Host

 

HOST

The video HOST will be showing in the Creativity & Cognition Conference Exhibition, 17th-20th July inclusive @ UTS, B10 (CB 10), 235 Jones St, Broadway, Sydney. Opening on the 17th, 7.30-9.30pm.

In this instance the emphasis will be on the way HOST highlights the elements of honeybee consciousness revealed in the documentary footage used in the video, that was captured during my residency with the Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland.

Revisiting my ANAT Synapse Blog after quite a while!

So here we are in 2021 after a 2020 disrupted by Covid 19 and pandemic restrictions.

Along with most other artists I experienced a number of issues last year, including the cancellation of the 3 Festival where I was expecting to show the outcomes of my Synapse residency.

I am fortunate to live in the same city as my scientific collaborator: A. Prof. Mirella Dottori: https://www.ihmri.org.au/researchers/associate-professor-mirella-dottori/ and we are planning to return to our collaborative research soon.

Consequently, I have returned to my ANAT blog: http://adams2019.blog.anat.org.au/ My aim is to document this second phase of our collaboration as it develops. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this residency project, we have been carrying out research into ‘organoids’ that are cultured from human stem cells

Embryonic stem cells – Day 1, Image: Mitchel St Claire, Dottori Lab.

SYNAPSE Grant Award: Australian Network for Art and Technology

I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded an Australian Network for Art and Technology SYNAPSE Grant in the latest round.
This grant is for an art/science collaborative project with A/Prof M. Dottori, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute. University of Wollongong and A/Prof B. Nayagam, Bionics Institute, University of Melbourne. We will explore human neuronal responses relating to the senses by employing laboratory generated models of how our.brain receives electrical signals from these sensory neurons. I will reinterpret the cutting edge scientific data from the perspective of a visual artist to create sensuous, interactive art installations to be experienced by the viewer/participant.

The Visit me_HONEYBEE interactive artwork has opened at Brisbane Botanic Gardens

Designed to allow you to watch video footage of honeybees in great detail on your smartphone via remote QR Code access; this artwork provides an unusually intimate viewer experience, and one that brings these tiny creatures up-close as if you were actually holding them in your hands.

BOTANIKA

I am excited to report that my public art concept design: Visit me_HONEYBEE has been selected for the BOTANIKA temporary public art event in Brisbane Botanic Gardens. This is a temporary public art experience scheduled for 6-15 April 2018, to coincide with the Commonwealth Games

Interactive art/science artwork: OBVERSE

My latest artwork, OBVERSE is part of a landmark exhibition Femel_Fissions at the Block, Creative Industries Precincts, Brisbane, Australia.

OBVERSE considers the fact that cell death is an integral part of the life process, in connection with the Nobel Prize winning research into cell growth factor by Rita Levi Montalcini

Femel_Fissions traces the historical influence of women on scientific discovery and research through newly commissioned works from leading Australian and international artists.

Featuring seven contemporary female art/science practitioners, Femel_Fissions will showcase works that have been created in response to groundbreaking discoveries by female scientists from the last three centuries, exploring the fields of neurology, biology, cytogenetics, psychology, primatology and anatomy.

Breaking down the boundaries and drawing commonalities between art and science, Femel_Fissions shows that both the artist’s studio and the scientist’s laboratory are sites for unrestricted inquiry and experimentation in this unique exhibition.

Honeybee Raree Box in the Light Play exhibition @ UQ Art Museum

My new artwork: Honeybee Raree Box will be showing at The University of Queensland Art Museum in the Light Play exhibition: http://www.artmuseum.uq.edu.au/coming-soon

The exhibition opens Friday 14th August 6.30-8.30pm & continues until 15th November. I have included a brief description of the work below:

In a rare art/science opportunity Trish Adams was admitted to the Australian Synchrotron’s Imaging and Medical Beamline (IMBL) to capture images of live honeybees. The IMBL delivers short, modulated bursts of radioactive light. This dynamic X-ray process transgresses the external boundaries of the body to reveal the active internal processes taking place within.

The artwork Honeybee Raree Box is informed by the historical construct of the Raree Box. These transportable boxes contained images that were viewed in the manner of a ‘peep show’, thrilling viewers in an era long before the abundance of images we experience today. This historical reference is juxtaposed with  a video of the unique, cutting edge Synchrotron images of bees playing on an ipad at the back of the box, emphasising the voyeuristic aspects of ‘illicit’ viewing and re-creating the wonder of the ‘spectacle’.

