Kathy High and Jennifer Johung in Conversation
Join artist Kathy High and art historian Jennifer Johung for a conversation connecting art and biotechnology while considering the ethics of manipulating life.
Film/Video Theater
The biotechnology industry views life as a raw material—one to transform and engineer, or to simulate. This conversation will explore High’s art practice, which focuses on understanding the complexity and uncertainty of life and the closely held values that determine where we draw (and how we cross) the lines between the living, the dead, and the inanimate.
This dialogue is part of the Arts, Technology and Social Change series, a micro-residency program sponsored by Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme.
IMAGE CAPTION
Left to right: Jennifer Johung and Kathy High.
More about the Arts, Technology and Social Change series
The Arts, Technology and Social Change series is an initiative conceived by Ohio State’s Department of History of Art, Department of Art, Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Translational Data Analytics Institute. The residency program is a cross-department platform that involves public engagement on campus and around Columbus to explore questions on technology and social change in our contemporary moment.
“Her art practice, which is a curious mélange of video, performance, photography, speculative fiction and collaborative experimentation, integrates biotechnology and science.”
More about the speakers
Kathy High
Kathy High is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator/scholar. She collaborates with scientists and activists to consider living systems, animal sentience, queer ecologies, and the ethical dilemmas of biotechnology and medical industries. She exhibits her videos, performances, and conceptual works focused on issues of gender and technology and pursues works of bioscience/bioart and waste studies. She is committed to environmental justice and do-it-together collaborative action. High is full professor in the Department of Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York; an affiliate faculty member at Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS); and director of the BioArt and Technology Laboratory at CBIS.
Jennifer Johung
Jennifer Johung is director of the Center for 21st Century Studies and professor of contemporary art and architectural history at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is the author of Vital Forms: Biological Art, Architecture, and the Dependencies of Life; Replacing Home: From Primordial Hut to Digital Network in Contemporary Art; and coeditor of Landscapes of Mobility: Culture, Politics, and Placemaking. She has published articles on a wide range of topics across performance, visual, and urban studies as well as bioart and technology. In addition to her research, she has curated exhibitions in Milwaukee, New York, and Los Angeles in the US, as well as in Australia.