To highlight the important connections that exist between art, science, and technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host lectures with international bioartists on April 25 and May 8. The events, presented by the Arts Department in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) at Rensselaer, are free and open to the public.

The lectures are part of Art_X, a teaching and learning initiative that advances the Rensselaer vision of The New Polytechnic by encouraging students to cross disciplines in order to think, discover, design, and create in new ways.   

“Join us for inspiring conversations about bioart, science, philosophy, and ethics, and hear from leaders who have transcended traditional disciplinary boundaries,” said Kathy High, arts department head and professor of video and new media at Rensselaer. “These lectures will introduce audiences to the possibilities of working between the disciplines of biology and art, presenting examples of how artists and scientists can create collaborative works, and how these works evoke philosophical questions about our future.”

On Thursday, April 25, Polona Tratnik, Ph.D., will present “Convergences and Divergences of Art, Science, and Philosophy” from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Howard P. Isermann Auditorium of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) on campus. Tratnik is a Slovenian bioartist and dean of Alma Mater Europea—Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis. Her talk will focus on the intersections between art, science, and philosophy, and the role that art plays in scientific fields. 

On Wednesday, May 8, Oron Catts will present “Growing for Different Ends: How Biomedical Technologies Become Tools for Art and Design” from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Bruggeman Conference Center, located within CBIS on campus. Catts is the director and co-founder of SymbioticA, an artistic research lab at the University of Western Australia. His presentation will focus on tissue engineering and regenerative biology for non-traditional applications. More specifically, Catts will discuss developments such as in vitro meat and leather, and their philosophical and ethical considerations.   

Both events are sponsored in part by the New York State Council on the Arts.