Alex May has several projects featured in Ars Electronica 2020. Details of which are below.
STARTS Journey: Fermenting Futures
Prof. Diethard Mattanovich (AT), Prof. Ingeborg Reichle (DE), Anna Dumitriu (UK), Alex May (UK), Sonja Schachinger (AT)
Fermenting Futures is an art and science project developed by the Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), and conducted in collaboration with the Department of Media Theory, University of Applied Arts Vienna (Angewandte), as outreach for arts-based research. The project will introduce some of the thousands of yeast species and their characteristics, as well as synthetic biology methods to create new yeast strains with exceptional capabilities to make our lives better while preserving the planet. In a residency at BOKU the British bioartists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May will transform some highlights of this research into sculptural artwork.
The video will be shown on 2020-09-09 12:00 AM
Acquired Immunity
Co-organized and co-hosted by FEMeeting, Cultivamos Cultura (PT) and The Sanctuary for Independent Media (US)
In response to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, FEMeeting 2020 reshaped its call for participation and launched FEMeeting: WEB, dedicated to the presentation of its members’ digital contributions. This is a work in progress: a set of short videos with a variety of aesthetics that were collected under the title Acquired Immunity.
Vidhu Aggarwal (US), Roberta Buiani (CA), Annick Bureaud (FR), Nicole Clouston (CA), Ryder Cooley (US), Marta de Menezes (PT), Daniela de Paulis (NL), Anna Dumitriu (UK), Andrea Gogová (SK), Tamar Gordon (US), Margaretha Haughwout (US), Kathy High (US), Dalila Honorato (GR), Anna Lindemann (US), Mark Lipton (CA), Elizabeth Littlejohn (CA), Louise Mackenzie (UK), Alex May (UK), Domenica Mediati (CA), Branda Miller (US), Lila Moore (UK), Claire Nettleton (US), Irena Paskali (DE), Regine Rapp (DE), Boryana Rossa (BG/US), Stephanie Rothenberg (US), Danielle Siembieda (US), Dolores Steinman (CA), Lisa Thomas (US), Elaine Whittaker (CA), Jennifer Willet (CA), Amy M. Youngs (US), Jennifer Zackin (US), Karolina Żyniewicz (PL)
EMAP Group Exhibition: Quarantine
KONTEJNER ǀ bureau of contemporary art praxis (HR)
Robertina Šebjanič (SI), Gjino Šutić (HR), Anna Dumitriu, Alex May (UK), Tiziano Derme, Daniela Mitterberger (AT), Taavi Suisalu (EE), Quimera Rosa (FR/AR/ES), Kat Austen (UK/DE)
Through topics like pollution, interspecies communication, climate change, the “post-human” body and the Anthropocene, the KONTEJNER Garden project underlines the need for new values and morals. The project artists are not complacent or ignoring life, they are creating their own visionary narratives building on discourses of unity rather than division and embracing concepts like “human” and “nature”.
Over the last few years, the EMAP/EMARE network of media arts organizations have produced a multitude of works dealing with life-science and cybernetics that examine the fragile ecological equilibrium of life on Earth. A few of these artists find inspiration from scientific discoveries like archaea, a group of unicellular micro-organisms believed to be the oldest form of life on Earth. Other sources of inspiration include the impact of pharmaceuticals on life in the water and the sonic vision of bats. These artistic explorations envision future evolution in magical and often transgressive ways.
Through topics like pollution, interspecies communication, climate change, the “post-human” body and the Anthropocene, the KONTEJNER Garden project underlines the need for new values and morals. The project artists are not complacent or ignoring life, they are creating their own visionary narratives building on discourses of unity rather than division and embracing concepts like “human” and “nature”.
In the times of COVID-19, KONTEJNER Garden will take place in a beautiful renaissance building, formerly a quarantine pier in the old Republic of Ragusa that protected the city from plague and cholera.
Fri Sep 11, 2020, 11:00 am – 11:30 am (UTC +2)
Ars Electronica Channel 3
In English language