MEART - "The semi living artist"
SymbioticA Research Group in collaboration
with The Steve Potter Lab
(Douglas Bakkum, Guy Ben-Ary, Dr. Stuart Bunt,
Oron Catts, Phil Gamblen, Steve M. Potter,
Ian Sweetman, Ionat Zurr)
MEART - The Semi Living Artist is a geographically detached,
bio-cybernetic project exploring aspects of creativity and artistry in
the age of biological technologies and the future possibilities of
creating semi living entities. It investigates our abilities and
intentions in dealing with the emergence of a new class of beings (whose
production may lie far in the future) that may be sentient, creative and
unpredictable. Meart takes the basic components of the brain
(isolated
neurons) attaches them to a mechanical body through the mediation of a
digital processing engine to attempt and create an entity that will
seemingly evolve, learn and become conditioned to express its growth
experiences through "art activity". The combined elements of
unpredictability and "temperament" with the ability to learn and adapt,
creates an artistic entity that is both dependent, and independent, from
its creator and its creator's intentions.
MEART is assembled from:
"Wetware" - cultured neurons from embryonic rat cortex grown
over the Multi Electrode Array
"Hardware" - the robotic (drawing) arm
"Software" - that interfaces between the wetware and the
hardware
We will set up MEART's Brain - the living neural cultures - in
Steve
Potter's lab (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta). Steve is
applying different technologies to study dissociated cultures of
hundreds or thousands of mammalian neurons. In his lab a multi channel
neural recording from MEART's brain will be performed. The data
sets,
extracted from the living neurons, will be processed in two locations -
Atlanta & in the Eyebeam Gallery. The outcome will be used to control
the drawing arm and to stimulate the neurons as feedback. A series of
experiments will be performed in order to explore the relationships
between the input/stimulation to the neuronal culture and the
output/drawings. For example, a web cam will capture portraits of some
of the viewers within the gallery space. This image will be then and the
progress of the drawing will be converted into a "stimulation blue
print" and will be used to stimulate the neurons.
Douglas Bakkum (Steve Potter's Lab)
Born in USA, lived in Slovakia and France. Received a BS and MS in
Mechanical Engineering which provided insight into the workings of the
physical world, but he is now interested in the workings of the mind and
its perception of the physical world. Currently a doctoral student in
the Bioengineering Department at Georgia Tech under the guidance of
Steve Potter. Interested in embodying cultured neurons with robots to
study the importance of environment in the processes of neural networks.
Guy Ben Ary (SymbioticA Research Group)
Biological Artist. Born in USA (1967), lived in Israel and Australia.
Currently living and working in WA. Artist is residence in SymbioticA -
The art & science collaborative lab (since 2000). Manager of the Image
Analysis and Acquisition Facility (IAAF), Department of Anatomy and
Human Biology, UWA. Specialising in light microscopy, biological and
digital imaging. Member of the Tissue Culture & Art Project (joined in
1999). Trained in programming, web development & Law (LLB).
Oron Catts (SymbioticA Research Group)
Tissue engineer artist. Born in Finland, lived in Israel and Australia.
Co-Founder and Artistic Director of SymbioticA - The Art & Science
Collaborative Research Laboratory at The School of Anatomy & Human
Biology, University of Western Australia. Founder of the Tissue Culture
and Art Project (1996). Research fellow at The Tissue Engineering &
Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard
Medical School (2000-2001). Trained in product design, and specialized
in the future interaction of design and biological derived technologies.
Phil Gamblen (SymbioticA Research Group)
Born in the UK in 1964. Migrated to Canada in 1966. Trained and worked
as a gem cutter in the 1980's. Resettled in WA in 1991 after two years
of travel. Graduated from Claremont School of Art in 1996 and Curtin
University of Technology in 1998 with an Honours Degree in Fine Art,
majoring in sculpture. Current artworks utilize motion and light to
investigate technological aspects of today's culture, the overlap of art
and science and the re-use of obsolete and discarded materials.
Steve M. Potter (Steve Potter's Lab)
is the product of an artistic mother and a scientific father, who
fostered both creativity and curiosity. As a result, he is perhaps more
interested in the aesthetics and presentation of scientific data than
most scientists, eager to make it interesting for the general public. He
got his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the Univ. of California,
San Diego, and his PhD in neurobiology at the Univ. of California,
Irvine. He worked as a postdoctoral scientist 8 years at the California
Institute of Technology, developing tools to study living neuronal
networks. He is now a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia
Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Dr. Stuart Bunt (SymbioticA Research Group)
Co-founder of SymbioticA, the first art and biology lab situated in a
science department. Have consulted and lectured on the nexus between
Art/Science and Technology, exhibited in Ars Electronica and
collaborated or helped produce a number of biotech art pieces revolving
around emergent technologies in the biosciences. Background in science
and the arts (Director/co-founder SymbioticA). Senator at the University
of Western Australia, chief executive biomedical software spin off
company, Paradigm Diagnostics,and founder of the Image Acquisition and
Analysis Facility, UWA.
Ian Sweetman (SymbioticA Research Group)
Through an eclectic and undistinguished career Iain Sweetman is uniquely
unqualified in, but has at one time or another earned a living from;
photography, bacteriology, pulmonary physiology, bass playing, record
production, sound engineering, neurobiologly, forensic anthropology,
maths, applied computer science, network administration, artificial
intelligence, strange art projects involving fish and robots and,
tentatively, haptics . He still does not know what he wants to do with
his life, but if he ever gets paid what he thinks the world owes him,
travelling around the world with a bicycle, a tent and a credit card is
a strong possibility.
Ionat Zurr (SymbioticA Research Group)
Wet Biology art practitioner. Born in England, lived in Israel and
Australia. Artist in residence in SymbioticA - The Art & Science
Collaborative Research Laboratory at The School of Anatomy & Human
Biology, University of Western Australia. Co-Founder of the Tissue
Culture and Art Project. Research fellow at The Tissue Engineering &
Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard
Medical School(2000-2001) Studied photography and media studies,
specializing in biological and digital imaging, as well as video
production.
http://www.fishandchips.uwa.edu.au
Acknowledgements: Support for MEART was provided by SymbioticA: the Art &
Science Collaborative Research Lab and ArtsWA in association with the
lotteries Commission.
 
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