Exhibition Launch: We began as part of the body
By Beverley Hood
Along with the Centre for Biodmedicine Self & Society, as part of Being Human Festival, Inspace is hosting an online exhibition by Beverley Hood from the 12-30 November. Featuring a short film and augmented reality app, the online exhibition is accompanied by a 7 screen version of the film, projected on the Inspace City Screen windows (Potterrow, Edinburgh) between 3-10pm each night.
We began as part of the body is a multi-component digital artwork inspired the eczema genetic research laboratory of Professor Sara Brown, (University of Dundee) where Beverley Hood (University of Edinburgh) undertook an artist residency in 2017 organised by ASCUS Art & Science.
The residency involved spend time observing the activities of the lab and the organotypic artificial skin cells, which are both real and synthetic. Taken from an actual person (via tummy tucks, breast surgery, etc), the cells are processed and maintained outside of the body. Almost indescribably similar and different from the cells that exist within our actual body, genes are changed, tweaked, to create eczema skin.
The artwork combines microscopy, digital scanning and speech synthesis to create an augmented reality and filmic experience that leads the audience through the cells’ journey, during their short, precious, three weeks long ‘in-vitro’ life, from operating theatre to lab, and finally to disposal.
A live, online discussion about the work will take place on 19 November between 16:00 and 17:30.
The artwork was funded by the Arts & Ethics Research Group, Wellcome Trust, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Edinburgh.
This event is part of the series ‘Visualising Bodies’ organised by the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at the University of Edinburgh. Find out more https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/biomedicine-self-society/events/being-human-festival