I Would love to see you there.

HOST and the Animal Publics Conference

HOST will be showing in the exhibition Creaturely Feelings at the Multimedia Gallery, DAX Centre, Kenneth Myer Building, University of Melbourne, 30 Royal Parade, 12-18 July. Curated by Dr Caroline Wallace, this exhibition forms part of the Animal Publics: Emotions, Empathy and Activism Conference, http://animal-publics.com/

Anyone in Melbourne next week is most welcome to attend the exhibition opening from 5.30-7.30pm, Monday 13th July – or pop in during the rest of the week, for opening hours please call: 03 9035 6258

I will also be presenting a paper at the conference entitled: European Honeybees: Interconnectivity at the Edge of Stillness.

“Disconnections” documentary video posted on-line

Professor Paolini demonstrates the use of the Eye-Tracker computer programme in the Sensory Laboratory

The “Disconnections” documentary video has been posted: https://vimeo.com/channels/115324

It shows participant engagement with the interactive artworks: “Inaudible City” and “Fractured_Message” at the exhibition opening on Thursday 9th April 2015 @ the HEARing CRC, Carlton.

HEARING LOSS PROJECT – UPDATE

 This is a screen grab from the artwork: Inaudible City. Aspects from a modified video of the City of Melbourne are highlighted to correspond with 4 customised soundtracks. (Patricia Adams. 2015). 

Some months ago my hearing loss project moved into the artwork development stage and I began to collaborate with Dr. Jonathan Duckworth, Director of CiART, School of Media and Communications, RMIT. Discussion and access to specialist media support, provided by CiArt, enabled me to create two artworks: Inaudible City and Fractured_Message.

My aim has been to provide viewers from the wider community, who  have normal hearing, with an immersive, sensory experience that increases their understanding of how hearing loss feels, along with some realisation of its impact on everyday life.

Briefly, the custom made soundtracks of Inaudible City have been distorted to resemble 4 distinct types of hearing loss. Seeing & hearing in this way may give the artwork viewers an experiential understanding of some of the challenges face by the deaf. Fractured_Message is a one-on-one artwork where the aim is to create an experience that evokes the frustration and isolation of a hearing impaired person who cannot commnicate.

These unique artworks have come to the attention of the HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (HEARingCRC), The University of Melbourne.

The HEARingCRC will host the inaugural showing of Inaudible City and Fractured_Message in an event entitled: Disconnections, Thursday 9 April, 5.30-7.30, The University of Melbourne’s Audiology and Speech Sciences Building, 550 Swanston St, Carlton, Melbourne. This free event is open to everybody, however modified versions of these two artworks will also be uploaded onto the designated website for wider access – links will be posted here soon.

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This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its funding and advisory body.

Credits: Dr. Patricia Adams – Artist and Visiting Research Fellow, RMIT School of Health Sciences; Prof. Antonio Paolini, – Discipline Leader, Psychology, RMIT School of Health Sciences; Dr. Jonathan Duckworth – Production and Design, CiART Director, School of Media and Communications, RMIT; Ross Eldridge – Real-Time Programming; Alex Zemtsov and Brendan Peterson – Original Cinematography and Editing; David Vatousios – Actor, Fractured_Message.



Live Bees @ the Australian Synchrotron

For approximately the last year I have been applying for some beam-time to take live bees for X-Ray Tomography at the Australian Synchrotron. Several times my proposal has been refused on scientific grounds but, with the amazing support of the Medical Imaging Beam specialist: Chris Hall, it was finally accepted and given a window of opportunity.

My aim was to capture image data of the insides of the bees as they moved around and ate.

The bees were kindly provided by Vanessa and Matt from Melbourne City rooftop Honey, who remained with us during the Synchrotron session. http://rooftop-honey.myshopify.com/

The bees were not harmed by the radioactive beam since insects, such as honeybees, are far more resilant than humans to environmental toxins and also their exposure time to the beam was short.

Here you see the Radioactivity-proof door to the facility.

Chris is shown here organising the image capture process. On the left side of the left monitor you can see the synchrotron beam line itself and on the right the view of the bees in a box on a turntable waiting to be imaged. 

There are already some very exciting video clips which I will be recontextualising into artworks asap.

I had no real idea how intricate the internal organs of honeybees are nor the detail of a proboscis absorbing food.

