conference & exhibition
ORGANISERS
Pascale Pollier
Pascale’s work attempts to capture the point where art and science meld. An alchemist at heart, her work begins with observation and experimentation and is steeped in solid scientific research and findings. She studied fine art in Belgium, and subsequently a postgraduate training with the Medical Artists Association in London. She is co-founder and president of BIOMAB, she is curating and organising exhibitions, dissection drawing classes, collaborative art/science projects and conferences. In 2015 she became co-founder and president of ARSIC “Art Researches Science International Collaborations, an international collective where Art and Science become entangled. From 2007-2018 Pascale worked as an artistic assistant for Belgian Artist Jan Fabre, gaining a great deal of material knowledge and experience of exhibiting his work in places such as the Louvre Museum, Paris, and the Venice Biennale, and other major galleries and art festivals.
Pascale was an external examiner for the medical art course at The Centre for Anatomy & Human Identification, University of Dundee, and from 2017-2020 was an external examiner for the MA Art in Science course at John Moores University, Liverpool. Pascale is past President of AEIMS 2014-2020. And is Chairman of the Medical Artists Association of Great Britain. Pascale currently lives and works in Liverpool as a research assistant at the FaceLab and is a self-employed artist./sculptor@artem-medicalis
Juris Salaks
Juris has a medical background that supports him in his position as a deputy director of the Pauls Stradiņš Museum of the history of medicine in Riga. Even if he has not been awarded with a historian academic qualification, he has an extensive experience in history of medicine and museology. His mission is to connect the western views with the eastern views of the history of medicine. He is located in Riga, but he is always travelling to Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Kazan, Berlin, Basel, Barcelona, Milan amongst many others. By meeting a lot of interesting people around the world, he gets inspiration for his projects at the museum and university to further extend them internationally.
Ieva Libiete
Pauls Stradins Museum of History of Medicine bewitched Ieva when she was still a medical student in 2005. Since then she has changed the white coat to white gloves and works there as a researcher and occasionally as a curator.
Currently she takes care of the historical anatomical collection of Riga Stradins University and tries to breathe some creative life back into it.
Andrew Burd
"Andrew Burd is a Scottish medic. He has dedicated his professional life to metamorphosis; taking a delicate young spirit, trapped in a carapace of scar and through art and anatomy, through the medium of surgery, giving children the freedom to fly. As the eyes dim, the insights grow brighter. Years of laboratory research, academic studies, teaching, training and helping so many patients; I am moving on. I am fascinated by the interface between man and machine. Not just the physical but what about other forms of control/interaction? Bluetooth? Wifi? Upper limb amputation, which would you prefer? Transplantation or prosthesis? Not a simple question but there is a simple answer: bionic prosthesis. 100%. No question. Okay, follow up question. Major traumatic damage or loss to all or part of the face; transplant or mask? Mask? What sort of mask? A bionic mask: an intimate union between materials and biology powered and controlled by a bio-sensory interface. Transplantation is working against nature. The revolution which we are proposing is to work with nature, to combine, to integrate. It works well with smartphones! Great with upper limb smart prostheses. What about bionic facial prostheses? Start small, think big, So here i am, facing the future and looking at future faces."
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Angelo Vermeulen
Angelo is a space researcher, biosystems engineer, biologist and artist. He works on bio-inspired concepts for interstellar exploration at Delft University of Technology, bringing together a variety of disciplines. Since 2009 he has been collaborating with the European Space Agency’s MELiSSA program on biological life support. In 2013 he became the first crew commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation program in Hawai'i. Vermeulen also collaborates with several space companies such as LIQUIFER Systems Group and SEMiLLA Circular Systems, and regularly advises young space startups. He is a co-founder of SEADS (Space Ecologies Art and Design), an international transdisciplinary collective of artists, scientists, engineers, and activists. Their goal is to reshape the future through critical inquiry and hands-on experimentation. In 2019 SEADS launched its first artwork to the International Space Station. Vermeulen has been (guest) faculty at several universities across Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia.
Nina Sellars
Dr Nina Sellars is an artist, writer and curator whose research area focuses on the contemporary and historical influence of anatomy on our understanding of body, identity and subjectivity. Sellars is curator of exhibitions and programs at the Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Melbourne, and visiting research fellow at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia. She was artist in residence at SymbioticA, the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, 2016-2018, University of Western Australia, and research fellow at the Alternate Anatomies Lab (robotics and art research group), Curtin University, Perth, W.A., 2013-2015. Recent exhibitions of her artwork include: Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia—New Romance: Art and the Posthuman, 2016; Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts—HyperPrometheus: The Legacy of Frankenstein, 2018; Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada—IOTA Bio Art Series, 2019. Her recent authored publications include—'Fat Matters: Fluid Interventions in Anatomy’, in Fluid Matter(s): Flow and Transformation in the History of the Body, ANU Press, 2020, and 'Robert Hooke’s Micrographia: a historical guide to navigating contemporary images’, in the Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies, 2021. An online 2020 interview with Sellars can be accessed through IOTA. http://www.ninasellars.com/cv/
Andrew Carnie
Andrew Carnie is a studio based artist who teaches at the Winchester School of Art. His artistic practice often involves creative interaction with scientists in different fields, regarding themes and ideas, which are often based around neurology. The work produced from these encounters is often time-based in nature, the works explores how a new sense of self might be constructed through contemporary scientific discovery, imagery, and anatomy.
