Angel: Bridgebook

Such a great idea!!! The Mexican people's used to read 2.7 books per year. Then one day, the biggest bookshop in Mexico (Gandhi bookshop) took on the challenge of making people read "The Bridge" written by Franz Kafka while riding by subway. The implementation of this brilliant idea made that 600,000 people could read the full short story. 

The Bridge was cut in 13 excerpts, one per each station that conforms the yellow line of Mexico City's underground. Then, each part was used to cover only one ad board located in a strategic place along the platform. So that every time the subway train stopped, people inside the carriage wrapped in yellow could read each fragment. Leaflets were handed out for people that didn't ride the entire line.

 

I think, in days like these where marketing campaigns are designed to create some pointless necessities around people, projects like this are highly remarkable. I agree with the idea that reading or getting close to culture are not going to magically pop up the solution for injustices, corruption, sadness, wars, and society at large. Nevertheless, it's a good start to address problems, to come up with questions, to get criteria about what is good and what is not for ourselves, to dream and to build bridges...

Check out the video to get a better picture about the project!

Angel: Coffe fact

"...the world population requires about 140 billion cubic metres of water per year in order to be able to drink coffee and tea."

A.K. Chapagain and A.Y. Hoekstra

 

Angel: Manipulating biologies: convergences and divergences of bioart and biosciences event

Controversial and unconventional, those are the words that come up into my mind every time I remember the content of Tuesday April 12th's "Manipulating biologies: convergences and divergences of bioart and biosciences" event at the Grant Bradley Gallery. As a scientist, I have been interested about the kind of concept that makes art and science relationship closer or distant. Nevertheless, my interpretation is more related with art being source of inspiration to science and not in the opposite way. Kira O’Reilly and Professor Paul Martin showed up their experience trying to answer scientific and philosophical questions based in the human body as a subject of research performing biotechnical techniques.

My body as a specific place to experiment and create science...

Kira O’Reilly's art is able to shock any kind of person with sense of safety, or well, conventional people dedicated to experimental science. I mean, when the artist showed pictures about injuries in her body, evoking traditional Chinese medicine, this act wasn’t anything out of conventions, many people use piercings or tattoos over their bodies. However, the idea to use her body as a material to create art and to ask oneself where the border of life begging and end sounds strange.

...decontextualization of flesh from the body as material, as living, to understand conditions to exist what is life...

 Kira O’Reilly and Jennifer Willet - Untitled (Hamster Ovaries Protocol) series - The Art and Genomics Centre, University of Leiden, The Netherlands, 2008 Photo: Rune Peitersen

Breaking every rule is a good start to ask new questions and as a consequence create new perspectives about daily activities that might to be common for each people, for example persons involved in science. Let’s use the infinity behind your eyelids, close your eyes for few seconds draw the naked body of a woman inside a fume hood in your laboratory – keep in your mind these questions: What does it mean for you? What if you are the person inside this small place used to protect you against toxic substances? To be honest, when I saw that picture I felt totally confused because the elements are familiar for me, but something inside me said: What is the aim of this? It’s wrong. The most important thing is that maybe this outrageous picture has changed something introspective about me and the lab environment.

...researching how to build or rebuild tissues...

Professor Martin is carrying out a research in embryology, their main interest is focused on understanding the mechanism involved in the creation of human tissues. Professor Martin  has the belief that there are aspects from life sciences that can inspire artists to create art. During the talk was cited the case of a woman that created some fashion designs inspired by embryos. On the other hand, he declare that scientist has to think a little bit as an artist but the work of a scientist because they have to be a good observers.

These talks showed that both disciplines can interact in a dynamic dialog using different and common techniques or methods that allows the expansion of the knowledge and understanding of life.

Posted by Angel