All future image data thanks to the Australian Synchrotron. For further information about the Australian Synchrotron: https://www.synchrotron.org.au/

Gold Coast City Gallery Art Prize Exhibition

Video still of Disordered Swarming

Overview of a section of the exhibition as a viewer looks at Disordered Swarming

Last weekend on a visit to Brisbane I was able to get down to the Gold Coast City Gallery to view the exhibition of finalists for the prestigious Art Prize.

My recent video:Disordered Swarmingwas one of the works selected by the judge: Chris Saines, the newly appointed Director of the Queensland Art Gallery.

It was a varied & interesting selection & I had difficulty making my own pick to vote for the upcoming “People’s Prize” – I’ll be watching the outome of that with interest.

The exhibition continues until Sunday 9 February for those of you in the area.

http://www.theartscentregc.com.au/whats-on/whats-on-items/gold-coast-art-prize-2013

Disordered Swarming

This artwork explores the endangered status of the European honeybee due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the toxic stresses faced by urban populations. The video images of desperate honeybee responses viewed against the backdrop of the rushing mass of the urban population, scurrying hither and thither; create a scenario where both humans and honeybees exhibit mindless – possibly doomed – behaviours. 

In bringing together these two normally disparate worlds of honeybee and city dweller DISORDERED SWARMING highlights unforeseen moments of exchange and interspecies proximity, combined with socio-cultural and ecological issues. 

Participants download the movie: a space to cross on to their ipad or iphone via QR code access. As they watch + listen to the movie, set against the urban backdrop, participants consider the layered relationship between humans and honeybees as they face closely linked issues of endagerment.

A space to cross includes documentary footage of aggressive honeybee behaviours collected during Trish’s residency with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience group, Queensland Brain Institute. Contrary to their normally regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this footage the aggressive honeybees exhibit apparently hectic desperation.

The video thus evokes a sense of foreboding, unease and entrapment that reaches beyond its original context to become a metaphor for both socio-cultural issues related to toxic urban stresses and the CCD endangered status of the honeybee itself.

The designated artwork website contains a project ‘app’ link and participant ‘comments’ section. Participants can post their responses to their varied viewing experiences on this designated DISORDERED SWARMING website portal. As their input is collected, an on-line community of participants will gradually build up – mirroring a swarming community of honeybees

Process 

  • Make sure you have a QR Code reader installed on your iPhone or iPad
  • If not, a free app can be found here
  • Scan the Disordered Swarming QR Code below
  • Stand in an urban space where people are hurrying around you
  • Download the video a space to cross onto your smart device
  • Watch and listen to the video in this inner city environment – an immersive experience with sound & visuals
  • Leave your comment on the Disordered Swarming website

 

Credits

Original cinematography: Dr. Nikolai Leibsch, Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, U.Q.

Soundtrack: Roundhouse Creative

TOXICITY

Curated by Melentie Pandilovski @ Plug in ICA, http://www.toxicitywinnipeg.com/

DISORDERED SWARMING

This artwork explores the endangered status of the European honeybee due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the toxic stresses faced by urban populations. The video images of desperate honeybee responses viewed against the backdrop of the rushing mass of the urban population, scurrying hither and thither; create a scenario where both humans and honeybees exhibit mindless – possibly doomed – behaviours. 

In bringing together these two normally disparate worlds of honeybee and city dweller DISORDERED SWARMING highlights unforeseen moments of exchange and interspecies proximity, combined with socio-cultural and ecological issues. 

Participants download the movie: a space to cross on to their ipad or iphone via QR code access. As they watch + listen to the movie, set against the urban backdrop, participants consider the layered relationship between humans and honeybees as they face closely linked issues of endagerment.

A space to cross includes documentary footage of aggressive honeybee behaviours collected during Trish’s residency with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience group, Queensland Brain Institute. Contrary to their normally regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this footage the aggressive honeybees exhibit apparently hectic desperation.

The video thus evokes a sense of foreboding, unease and entrapment that reaches beyond its original context to become a metaphor for both socio-cultural issues related to toxic urban stresses and the CCD endangered status of the honeybee itself.

The designated artwork website contains a project ‘app’ link and participant ‘comments’ section. Participants can post their responses to their varied viewing experiences on this designated DISORDERED SWARMING website portal. As their input is collected, an on-line community of participants will gradually build up – mirroring a swarming community of honeybees

>> View the mobile optimised version here

 

Credits

Original cinematography: Dr. Nikolai Leibsch, Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, U.Q.

