BIOTEKNICA :
Shawn Bailey is a practicing artist working with digital print media, video and installation. His current research explores notions of authority, control structures, media and international biotech and pharmaceutical policies. He completed a BFA at The University of Calgary in 1997 and a MFA at York University (Toronto) in 1999. He has lectured and exhibited internationally. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Concordia University in the Print Media programme in Studio Arts and an artist-researcher with the Hexagram Institute. He lives and works in MontrŽal, Canada.
Jennifer Willet is a professional artist, a part time faculty member in Studio Arts at Concordia University, and a PhD student in the interdisciplinary humanities program at the same institution. She completed a BFA at The University of Calgary in 1997 and a MFA at The University of Guelph in 1999. Her work explores notions of self and subjectivity in relation to biomedical, bioinformatics, and digital technologies with an emphasis on social and political criticism. She has traveled, exhibited, and presented her research extensively across Canada and internationally.
3D Organic Tissue Prototypes (Soft Sculptures)
BIOTEKNICA is a fictitious corporation, which explores notions of reproduction and self/other distinctions in relation to evolving biotechnologies. BIOTEKNICA purports to produce designer human organisms based on consumer demand. Only, the organisms produced by BIOTEKNICA do not adhere to patterns of structure and functionality normally manifest in nature. In the paper, we will present the most recent BIOTEKNICA development. Here we will bring our virtual specimens into the laboratory in the form of tissue culture sculptures. In summer 2004 we will work at the Symbiotica Art/Science Laboratories at The University of Western Australia, where we will grow organic prototypes that will serve as new representations of our BIOTEKNICA product line. BIOTEKNICA both embraces and critiques these evolving technologies, considering the contradictions and deep underlying complexities of contemporary biotechnologies and the future of humanity.