Louise Mackenzie
I am a fine artist working across media with a focus on lively material. I am interested in the inter-relationships between medium, sound, image and text, attempting to find ways in which these can be connected to produce unexpected results. Often working collaboratively, my research-based practice explores chance and emergence in the human and the nonhuman through material practice and speculative imaginaries.
I am drawn towards the mechanisms upon which consumer-led society is founded with elements of my work focusing on processes of production and, increasingly, biotechnology. My works include live genetic modification sound performances, public conversations with future species, techniques for listening to microbes and the translation of 100 year old dust into a composition for church organ.
I was a finalist in the Bio Art & Design Awards, 2015, and a recipient of the New Graduate Award at Synthesis, Manchester Science Festival, 2013. Public talks include the Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, London, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Leonardo LASER London, ISEA2016 Hong Kong, and Sonic Environments, Brisbane. Exhibitions include the National Library of Spain (Madrid), Lumiere (Durham), Summerhall (Edinburgh), BALTIC39 (Newcastle), Bond House (London), Basement 6 Collective (Shanghai) and National Taiwan University of the Arts (Taiwan). I am a postdoctoral Research Associate at Newcastle University. I have a Ph.D. in fine art from Northumbria University, I am an associate of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University and a member of the Cultural Negotiations of Science research group. I have a first degree in Psychology and worked professionally as a management consultant for 11 years.
Supervisors: Fiona Crisp, Prof. Christine Borland, Prof. Volker Straub, and Dr. Carmen MacLeod
I am drawn towards the mechanisms upon which consumer-led society is founded with elements of my work focusing on processes of production and, increasingly, biotechnology. My works include live genetic modification sound performances, public conversations with future species, techniques for listening to microbes and the translation of 100 year old dust into a composition for church organ.
I was a finalist in the Bio Art & Design Awards, 2015, and a recipient of the New Graduate Award at Synthesis, Manchester Science Festival, 2013. Public talks include the Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, London, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Leonardo LASER London, ISEA2016 Hong Kong, and Sonic Environments, Brisbane. Exhibitions include the National Library of Spain (Madrid), Lumiere (Durham), Summerhall (Edinburgh), BALTIC39 (Newcastle), Bond House (London), Basement 6 Collective (Shanghai) and National Taiwan University of the Arts (Taiwan). I am a postdoctoral Research Associate at Newcastle University. I have a Ph.D. in fine art from Northumbria University, I am an associate of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University and a member of the Cultural Negotiations of Science research group. I have a first degree in Psychology and worked professionally as a management consultant for 11 years.
Supervisors: Fiona Crisp, Prof. Christine Borland, Prof. Volker Straub, and Dr. Carmen MacLeod
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Papers by Louise Mackenzie
The Zone of Inhibition was an intimate, dark space, both intensely personal yet also restrictive. In this speculative space of encounter, a guide facilitated dialogue between speculative cell-bodies and their distant human kin, enabling interspecies communication through the material-semiotic medium of DNA. In the Zone of Inhibition, cut-up cells act as one sentient community-being, and humans respond as one cut-up and assembled community-organism. The following excerpts are from the resulting conversation.
Self-published to accompany the Oltramarino installation shown at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, 2013.
Drafts by Louise Mackenzie
Conference Presentations by Louise Mackenzie
The second work-in-progress, Wishful Thinking or Velleity, With(out) Volition (working title) is a live bio art project that explores the unknown implications of using living matter as material, with my (extended) body as site of practice. Synthetic information: a thought from my mind will be placed within my own (biopsied) skin cells. The thought is translated into DNA, the language of the body and will be transcribed within my cells through a viral host. This thought is volition, a will to act: held external to my mind, yet internal to my body (cells) as synthetic other. This externalization of my body will then be observed and analysed to determine whether it accepts, rejects or alters this synthetic will. Just as synthetic biology is the imposition of human will onto living systems, I choose to impose my will, literally, on the living system of my body.
The field of synthetic biology develops genetically altered micro-organisms for use within healthcare, medicine and energy. The industry has become a lucrative one with both private and public sector investment and increased funding within the technology and defence sectors [5] [6]. It is an inter-disciplinary field engaging the sciences, engineering, art and design to automate biological processes, with aspirations to create living machines and offer hope of ending world poverty and hunger.
In the context of a predicted biotechnological revolution [7] [8] [9] [10], my practice-based research explores the use of DNA and the micro-organism as medium within art practice. I speculate on our relationship with the unseen organism through an embodied understanding of living matter at the microscopic level. The research is situated in the context of Martin Heidegger’s ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ [11] and the writings of Jacques Derrida [12] [13] [14] and speculates upon the unknowable evolutionary trajectory of life as techné.
As I manipulate life, I consider the evolutionary consequences of my actions in the present and ask whether my future self can forgive me for what I am: a curious animal.
Other by Louise Mackenzie
Guest ed. by Louise Mackenzie
The Zone of Inhibition was an intimate, dark space, both intensely personal yet also restrictive. In this speculative space of encounter, a guide facilitated dialogue between speculative cell-bodies and their distant human kin, enabling interspecies communication through the material-semiotic medium of DNA. In the Zone of Inhibition, cut-up cells act as one sentient community-being, and humans respond as one cut-up and assembled community-organism. The following excerpts are from the resulting conversation.
Self-published to accompany the Oltramarino installation shown at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, 2013.
The second work-in-progress, Wishful Thinking or Velleity, With(out) Volition (working title) is a live bio art project that explores the unknown implications of using living matter as material, with my (extended) body as site of practice. Synthetic information: a thought from my mind will be placed within my own (biopsied) skin cells. The thought is translated into DNA, the language of the body and will be transcribed within my cells through a viral host. This thought is volition, a will to act: held external to my mind, yet internal to my body (cells) as synthetic other. This externalization of my body will then be observed and analysed to determine whether it accepts, rejects or alters this synthetic will. Just as synthetic biology is the imposition of human will onto living systems, I choose to impose my will, literally, on the living system of my body.
The field of synthetic biology develops genetically altered micro-organisms for use within healthcare, medicine and energy. The industry has become a lucrative one with both private and public sector investment and increased funding within the technology and defence sectors [5] [6]. It is an inter-disciplinary field engaging the sciences, engineering, art and design to automate biological processes, with aspirations to create living machines and offer hope of ending world poverty and hunger.
In the context of a predicted biotechnological revolution [7] [8] [9] [10], my practice-based research explores the use of DNA and the micro-organism as medium within art practice. I speculate on our relationship with the unseen organism through an embodied understanding of living matter at the microscopic level. The research is situated in the context of Martin Heidegger’s ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ [11] and the writings of Jacques Derrida [12] [13] [14] and speculates upon the unknowable evolutionary trajectory of life as techné.
As I manipulate life, I consider the evolutionary consequences of my actions in the present and ask whether my future self can forgive me for what I am: a curious animal.