Soundtrack: Roundhouse Creative

The show @ Plug In ICA, http://www.toxicitywinnipeg.com/,

6 Dec. 2013- 8 Feb. 2014.

Curated: Melentie Pandilovski

DISORDERED SWARMING

This artwork explores the endangered status of the European honeybee due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the toxic stresses faced by urban populations. The video images of desperate honeybee responses viewed against the backdrop of the rushing mass of the urban population, scurrying hither and thither; create a scenario where both humans and honeybees exhibit mindless – possibly doomed – behaviours. 

In bringing together these two normally disparate worlds of honeybee and city dweller DISORDERED SWARMING highlights unforeseen moments of exchange and interspecies proximity, combined with socio-cultural and ecological issues. 

Participants download the movie: a space to cross on to their ipad or iphone via QR code access. As they watch + listen to the movie, set against the urban backdrop, participants consider the layered relationship between humans and honeybees as they face closely linked issues of endagerment.

A space to cross includes documentary footage of aggressive honeybee behaviours collected during Trish’s residency with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience group, Queensland Brain Institute. Contrary to their normally regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this footage the aggressive honeybees exhibit apparently hectic desperation.

The video thus evokes a sense of foreboding, unease and entrapment that reaches beyond its original context to become a metaphor for both socio-cultural issues related to toxic urban stresses and the CCD endangered status of the honeybee itself.

The designated artwork website contains a project ‘app’ link and participant ‘comments’ section. Participants can post their responses to their varied viewing experiences on this designated DISORDERED SWARMING website portal. As their input is collected, an on-line community of participants will gradually build up – mirroring a swarming community of honeybees

>> View the mobile optimised version here

 

Credits

Original cinematography: Dr. Nikolai Leibsch, Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, U.Q.

Soundtrack: Roundhouse Creative

The show @ Plug In ICA, http://www.toxicitywinnipeg.com/,

6 Dec. 2013- 8 Feb. 2014.

Curated: Melentie Pandilovski

DISORDERED SWARMING

This artwork explores the endangered status of the European honeybee due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the toxic stresses faced by urban populations. The video images of desperate honeybee responses viewed against the backdrop of the rushing mass of the urban population, scurrying hither and thither; create a scenario where both humans and honeybees exhibit mindless – possibly doomed – behaviours. 

In bringing together these two normally disparate worlds of honeybee and city dweller DISORDERED SWARMING highlights unforeseen moments of exchange and interspecies proximity, combined with socio-cultural and ecological issues. 

Participants download the movie: a space to cross on to their ipad or iphone via QR code access. As they watch + listen to the movie, set against the urban backdrop, participants consider the layered relationship between humans and honeybees as they face closely linked issues of endagerment.

A space to cross includes documentary footage of aggressive honeybee behaviours collected during Trish’s residency with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience group, Queensland Brain Institute. Contrary to their normally regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this footage the aggressive honeybees exhibit apparently hectic desperation.

The video thus evokes a sense of foreboding, unease and entrapment that reaches beyond its original context to become a metaphor for both socio-cultural issues related to toxic urban stresses and the CCD endangered status of the honeybee itself.

The designated artwork website contains a project ‘app’ link and participant ‘comments’ section. Participants can post their responses to their varied viewing experiences on this designated DISORDERED SWARMING website portal. As their input is collected, an on-line community of participants will gradually build up – mirroring a swarming community of honeybees

Process 

  • Make sure you have a QR Code reader installed on your iPhone or iPad
  • If not, a free app can be found here
  • Scan the Disordered Swarming QR Code below
  • Stand in an urban space where people are hurrying around you
  • Download the video a space to cross onto your smart device
  • Watch and listen to the video in this inner city environment – an immersive experience with sound & visuals
  • Leave your comment on the Disordered Swarming website

 

Credits

Original cinematography: Dr. Nikolai Leibsch, Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, U.Q.

Soundtrack: Roundhouse Creative

TOXICITY

Curated by Melentie Pandilovski @ Plug in ICA, http://www.toxicitywinnipeg.com/

URBAN SWARMING

My latest artwork: “Urban Swarming” will open on 11  July in the “Intraactionart” exhibition @ MOP Gallery in Sydney

http://intraactionart.com/

This is the optimised artwork download link from my website;

http://www.trishadams.tv/urban-swarming

Because of the locative nature of “Urban Swarming” you do not have to be in Sydney to participate – you just need your smart device, headphones, the Internet to view in the busy city location of your choice!

I hope participants will also join in and leave their comments at the developing on-line hiveminded community….

