EP#11: 'The Plants' with Cat Jones & Monica Gagliano

This episode we’re talking with Cat Jones about her project Somatic Drifts, a one on one sensory experience exploring empathy and transgression. Somatic Drifts enables participants to experience the body of another entity through touch and illusion. What realm does the human exist within? How far can we drift? What can this drift enable us to change? During the project Jones worked with neuroscientists specializing in brain plasticity and chronic pain. The team recently published a new study that came about as a result of her findings.

Joining her to talk about the crossovers of this project with vegetal philosophy and her own research in plant intelligence, will be evolutionary biologist, Dr Monica Gagliano, who Jones spent time with towards the beginning of the project.

Somatic Drifts, by Cat Jones 2014

EP #9: 'The Robot' with Mari Velonaki & Maurice Pagnucco

Computers and machines are full of knowledge and information... but can they be intelligent?  ‘Intelligence’ describes the brain’s ability to reason, learn, plan, deploy abstract reasoning, experience emotions and exercise self-awareness.

On this episode of The Constellations, host Bec Dean is joined by artist and researcher Mari Velonaki, who creates poetic human-machine interfaces exist within a broad field of AI research, pursuing the creation of truly intelligent non-human objects. We are also joined by her collaborator, Maurice Pagnucco is Deputy Dean (Education), Engineering and Head of School, School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW

EP #5: 'The Cells' with Helen Pynor & Dr. Jochen Rink

This Episode, we talk with artist Helen Pynor about her project, ‘The End is a Distant Memory’. Working with cells from supermarket bought chicken breast, Pynor’s work explores the philosophically and experientially ambiguous zones, of the life-death boundary and organ transplantation. Her practice draws on her dual backgrounds in the biological sciences and the visual arts to engage directly with the materiality of human and non-human bodies using the mediums of photography, sculpture, video and installation. We are also joined by scientist and collaborator on the project, Dr. Jochen Rink, from The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden.

For more information on Helen Pynor’s work, click here

EP #3: 'The Stars' with Michaela Gleave, Amanda Cole & Astronomer Michael Fitzgerald

On Episode #3 of The Constellations Podcast we talk to the team behind ‘A Galaxy of Suns’ an app for your smart phone that connects you with the unseen motions of our galaxy. Created by artist Michaela Gleave, composer Amanda Cole and programmer Warren Armstrong, A Galaxy of Suns gives your smart phone the ability to ‘play’ the skies, turning each star into music, as it rises above the horizon in front of you.

For more information and to download the app to try for yourself, click here

EP#2: 'The Pain' with Eugenie Lee & Dr. Tasha Stanton

Episode #2 of The Constellations Podcast — We talk to artist Eugenie Lee and Dr. Tasha Stanton on 'Seeing is Believing'. A performance/installation work that combines the latest research, scientific development and virtual reality technology to allow audiences a visceral 'taste' of Eugenie's lived experience of Chronic Pain. 

For images and information on the ‘Seeing is Believing’ installation, click here

EP #1: ‘The Heart’ with George Khut, Angie Morrow & Katarina Ostojic

In our first episode, 'The Heart', we take a look at The BrightHearts Research Project, developed by George Khut with researchers from Kids Rehab. This art and medicine collaboration investigates the application of George Khut’s heart-rate controlled artworks  during medical procedures performed on children in hospital. 

For more information on the Bright Hearts research and to see the app in action, click here

LISTEN TO EPISODE #1 THE HEART | on iTUNES