Guy Ben-Ary is an artist and researcher at SymbioticA, Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia. Recognised internationally as a major artist and innovator working across science and media arts, Ben-Ary specialises in biotechnological artwork, which aims to enrich our understanding of what it means to be alive. His work has been shown across the globe at prestigious venues and festivals. Ben-Ary’s main research areas are cybernetics, robotics and the interface of biological material to robotics. Much of Ben-Ary’s work is inspired by science and nature. His artworks utilise motion and growth to investigate technological aspects of today’s culture and the re-use of biological materials and technologies.
In this lecture, Guy Ben-Ary presents some of the methodologies and theories that underpin his artistic practice by using as examples, four of his major projects completed over the last decade, MEART, Silent Barrage, In-Potentia, and cellF (presented as part of MOFO 2017), with some preliminary discussion of terminology, ethics and robotic embodiment as an artistic strategy and his artistic attempt to match bio-engineered neural networks to artistic, robotic bodies.
Refreshments will be provided after the lecture.