Trish

Urban Swarming Project

is a form of mobile, locative art that explores unexpected parallels and intersections between communities of city dwellers and the behaviour of European honeybees.

In bringing together these two normally disparate worlds of honeybee and city dweller it highlights unforeseen moments of exchange, interspecies proximity combined with socio-cultural and ecological issues.

Participants download the movie: a space to cross on to their own ipad or iphone via QR codes accessed from notices posted at inner city venues. As they watch + listen to the movie, set against the urban backdrop, participants consider the layered relationship between humans and honeybees as they face closely linked issues. The video images of desperate honeybee responses, viewed against the backdrop of the rushing mass of the urban population, scurrying hither and thither created a scenario where both humans and honeybees exhibit mindless – possibly doomed – behaviours.

A space to cross includes documentary footage of aggressive honeybee behaviours collected during Adams residency with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience group, Queensland Brain Institute. Contrary to their normally regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this footage the aggressive honeybees exhibit apparently hectic desperation.

The video thus evokes a sense of foreboding, unease and entrapment that reaches beyond its original context to invoke both socio-cultural issues related to urban stresses and the endangered status of the honeybee itself.

The designated artwork website contains a project ‘app’ link and participant ‘comments’ section. Participants can post their responses to their varied viewing experiences on this designated URBAN SWARMING website portal. As their input is collected, an on-line community of participants will gradually build up – mirroring a swarming community of honeybees

>> View the mobile optimised version here

Honey bee footage credits:

Dr Niko Leibsch

Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group

Queensland Brain Institute

The University of Queensland.

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/group-leader-srinivasan

Soundtrack by Roundhouse Creative: www.roundhouse.cc

URBAN SWARMING

The video: “a space to cross” has been created using documentary footage of aggressive honey bee responses. Contrary to the honeybees’ usual regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this video the honeybees exhibit frenetic, hectic desperation.

This artwork aims to consider both the endangered status of the European honeybee and behavioural parallels between the honey bee responses and that of city dwellers, as they scurry through the contemporary urban jungle. 

Process 

  • Make sure you have a QR Code reader installed on your iPhone or iPad
  • If not, a free app can be found here
  • Scan the adjacent Urban Swarming QR Code
  • The video should then download onto your ‘smart’ device
  • Make sure you are wearing your headphones
  • Stand in a place where people are hurrying around you
  • Watch and listen to the video
  • If you would like to join the on-line community about this artwork please scroll down and leave your comment below.
  • For a further extension go to the park or some other quiet place and watch the video again to see if the experience felt different

 

Credits

Original cinematography: Dr. Nikolai Leibsch, Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group, Queensland Brain Institute, U.Q.

Soundtrack: Roundhouse Creative

Website: /

URBAN SWARMING

is a form of mobile, locative art that explores unexpected parallels and intersections between communities of city dwellers and the behaviour of European honeybees.

In bringing together these two normally disparate worlds of honeybee and city dweller it highlights unforeseen moments of exchange, interspecies proximity combined with socio-cultural and ecological issues. 

Participants download the movie: a space to cross on to their own ipad or iphone via QR codes accessed from notices posted at inner city venues. As they watch + listen to the movie, set against the urban backdrop, participants consider the layered relationship between humans and honeybees as they face closely linked issues. The video images of desperate honeybee responses, viewed against the backdrop of the rushing mass of the urban population, scurrying hither and thither created a scenario where both humans and honeybees exhibit mindless – possibly doomed – behaviours. 

A space to cross includes documentary footage of aggressive honeybee behaviours collected during Adams residency with the Visual and Sensory Neuroscience group, Queensland Brain Institute. Contrary to their normally regulated and purposeful community behaviours, in this footage the aggressive honeybees exhibit apparently hectic desperation.

The video thus evokes a sense of foreboding, unease and entrapment that reaches beyond its original context to invoke both socio-cultural issues related to urban stresses and the endangered status of the honeybee itself.

The designated artwork website contains a project ‘app’ link and participant ‘comments’ section. Participants can post their responses to their varied viewing experiences on this designated URBAN SWARMING website portal. As their input is collected, an on-line community of participants will gradually build up – mirroring a swarming community of honeybees

>> View the mobile optimised version here

Honey bee footage credits:

Dr Niko Leibsch 

Visual & Sensory Neuroscience Group 

Queensland Brain Institute

The University of Queensland.

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/group-leader-srinivasan

 

Soundtrack by Roundhouse Creative: www.roundhouse.cc