This artistic research
project focuses on current bio-scientific breakthroughs: the Human Microbiome, the related shift from Genomics to Metagenomics
and the subsequent evolving perception of what our body is made of and was developed in collaboration with Birgit Nemec, Cocky
Eek and Hauke Smidt. If 50 percent of cells that constitute our body are not human but microbial, how do we have to re-imagine
the human and where could this new knowledge lead?
The collective became interested in how a biological concept developed
by scientists, health politicians, policy makers and different public, could be critically challenged using close dialogue
between art, design and historical epistemology, and how artists could translate abstract research into a more tangible and
immediate experience. The idea behind this unconventional confrontation is that all these areas – art/design, philosophy and
laboratory science – question and shape the relational and context-dependent aspects of human existence.
Sonja Bäumel
(Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam) works across various disciplines including art, design, fashion and biological practice.
Sonja studied Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Vienna, and holds a Bachelor in Arts from the University of Arts
of Linz, as well as a Master from the Design Academy Eindhoven. She is lecturing and giving workshops in various international
Institutions and Universities. Her work has been exhibited internationally in e.g. Ars Electronica Center (AT), Anthology
Film Archives New York (USA), MAK Museum of Applied Arts (AT), Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (TW), Gewerbemuseum (CHE),
Waag Society (NL). She is co-founder of the Dunbar's Number collective (2011), member of Pavillion35 (2012) collective based
in Vienna, and of the WNDRLUST (2013) collective based in Amsterdam. Sonja currently teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie
in Amsterdam.
The Guest Lecture Series of Professor Ingeborg Reichle’s seminar “Bioart – Biodesign – DIY: Reframing Life
in Current Artistic Practices and Design Approaches” is an informative and stimulating opportunity to hear from distinguished
artists about what’s going on in the emerging fields of bioart and biodesign and will help our students build their network
of contacts. Our guest lectures are open to all.
http://www.sonjabaeumel.at/works/bacteria/fifty-percent-human/
