Tag Archives: Identity

People-Identities

Alexa Wright is London-based artist working across a range of media including photography, video, interactive installation and book works. She has worked at the intersection of art and medical science since the late-1990s and often works with people with mental and physical differences to make works that address questions of human identity and otherness through qualities like vulnerability and empathy. She has been involved in several long term inter-disciplinary collaborations, for example with Alf Linney, Professor of Medical Physics and computer scientists at UCL (1999-2010) and Hybrid Bodies, a unique international, interdisciplinary project based in Toronto, Canada that brought together medics, visual artists, a philosopher and social scientists to explore the emotional and psychological effects of heart transplantation (2007-19).

Would we still see ourselves as ‘human’ if other hominin species hadn’t gone extinct?

Nicholas R. Longrich is a Senior Lecturer in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Bath.
“I’m interested in how the world came to be and why it’s the way it is, and not some other way. I study dinosaurs, among other things – pterosaurs, fossil birds, lizards and snakes. I’m especially interested in understanding macroevolution- large-scale evolutionary patterns and processes. The evolution of organisms and ecosystems over millions and billions of years, the evolution of complex adaptations like bird flight, the snake body plan, and the human mind.
I’m particularly interested in the idea that macroevolution is more than just lots of microevolution- that over long periods of time, at large scales, and in the evolution of complex structures, different dynamics come into play; that over time, the processes of evolution itself have evolved. Recently, I’ve become interested in the human species.”

You Are Therefore I Am: From Dualism to Allocentrism (and What Any of It Has To Do With Art)

“Can we imagine a kind of art made, first, for the viewer, for a shift in her consciousness, but then in addition, a kind intended specifically to turn her in the direction of otherness – to draw her out beyond her ego-self and toward the immensity of not-me? In what way might this be achieved?”

Taney Roniger is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in New York. Since the late 90s she has been exploring the relationship between art, science, and the spirituality of immanence in both her work as an artist and in numerous essays and symposia.

Todd Sformo: Creator of Evidence – An Incomplete Metamorphosis

“This essay is about a transition from the humanities to the sciences (life science). It shows the hesitancy in giving up one thing for another, but the hesitancy itself turns out to be not just frustrations in trying to learn something new but also the opportunity to situate science in a humanities’ context.” – Todd Sformo

Language: The Non-Trivial Machine

Dr. Sheena Calvert is a philosopher/artist/designer and educator, working at both University of the Arts, London and the Royal College of Art. She has an active interest in the intersections between a wide range of creative disciplines, including practices ranging from typography and experimental book-works, to works involving sound/performance. She is particularly concerned with exploring the implications of emergent language-based technologies, including developments in ‘natural’ language technologies, which potentially impact on the future of human language.

Breaking new ground in African philosophy

Jonathan O. Chimakonam Ph.D, is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He is also a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His teaching and research interests cover the areas of African Philosophy, Logic, Philosophy of Mind, Environmental Ethics and Postmodern/Postcolonial Thought. In this exclusive interview he discusses his aim to break new grounds in African philosophy by formulating a system that unveils new concepts and opens new vistas for thought (Conversational philosophy); a method that represents a new approach to philosophising in African and intercultural philosophies (Conversational thinking); and a system of logic that grounds them both (Ezumezu).

The ‘real you’ is a myth – we constantly create false memories to achieve the identity we want

Giuliana Mazzoni is Professor of Psychology, University of Hull. Human memory represents her main research interest, and more specifically the study on how personal memories are remembered in normal people and in those whose ability to remember is exceptional. Her work on memory has been featured in newspapers and magazines in the UK (among many, The Sunday Times) and around the world (among many,The Washington Post).

Contained

Inspired by an aesthetic in which art, science, medicine and ecology intersect, Elaine Whittaker’s art practice considers biology as contemporary art practice. Based principally in installation, sculpture, painting, drawing and digital imagery, her artworks incorporate a range of materials: from the traditional, such as paint, pigment and wax, to the unconventional, such as mosquitoes, salt crystals, cells and live microorganisms. They have been exhibited nationally and internationally, in art and science galleries, and featured in literary, medical and art magazines, including William Myers’ book, Bio Art: Altered Realities (2015). In this article she reflects on Contained, her 2018 exhibition, and the effects of illness on identity as experienced by her mother when she contracted Tuberculosis at an early age.