2023
artist text written for the Proceedings of the 27th edition of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Barcelona, ES
published by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC)
~1200 words
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"Syndemic Sublime: Rematerializing the Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus in the Age of Remote Intimacy and Immediate Precarity" is a reflection on selected works written for the Proceedings of the 27th edition of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) that took place in June 2022 and brought together a community of more than 750 experts in art, science and technology as well as the most avant-garde local and international digital artists.
"Syndemic Sublime: Rematerializing the Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus in the Age of Remote Intimacy and Immediate Precarity" is a reflection on selected works written for the Proceedings of the 27th edition of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) that took place in June 2022 and brought together a community of more than 750 experts in art, science and technology as well as the most avant-garde local and international digital artists.
During my 2018 bioart residency, I was also struck by the lab’s use of non-human species for the production of antibodies. My conversations with the scientists led to receiving over 200 pounds of wool from laboratory llamas who produce antibodies for human drugs including vaccines. Since then, I have been spinning their wool into yarn. I situate sculptures made with the yarn among other artworks that examine the hidden systems and invisible labor of biotechnology. This work questions notions of the presence and absence of bodies evoking the mutability of categories that delineate their status.
—Laura Splan, Syndemic Sublime: Rematerializing the Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus in the Age of Remote Intimacy and Immediate Precarity
