SymbioticA

Guy Ben-Ary

Further information

Country of origin

Australia

Websites

Contact

Guy Ben-Ary is the manager of CELLCentral in the school of Anatomy and Human Biology at The University of Western Australia.

Biography

Guy Ben-Ary is an artist and a researcher whose work uses emerging medias, in particular biologically related technologies (tissue culture, tissue engineering, electrophysiology and optics). Ben-Ary is an artist in resident in SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, since 2000. He specializes in microscopy (light, confocal and SEM), biological & digital imaging, tissue culture and engineering and artistic visualization of biological data. His Main research areas are cybernetics, robotics and the interface of biological material to man made devices. Much of Ben-Ary’s work is inspired by science and nature.  His artworks utilize motion and growth to investigate technological aspects of today’s culture and the re-use of biological materials and technologies.
 
He is a member of the core SymbioticA Research Group and spend 2006 working as an artist in resident (research fellow) in the Steve Potter Laboratory, Neuro-emgineering lab, bio-medical school in the Georgia Institute of technology. Guy is a member of the “Biokino” collective that is developing the “living screen” project (Http://www.biokino.net), collaborated with the Tissue Culture & Art Project for 4 years (1999 - 2003), a member of the neurotic collective (that developed The award winning Silent Barrage) and in 2011 is utilising a DCA fellowship to develop his new piece (Along with Kirsten Hudson) entitled PDH007.

Research projects


Silent Barrage

The nature of thoughts, free will, and neural dysfunction is examined in this work which is a collaboration between Symbiotica and the Dr Steven Potter of the Laboratory for Neuroengineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, United States.

Silent Barrage declares its presence in scale and sound. This architectural scale arrangement of noisy pole robots is more then a mere amplification of neuronal activity in a culture dish.

One of the very few real art and science works – in that it is both artistically meaningful and scientifically valid, Silent Barrage investigates the nature of thoughts, free will, and neural dysfunction. The work focuses at the bursts of uncontrolled activity of nerve tissue, a typical characteristic of epilepsy and cultured nerve cells. Silent Barrage uses audience movements in, and responses to the architectural space of amplified neuronal activity to feed it back to the cultured nerve cells in an attempt to silence the barrage of electrical impulses. The scientists hope that this might help them understand better how to quieten the activity in the culture dish, and this in turn would assist in treating epilepsy.

From an artistic perspective Silent Barrage provides an immersive and somewhat overwhelming sensorial manifestation of questions that are in the core of our understanding of the stuff that make us think. Using the presumption of free will of the audience, who chart their own path trough the space, this work draws real and imaginary parallels between the person and nerve cell.     

Each pole in the arrangement represents a region in the culture dish, and the movements of the individual robots correspond to the level of activity in the area. The robots markings on the poles hint to the continuous neuronal activity, conjuring traces of “memories” of past actions.  The movement of audience in the Silent Barrage’s space is used to stimulate the culture. Nerve cells activity usually happens when a certain combination of stimulations reaches a threshold; the same can be said about our decision making. The navigation through Silent Barrage is made out of a series of incremental decisions made in an overly stimulated environment, out of the context of daily life. The nerve cells are also out of context, removed from the brain they once belong to, they are cultured in an artificial environment, trying to make connections with the cells around them. The barrage of activity is a symptom, can pairing cells and the audience can help make “meaningful” connections that will quieten the barrage? Can it happen in a place which is nothing but quiet? 

Below is a video about Silent Barrage:

Funding

Silent Barrage has been assisted by the State Department of Culture and the Arts and its participation at Exit Art was assisted by Australia Council.

Collaborators
Period of Research

2008 - 2009

 


The Living Screen

'The Living Screen' project explores the possibility of projecting self-created nano-movies onto one single cell or living cell tissues.

Tanya Visosevic, Guy Ben Ary and Bruce Murphy explore the possibility of developing an apparatus ('The Bio-Projector') that would allow a series of self-created nano-movies to be projected through a microscope onto one single cell or living cell tissues. 

The nano-movies specifically related to different film theories ranging from the Lacanian inflections of Slavoj Zizek, to the phenomenological interpretations of Vivian Sobchack, through to the corrosive impact of Gilles Deleuze.

Funding

Initial research was funded by the New Media Arts Board of the Australia Council 2004 and later by BEAPWORKS through the ArtsWA in the Department of Culture and The Arts.

Collaborators
Period of research

2004 – ongoing