Exploring particular issue themes, articles will be created by contributors via invitation, commission and open submission from subscribers.
The proposal of this paper is that memory and dreams are forms of time reflection and result from a unique property of the brain, which acts as a natural metamaterial.
Maria Medina-Schechter (born Pasadena, California, 1976), is a bio artist whose work is informed by the natural world, including Middle Age illuminated manuscripts, scribes, and recipes. She is inspired by Hildegard of Bingen, a German mystic of the High Middle Ages. Maria works primarily with bio materials, mycelium, tree resin, and foraged botanical materials. Her early work involved the use of living organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, as art materials, creating sculptures and installations that were alive and growing. In the 1990s, she began to integrate digital technologies into her work, exploring the relationship between virtual and organic.
‘Universe for Beginners’ is a pattern-rich cosmos conjured up by British-based, Polish artist Rita Rodner. Brooding black-and-white paintings, photographs and drawings appear, on first glance, to be traditional landscapes evoking notions of the sublime. But, lines of code dotted across the surface invite audiences to question if these images are, in fact, virtual. Using experimental techniques, and working directly from source code, Rodner encrypts beauty into her layered realms, reflecting the connections between art and science, dark and light, chaos and code.
Patxi Xabier Lezama is one of the contemporary Basque sculptors considered one of the main innovators of Basque sculpture. He grew up in the Franco dictatorship of Spain; An experience that marked him for life, and also marks his art and his way of expressing himself. The presence of mythical figures with a strong historical burden is very characteristic of his work. These are signs that reveal the weight of history and the mythical and literary elements of the Basque cultural past. . In Amalur, he discusses his sculpture that not only connects the world of science and the world of art, but relates the work to the legends of the Basque people, where the Earth, Ama-Lurra, is the main divinity.
Predrag Slijepcevic is a Senior Lecturer in Biology, Brunel University London
“I am a bio-scientist interested in the philosophy of biology. In particular, I investigate how biological systems, from bacteria to animals and beyond, perceive and process environmental stimuli (biological information) and how this processing, which is a form of natural learning, affects the organism-environment interactions. I aim to identify those elements in the organization of biological systems that lead to forms of natural epistemology, or biological intelligence, that may qualify them as cognitive agents.
In particular, I specialise in analysis of chromosomes and study of structures at chromosome ends called telomeres. My other interest is animal behavior developed while studying veterinary medicine. I have lately developed interest in insects and their propensity to develop technologies.”
Nicolás M. Morato is a PhD Candidate in Chemistry, Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana
His areas of interest are : Mass spectrometry, ambient ionization (e.g. DESI, paper-spray, touch-spray), bioanalysis, forensic chemistry, high throughput analysis.
Lindsay Olson’s artistic practice grows out of an intense curiosity about the ways our society is supported by science and technology. She has worked as Fermi National Accelerator’s first artist in residence, with the CMS experiment at CERN in Switzerland, with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, the Field Museum, the Chicago Botanic Garden and with the Center for Acoustics Research and Education at the University of New Hampshire.
In 2022/24, she worked as the first artist in residence with The Wetlands Initiative, a scrappy wetland restoration group working in the Midwest,USA.
Alain Negre examines the thesis that the history of the universe, derived from contemporary cosmology, reveals the symbolic structure of the zodiac. While the 12 signs of the zodiac have retained the names of the constellations that stretch around the ecliptic circle, in reality, their essential nature is based on archetypal or qualitative numbers structured according to the four quadrants of a circle, each divided into three parts. This 4×3 numerical structure is a particular vibration of the world’s soul around an unknowable ordering center, about which a circle of archetypes forms. Signs are not archetypes but archetypal figures or symbols. Clothed in a rich symbolic fabric, they enable a new interpretation of the contemporary cosmological narrative. Naturally, the search for reflections and/or structural homologies between scientific and mythical discourse can only be understood by first distinguishing the various levels of reality.
Luca M Damiani is an Artist, Author and University Fellow, focusing his ongoing creative practice and research on neuroscience/health, technology and nature. His work also crosses over with human rights and social design. Luca has a neurological disability and has had various visual art books and academic articles published, as well as being exhibited internationally.
“Focusing on my neurological-brain trauma (caused by an accident in 2018), my ongoing research-based practice looks at various areas of applied art and design, with the main focus on my own sensory disability as well as various branches of neuroscience, social design and technology.”
Freddie Hong is a London-based researcher and computational artist. His work delves into the impact of emerging technology on our relationships with the physical world and society. With a PhD in the advanced manufacturing of interactive devices, he has critical insights into merging art and technology. Through interactive art installations and performances, Freddie explores the boundaries between authorship and control in Human-Computer Interaction. He is interested in capturing the current issues in digital technologies and creates compelling interactive artworks that encourage participants to experiment with “intelligent things,” fostering conversations about the role of digital agents in our lives. Freddie is currently a resident researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, where he focuses on robotics research within the CRAFT group (Creative Robotics and Future Technologies).