Touching Thoughts is an art and science project initiated by servus.at and the Medical Faculty of JKU (Institute of Pathology and Molecular Pathology and Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology). The project was developed in the summer of 2024 by a group of scientists and media artists from JKU, who worked together on the three-dimensional representation of brain and body tissues using state-of-the-art microscopy techniques. This interdisciplinary collaboration resulted in five projects that were exhibited in the foyer of JKU's medSPACE as part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2024:
➡ Simone C Niquille_ Flat earth, flat body
➡ jiawen uffline_ Data into Flesh, Flesh into Data
➡ Chaeyoung Kim & Francesco Luzzana_ Scatter Chatter: The Becoming of the Sample
➡ Błazej Kotowski_ The Latent Force of Living Form
➡ Sofia Talanti_ Cyborgs Need No Redemption
The artists involved in the project examined the visualisations and data produced by the scientists, studied the production protocols and each focused on selected aspects of the imaging process. Simone C. Niquille created an audio piece about the three dimensions of the human body and the technologies that attempt to capture its volume by interviewing scientists and documenting their goals, ideals and visions for volumetric visualisation. Chaeyoung Kim & Francesco Luzzana traced the journey of the sample and the protocols that govern its movements, inviting the audience to become part of this choreography of hands and gestures. jiawen uffline reflected on the porous boundaries between the observed volume, the cells and their components, and the inevitable leakage of interstitial fluids and data. Błażej Kotowski tested the invisible rules that govern the uncoordinated synchrony of cellular automatisms and created an evolving simulation of living, healthy and cancerous tissue. Finally, Sofia Talanti imagined the ultimate transcendence of the cyborg, a creature of both organic and mechanical nature that represents both the quest for scientific knowledge and the limits of all technology.
The exhibition showed the artistic productions and the underlying artistic process as well as additional large-format volumetric visualisations from the Department of Pathology and Molecular Pathology and the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology.
The projects were also presented at the large exhibition in medSPACE on 5 and 8 September 2024.
Cover + img: 2,3,4,5,7 © sabiswabis, img: 1,6,8 © Linaá Pulido Barragán