Andrew tries to find innovative ways to portrait the information he is exposed to and is interested in how scientists are creative and how this might reflect on artistic practice in new ways. The pieces create arenas where these ideas can be experienced;
His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide
website: http://www.andrewcarnie.co.uk
science and art blog: http://scienceandart--andrew-carnie.blogspot.com/
Bryan W. Green
Bryan founded the Moodist Movement in 1976 out of a need to give a name to the various activities that made up his work--activities that fused into a philosophy not happy to be called Art. Moodism is the Playing, To Exhaustion, of No Game In Particular. Moodism is the Art or Science of Escaping from Self-imposed Misery. B.Green Moodist
Bryan is sculptor/poet/performance
artist and co-Founder of ARSIC ( Art Researches Science International Collaborations)
Joe Davis
while earning his Creative Arts degree (1973) from Mt Angel College in Oregon, Joe Davis pioneered sculptural methods in laser carving at Bell Telephone Laboratories and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center Laser Laboratory. In 1981, he joined MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies as Research Fellow and Lecturer. Davis’ work has had a strong focus on astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life. In 1986, Davis created Microvenus, the first genetically engineered work of art. His Poetica Vaginal (1986-7) and Rubisco Stars (2009), were the most powerful and longest-duration radio messages ever transmitted to other stars. Davis joined Alexander Rich’s laboratory at MIT in 1989 where he is widely regarded to have founded new fields in art and biology. While at Rich Lab, Davis attached fishing rods and minuscule fish hooks to his microscopes and developed other whimsical instruments to resolve mechanical and acoustic signatures of microorganisms. His projects involving “DNA programming languages” for inserting poetic texts and graphics into DNA have been frequently cited in scientific literature. In 2010, he joined the laboratory of George Church at Harvard as “Artist Scientist.” In 2011, Davis worked with collaborators at Harvard and the Japanese National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences to genetically modify silkworms in order to produce transgenic silks bio-mineralized with metallic gold. Davis enjoys simultaneous affiliations with Ashley Seifert Laboratory at the University of Kentucky, where he and colleagues have been investigating the genetics of serendipity using mouse-driven mechanical dice-throwing apparatus, and with Thomas Schwartz Laboratory at MIT Biology where he produced the world’s first macroscopic “memory crystals” of information-bearing DNA in 2017. In 2019 Davis collaborated with colleagues at Harvard, MIT, the Indian National Center for Biological Sciences, and SK Biolabs in Moscow, Russia to insert 3-, and 4-dimensional data into extremely robust, salt-loving organisms. Davis’ information-keeping extremophiles are now embedded into crystals of mineral salt where they are expected to persist for hundreds of millions of years. With “Baitul Ma’mur” (2020) Davis and Pakistani biologist Sarah Khan demonstrated the highest density information-keeping in DNA to date. Davis has also created large public sculptures and pedestrian lighting at Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Mara G. Haseltine
Mara G. Haseltine is an international artist, a pioneer in the field of SciArt, and an environmental activist and educator. Haseltine collaborates with scientists and engineers to create work that addresses the link between our cultural and biological evolution. Her work takes place in the studio, lab and field, infusing scientific inquiry with poetry. She was a pioneer in the translation of scientific data and bioinformatics into three-dimensional sculptures and became known for her outsized renditions of microscopic and sub-microscopic life. She created the first solar-powered oyster reef in NYC and has extensively studied sustainable reef restoration methods for the past 15 years, fusing art with sustainable solutions for ‘SIDS,’ Small Island Developing States at the United Nations. Haseltine has been a contributing member of the Explorers Club since 2008. She was awarded Return of the Flag with Honors for her work on the high seas with Tara Expeditions studying atmospheric climate change and its relationship to planktonic ecosystems. Haseltine’s work is refreshing in the world of environmental and biomedical art because of its surreal, often-playful and witty nature, as well as her intense devotion to ascetics and sensuality. For full CV and website :www.calamara.com
Francis Wells
Francis Wells is a Cardiothoracic surgeon based in Papworth Hospital, part of the University of Cambridge group of specialist hospitals. Trained in London, Cambridge and the University of Alabama in Birmingham Alabama where he was senior research fellow to Professor John Kirklin, a founding father of modern cardiac surgical practice. His specialist area of interest has been heart valve reconstruction, cardiopulmonary transplantation and the surgical management of intra-thoracic malignancy.
In parallel with his clinical practice Francis has had a lifelong interest in the arts and a specific interest in the Renaissance, having studied in depth the work of Leonardo da Vinci. This work led recently to the publication of his book The Heart of Leonardo.
He has sponsored several artists in residence within his clinical practice and this has led to several pieces which have appeared in major exhibitions including the Royal Academy summer show. Himself a recipient of the Sir Hugh Casson prize for drawing, Francis enjoys drawing, painting and playing the piano.
