place on the Internet. A group of 30 participants – comprised of
artists, scientists, historians, ethicists, curators, sociologists, and
writers – will present a variety of perspectives on topics such as artists
in the lab, imaging in art and bioscience, and the sociological
implications of the growing connections between the two fields. A complete
list of participants and examples of such intersections can be found on
the following pages. The discussion, which will be conducted through a
listserv, will be accessible online at

www.visualcultureandbioscience.org.

Suzanne Anker, a visual artist and theorist working with genetic imagery,
will moderate the discussion. She is the co-author of The Molecular Gaze:
Art in the Genetic Age (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2004). She
curated “Gene Culture: Molecular Metaphor in Contemporary Art” (Fordham
University, 1994), the first exhibition devoted entirely to the
intersection of art and genetics. Anker teaches art history and theory at
the School of Visual Arts in New York City where she is chair and editor
of ArtLab23. She is also the host of BioBlurb on WPS1 Art Radio. This
event is made possible through the generous support of Ralph S. O’Connor
and the Marian and Speros Martel Foundation. It is sponsored by the Office
of Exhibitions and Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences
and UMBC. For more than 20 years, the Office of Exhibitions and Cultural
Programs of the National Academy of Sciences has sponsored exhibitions,
concerts, and other events that explore relationships among the arts and
sciences.

Symposium participants:

Max Aguilera-Hellweg, Photographer, Writer, and Filmmaker, Cambridge, M.A.

Bergit Arends, Historian and Curator, Museum of Natural History, London

Andrew Carnie, Artist, Consultant, and Greater London Arts Professor at
Winchester School of Art, Winchester, United Kingdom

Oron Catts, Artistic Director, SymbioticA: The Art & Science Collaborative
Research Laboratory, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of
Western Australia, Sydney

Catherine Chalmers, Artist, New York City

Helen Chandler, Former Scientific Manager, Arts and Genomics Center,
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Carl Djerassi, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University, San
Diego

Florian Dombois, Professor and Head, Institute for Transdisciplinarity,
Bern University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland

Troy Duster, Professor of Sociology, New York University, New York City

Sian Ede, Arts Director, UK Branch of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Applications, London

Sabine Flach, Lecturer, Center for Literary Studies, Berlin

Giovanni Frazzetto, Molecular Biologist, London School of Economics and
Political Science, London

David Freedberg, Professor and Director, Italian Academy for Advanced
Studies in America, Columbia University, New York City

Karl Grimes, Professor, School of Communications, Dublin City University,
Dublin, Ireland

Jens Hauser, Independent Curator and Writer, Paris

Marvin Heiferman, Professor, New York School of Visual Arts, New York City

Vladimir Mironov, Research Associate Professor and Director of Bioprinting
Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston

Orlan, Performance Artist, Paris

Nancy Princenthal, Senior Editor, Art in America, New York City

Ingeborg Reichle, Art Historian, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences,
Berlin

Miriam van Rijsingen, Professor of Humanities, University of Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Michael Sappol, Curator–Historian, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda,
M.D.

Brad Smith, Researcher in Biomedical Visualization and Associate Dean of
the School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Andrew Solomon, Writer and Board Member, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory,
N.Y.

Susan Squier, Brill Professor of Women’s Studies and English, Pennsylvania
State University, University Park

Eugene Thacker, Assistant Professor, School of Literature, Communication,
and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Richard Twine, Principal Investigator, ESRC Center for Economic and Social
Aspects of Genomics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

Catherine Wagner, Photographer, San Francisco

Catherine Waldby, International Research Fellow, Department of Sociology
and Social Policy, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Peter Weibel, Chairman, Center for Art and Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

Richard Wingate, Lecturer, Center for Developmental Neurobiology, King’s
College, London

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contact:

Alana Quinn
Outreach Manager
Office of Exhibitions and Cultural Programs
National Academy of Sciences
500 Fifth St., NW, Room NAS 269
Washington, D.C. 20001
Telephone: (202) 334-2415
Facsimile: (202) 334-1690
Email: aquinnnas.edu
www.nationalacademies.org/arts