THE CONDITION

By Laura Beloff (DK/FI), Jonas Joergensen (DK)

Testing the Nordmann fir Christmas tree’s ability to survive under changing environmental conditions.

This experiment investigates the Nordmann fir as an organism cultivated to satisfy a specific cultural purpose, in this case, our desire for a Christmas tree. It has gone through several evolutions of artificial selection and novel cloning techniques to insure the efficient production of thousands of 'perfect trees' for the Christmas market. The trees in this installation are exposed to microgravity conditions with continuous rotational movement. The movement is governed by an algorithm known as a self-organizing map (SOM), which is able to learn how to classify information without supervision. It is influenced by space and weather. The artist questions what kind of life forms will survive with us or without us in changing environmental conditions? What kind of conditions and organisms are forming at the intersection of technological and biological evolution and human agency?

EXHIBITOR BIOGRAPHY

Jonas Jørgensen is a Danish researcher and media artist. He is formally trained as a physicist (BSc) and an art historian (BA, MA) at Copenhagen University and Columbia University (New York). Jonas is currently a PhD fellow at the IT University of Copenhagen with a project that interrogates soft robotic technology through art and aesthetics.

Jonas’ artistic work has been exhibited at international institutions including Chronus Art Center (Shanghai, China), Forum Box (Helsinki, Finland), Kunsthal Grenland (Porsgrunn, Norway), and Nikolaj Kunsthal (Copenhagen, Denmark). His writings have appeared in a number of peer-reviewed and popular outlets including edited volumes, artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, art pedagogical journals, and conference proceedings. He has given lectures, presented papers, and organized workshops related to his research on soft robotics and robotic art at a number of international conferences and festivals including MediaArtHistories, ICRA (International Conference on Robotics and Automation), HRI (ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction), ISEA, Pixelache, MOCO (Movement Computing), Aesthetics of the Posthuman, and Politics of the Machines (EVA Copenhagen).

Dr. Laura Beloff (DK/FI) is an internationally acclaimed artist and researcher who functions in-between artistic practice, academic leadership and research with a core in artistic methods. She has been actively producing art works and exhibiting worldwide in museums, galleries and art events since the 1990’s. The exhibitions in the recent years include Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Russia, Italy… Her research interests that are located in the cross section of art – technology – science include practice-based investigations into a combination of technology, biology, biotechnology, and philosophical questions concerning manipulation of living matter. The outcome of the research and artistic practice is in a form of process-based and participatory installations, programmed conceptual structures and networked wearable objects, parallel to publications and academic papers. The research typically involves collaboration with various experts in their specific fields, institutions, artists and international universities. Throughout the years she has been professionally active and has influenced many art projects and developments, especially in Scandinavia. She has also engaged in numerous international activities including: participation in international research and art projects, in organizing committees of international conferences and art events, editing an international publication, and invited artist/research visits (in Portugal 2014, Mexico 2015, Shanghai 2017, Estonia 2018, Italy 2018). She has been a recipient of various grants, art residencies and awards throughout the years. In 2015-16 she was a partner in the Hybrid Matters project awarded by Nordic Cultural Fund’s largest art grant. 2002-06 she was Professor for art & technology at the Art Academy in Oslo, Norway. 2007-11 she was awarded a prestigious five-year grant by the Finnish state. 2009-2010, 2011 she has been a visiting Professor at The University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

LINKS

Website: investigations.hybridmatters.net/posts/the-condition-cloned-christmas-trees

CREDITS

IT-University Copenhagen, Nordic Culture Fund