Eleanor Crook
Eleanor Crook trained in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy and makes figures and effigies in wax, carved wood and lifelike media. She has also made a special study of anatomy and has sculpted anatomical and pathological waxworks for the Gordon Museum of Pathology at Guy's Hospital, London's Science Museum, and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. She exhibits internationally in both fine art and science museum contexts. She learned the technique of forensic facial reconstruction modelling from Richard Neave and has demonstrated and taught this to artists, forensic anthropology students, law enforcement officers and plastic surgeons as well as incorporating this practice in her own sculpted people.
Theo Dirix
Theo Dirix, born mid-20th century, is a professional nomad. After postings in Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Tanzania, he is now living in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Earlier, he was working as a radio host for the classical Flemish radio BRT-3. He has published articles in Flemish and Dutch newspapers and magazines, mainly travel and grave stories. He also authored books commenting on Moroccan literature. During his stay in Greece, he wrote "In Search for Andreas Vesalius: The Quest for the Lost Grave”, in which he takes the reader on a trip to the graves of many Zakynthian poets; the grave of Vesalius is still to be found but the reader will find a bit more of himself.
William Edwards
William Edwards, Curator of the Gordon Museum, Senior Tutor and Deputy course director of the Extended Medical degree Programme (EMPD). Working primarily with undergraduate Medical and Dental education, but also with many Para-medical specialities. Occasionally assists various Police forces in cold case investigations. Represents KCL with issues relating to Medical Museums, the UK Human Tissue Authority, Medical History and Art and Medicine. Works on behalf of Kings College London (KCL) with the Access to Medicine and Widening Participation programmes.
Studied as undergraduate and postgraduate in the University of London in Biology – particular background in Physiology and Developmental Biology.
During the late 1970’s worked as a scientist in industry, moving into Medical and Dental education in the Gordon Museum at the Guy's Hospital Campus in 1980. After five years moved to St. Thomas’ Hospital Campus to take over the then independent Pathology Museum. After seven years and the merger of the pathology museums at Guy's and St. Thomas' returned to Guy’s campus as deputy Curator, Curator now for the last eighteen years.
Mark Roughley
Mark Roughley is a Lecturer in 3D Digital Art at Liverpool School of Art and Design, and a member of the Face Lab research group that explores faces and art-science applications. Mark trained as a medical artist, gaining his MSc in Medical Art from the University of Dundee, and specializes in visualizing anatomy through 3D data acquisition, modeling, and fabrication. His research focuses on the affordances that 3D digital technologies allow for both digital and haptic interaction with anatomical and cultural artifacts. Mark is also the host of Liverpool LASER (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) Talks that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversations on art, science, and technology. (University Profile)
Alexander Bieri
Alexander Lukas Bieri has been the curator of The Roche Historical Collection and Archive for twenty years. He is responsible for the in-house museums, collections and archives which include major assets on the history of pharmacy, medicine and art (and an anatomical collection). His publications include works on art and architectural history as well as on the history of science and business. He is currently chairman of the International Council on Archives’ Section on Business Archives and of the German Business Archivists Association’s Section on Archives of the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry. Alex is also a member of ICOMOS Switzerland and in this capacity a specialist for 20th century interior design.
Haematologist and Medical Artist Ann Van de Velde is president of the Association Européenne des Illustrateurs Médicaux et Scientifiques/the European Organization of Medical and Scientific Illustrators. In medical sciences, traditionally illustrations are created to enable communication between scientist and reader, teacher and student and physician and patient. Art and science come together in medical illustration. With BIOMAB - Biological and Medical Art Belgium - she organizes international dissection drawing days for students in Art and Medicine. The dissection process is done and explained by Antwerp based anatomist Francis Van Glabbeek and afterwards the specimens are displayed from different angles to draw from. Like the word sanguine - having the colour of blood, characterized by abundance and active circulation of blood, anticipating the best, confident and full of hope - BIOMAB is a platform for cross-over encounters between people. When we start drawing, painting and photographing, we transform the space into a living lab. Sketches are hung on walls and windows and are placed on tables. With every sketch, there is a certain trepidation that must be overcome. Part of the trepidation falls off because we work directly. We can draw what we see or what we experience and feel. Of course, the interpretative results of the spontaneous sketches may be a long way from anatomical correctness, but these sketches are certainly fascinating scribbles of characters for future artwork. When seeing the drawings and listening at the conversations, it is clear to us that to know we always have to go deeper than our skin and protective layers, deeper than tendons, muscles, blood vessels and nerves, down to the bone. With fragile surgical precision and strong poetry.
Richard Wingate
Richard Wingate is Director of the Centre for Education in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at King’s College London where he previously served as Head of Anatomy. He is also neuroscientist and heads a lab at the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders where his research addresses how the identity of neurons and their ultimate location in the brain are genetically specified in development and evolution. Richard has a long-term involvement in the public communication of science through outreach, public speaking, writing, broadcasting and curating exhibitions. He is a member of the public education and communication committee of the Society for Neuroscience and Editor-in-Chief of brainfacts.org.