The Grafting Parlour
Inspired by Orphanides - a botanist at the University of Athens who named plants after himself

Research-oriented artsists and playful minded scientists unite under the umbrella group, The Grafting Parlour, formed through e-MobiLArt (European Mobile Lab for Interactive Media Artists) as part of its initiative for collaborative transdisciplinary inquiry. The collective's creative research takes the form of active specimen creation and collection, trans-continental trans-polar science experiments, and science as performance. The collective's eponymous project is scheduled for exhibition at the Biennale in Thessaloniki, Greece at the State Museum of Contemporary Art in May, 2009 and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland in autumn, 2009.  e-MobiLArt is supported by the E.U.’s CULTURE 2007 Programme, the University of Athens, the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the University of Lapland in Finland, as well as OLATS in France (Leonardo Observatory for the Arts and Sciences).  

The Grafting Parlour is the brainchild of Kelly Andres, Nurit Bar-Shai, Coti, Saoirse Higgins, Antti Tenetz and Dr. Gomez from the League of Imaginary Scientists, with contributions from media theorist and artist Dimitris Charitos.  What each of these artists have in common is their playful mechanization of socially relevant and sometimes complex narratives, as well as an eagerness to apply the same sideways approach to science. Their collaboration explores the common practices between art and science, examines how scientists are motivated, what moves them, and their activities. Contributing researchers to the project include synthetic biologist Dr. Natalie Kuldell and her MIT laboratory, biologist of the North Dr. Panu Oulasvirta, environmental researcher Dr. David Garin, and neurologist Dr. Florian Thomas; the group’s board of directors consists of children all under the age of 12.  More on individual project collaborators follows.

Kelly Andres (Canada)
expertise: mechanized telecommunication devices and translation of viewer interaction into sound
Kelly Jaclynn Andres is a multidisciplinary artist who uses the immediate environment as an active stage for investigation.  With equal parts delight and insight, Andres employs the technological apparatus of technology, portability, and location, from bicycles to communications devices, to convey highly subjective theories through humor, absurdity and fiction.  Andres’ art has toured across Canada and Europe with the McCleave Gallery of Fine Art, a gallery located in a suitcase, and in 2008 was a feature of M:ST Performance Art Festival, ISEA in Singapore, and CONFLUX in New York.  Besides eMobiLArt, Andres has had residences at ISEA 2008, Studio XX, The Banff Centre, and Subtle Technologies.
http://www.kellyandres.com

Nurit Bar-Shai (USA/Israel)
expertise: remotely operated mechanics and participatory object-based narratives
Nurit Bar-Shai is a New York based inter-media artist who composes interactive, telematic mechanically live installations, thinks long-distance and streams locally.  Her work has exhibited widely, including at the Brooklyn Museum, the OK-Center in Linz, The National Art Center in Tokyo, SESI Gallery in Sao Paulo, and The Center for Digital Art in Israel.  Bar-Shai received a Prix Ars Electronica 2007 Honorary Mention, the 11th Japan Media Arts Festival Jury Award, and was commissioned an art grant with Turbulence.org, funded in part by the Greenwall Foundation.  In addition to eMobiLArt, Bar-Shai has held residencies at the Experimental Television Center, the Makor Steinhardt Center, and Harvestworks.
http://www.nuritbarshai.com

Saoirse Higgins (N. Ireland)
expertise: audio capture, mechanical communication devices and interpreting live data as meta-narrative
Saoirse Higgins is obsessed with natural disasters, conducts lengthy conversations over a megaphone, and candidly predicts doom:  “the end is nigh.”  Her mechanized interactive installations examine and measure the dismal.  Yet her work is remarkably upbeat and mobile, with an emphasis on action and the auditory.  Higgins is a coordinator of ISEA 2009, an official artist representative for Ireland, and a lecturer on digital media at the Institute for Art, Design and Technology in Dublin.  She was featured in the 2008 404 festival, the 2007 DEAF festival, and the 2006 Space Shuttle Project.  Besides eMobiLArt, Higgins has held residences at Disonancias in Spain, Location1 gallery in New York, the Centre for Digital Art in Dublin, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~saoirse

Antti Tenetz (Finland)
expertise: AV and data recordings of nature and interactive visualization of scientific information
Antti Tenetz is equal parts artist and naturalist.  He has filmed throughout the North, from the Ice Sea to Siberia, and as far south as South Thailand and Greece.  His field recordings are the primary media source for science institutions in Finland, including the Arctic Centre, Science Center, and University of Lapland.  Tenetz has contributed multimedia to science exhibitions ranging in subject from arctic reindeer herders to glacial movements.  His interactive installations have exhibited in the Kuusankoskitalo Gallery of Finland, the Rovaniemen Art Museum (Ars Arctica), and the Karhu Gallery in Rovaniemi.  Winner of three Finish national snow sculpting championships (1997, 2003, 2005), Tenetz personifies a melding of the artistic and arctic.
http://www.arcticcentre.org

Dr. L. Hernandez Gomez/ interdisciplinary research coordinator for the League of Imaginary Scientists (Based in USA with multi-national collaborators)
expertise: creative integration of science and technology and conveying research through playful interactivity
The League conducts everyday experiments through creative collaborative inquiry.  Tin foil and bicycles are common components of the League’s participatory mega-media installations.  League contributors range from mechanical engineers to synthetic biologists and include an imaginary boy from Norway.  Experiments in Imaginary Science have exhibited widely, including at Colombia’s World Year of Physics, MAS in Barcelona, and Electrofringe in Australia, with collaborative networked interactions at El Festival de la Imagen, Mapping Festival at BAC in Geneva, MAAC in Brussels, and (re)Actor in London.  Besides eMobiLArt, the League has held residencies at the Casula Powerhouse, CESTA in the Czech Republic, Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder in Norway, CalArts, and Gunnery Studios in Sydney.
http://www.imaginaryscience.org

Coti (Italy/Greece)
expertise: sound design and integration of live and recorded audio into interactive installations
Coti and Dimitris Charitos have collaborated on projects involving data expression, sound, and architectural objects converted into media-rich playgrounds for unscripted interaction.  An intuitive naturalist, Coti observes that plants have a different sense of time.  As a sound artist and as record producer, musician and sound engineer, Coti rearranges time.  He was sound designer for “Medea 2,” a dance theater piece presented at the Meet in Beijing festival in China and the Athens Festival in 2008.  His work has been presented in the Festival des NPAI in France, Sound Drop 2007, Reworks Festival in Greece, and Synch Festival.  In April Coti released his 5th album of his solo work, the record Dunung with the label Antifrost.
http://www.cotik.com

with contributions from:

Dimitris Charitos (Greece)
expertise: comprehension and development of networked user interaction theories and data-immersive participatory projects
Dimitris Charitos is co-coordinator of eMobiLArt, the umbrella group behind the collaborators’ interdisciplinary research.  With contributions to more than 60 publications and with art projects spanning from audiovisual installations to interactive virtual environments, Charitos lays out media theories on subjects ranging from architectural design to human-computer communication.  His collaborations have exhibited at the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, the Synch Festival at Lavrio, and Art Athina.  In addition to his position in communication and media studies at the University of Athens, Charitos regularly contributes to symposia, with past presentations at Locative Media at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Germany, EUTIC, the International Conference on Intelligent Envioronments, Mediaterra, and eCAADe.
http://www.media.uoa.gr/~charitos