THE IMAGINARY WILD : MEDICS AS ARTISTS LAN LAN
‘Their knowledge of anatomy, no longer confined to laboratory practices, has been developed into highly intriguing expressions of their craft.’
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Featuring the works of Claudia Davies and Joel Sugarman, the focus of this journal is to examine the profound ways in which art, medicine and the material evolution have influenced upon one another. Retracing The Imaginary Wild, a cross-disciplinary project which gave medical students the discretionary role in art-making, it hopes to peruse further concepts from the process of creating interventions around nature.
___ The Imaginary Wild Project was initiated by Lan Lan from the BFA sculpture programme at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (UCL). By working with the medical department and other individuals, she was eager to explore the value of history and identity generated through her reconstruction of miniscule objects. It was awarded funding for material research by the Institute of Making, UCL in 2014.
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All graphics and text have been produced by the author unless otherwise stated. Cover design by Lan Lan Copyright Š 2015 by Lan Lan All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN 978-1-943275-70-0 First printed in United Kingdom, 2015
Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their generous assistance and contribution to The Imaginary Wild Project: The Institute of Making, the awarding body of Professor Heinz Wolf Materials Bursary 2014 Professor Wendy Birch from the Anatomy Laboratory, University College London Tom Lomax And my tutors at the Slade School of Fine Art, in particular, Melanie Jackson and Kieren Reed
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CONTENT 09
Synopsis
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Exposition
17
Aesthetic and avocation
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Technology and the conduct of nature
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Sculpting bones from reality: an unbridled affair?
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Can art change our approach to medicine
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Future material
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Studio visit and making week
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Critical essay
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Exhibition
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References
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The Imaginary Wild Project first evolved from the author’s attempt to cross-examine her own artwork. She was keen to apply the process of forensic craniofacial reconstruction to transform a series of whimsical, hand-crafted objects into something of scientific interest. Students from the medical department in University College London were later invited to make art and propose ideas through research in establishing whether there could be linear objectives between art and medicine; by taking away the consequential nature of medical practices and replaced
Synopsis
them with more liberal parameters of making. Two of them, Claudia Davies and Joel Sugarman, had each derived a different pattern of inquiry despite being given the same starting point of reference. Tasked to explore amongst the minuscule, banal and marginal forms comparatively on their value to nature, Claudia started off by looking at the
below: Study of the marginal forms in nature; Journal pages of Claudia Davies.
hidden language of biological functions in relation to the material world. Her initial study centred around the impacts and influences of biomimicry and the genetic modification of animals. Being interested in the visual cues of change,
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she went on to discover how markedly different the same type of colours we see are expressed in another’s culture i.e. some tribes having specific names of colours that we do not have1. She thought about injecting a new language and ‘documenting its spread’ to make the vocabulary of our universal perceptions more complete. Her sense of duty to make art as useful as medicine had followed her research into synthetic biology, where she had come across designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s creation of synthetic creatures to help regulate and iron out imbalances within the ecosystem.2 The ambition and amount of resources needed to engineer a similar concept or objective were, however, beyond the time needed to produce a finished piece, resulting in tension and deliberation between the potential growth of an idea and the ability to see it through. This creative struggle faced by artists and individuals in the same line of work was recorded in her journal pages. She became intrigued by the diversity of artist Ryan Gander’s works3 and sourced for ways to translate multiple ideas into a solid art form. This had, in turn, set up a question of how much art could reveal about the artist and the viewer. Creating a reflective space amongst her journal entries had made her realised an inversion between the expansiveness of her research and her own introspective exploration. She noticed a disconnection between the physicality of the brain as an organ that she would learn to dissect, and being an invisible, yet autonomous, carrier of thoughts. Her making of a papier mache cast of the brain had compelled her to look to the process of the hand-made as a visceral conduct of one’s self - a process which she felt was often dismissed as less productive for her study 10
in medicine. For this project, however, it was a meaningful and fitting way of creating works for ‘The Imaginary Wild’ because the most chaotic, randomness of thoughts would often spark off the most imaginative and innovative of above: Claudia Davies’ plans for making her sculpture.
solutions. On one hand, Joel Sugarman had sought to study the arrangement of anatomy generated by nature upon which man had tried to emulate. His research into the constructs of natural history revealed much evidence of ‘misappropriations’; many historical paintings and objects had carried with them the idea of the ‘misfit’ and novelty as truths as they seemed to hold more value and interest. The far-reaching effects had indicated that science could be much further from its analysis of nature than it thinks. His exploration of mythology - the use of animals to create fiction - had instead presented a more native view of history when analysed from the perspective of preceding events to man’s first encounter with an unfamiliar creature. He had 11
found it more useful to draw on the ‘otherworldly’ concepts above right: A sketch of proposed sculpture drawn by Joel Sugarman.
to build his re-imagined forms of wildlife as opposed to looking purely at mechanical or genetic functions - which, of course, would be harder to implement. Revisiting the historical ideals of nature being symmetrical and having smooth, streamlined surfaces, he turned to the taste for the exotic in taxidermy as a way of animating the afterlife. Referring to Sigmund Freud’s essay ‘Das Unheimliche’, meaning ‘the opposite of what is familiar’4, he created a sculptural representation of an uncanny headless mammal with its fur made out of human hair - a transgression of repulsive symbols possibly generated through our own repressed impulses. The use of batteries in his clay form and in his taxidermy of rat bones had also intended to visualise the replacement of bio-circulatory systems with a more contemporary output to life. Aligning their interests in applying anatomical research into creative practices, both medics had discovered recent breakthroughs in transforming animal organs and specimens into fully transparent bodies, revealing their
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insides more vividly than conducting a dissection or an autopsy would have. Several other similar scientific developments will be discussed in the later part of the book. The arrangement of a visit to digital artist Tom Lomax’s studio had created an intimate environment of exchange between the team of artists and medics, enabling one of the other to acquire a better sense of how they each work and think. The production of the essays hope to provide a means of adapting notes and references gathered by Joel and Claudia to be interpreted, understood and researched further upon, thus creating new conditions of learning. Following the conclusion of their month-long ideas development, the final chapters of the book will document the making of their art form - an exciting array of sculptures, videos, experimentation with 3D technology and dissected works to be exhibited at Woburn Research Centre.
above: Work in progress. Joel Sugarman’ s sculpture.
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image on facing page: Claudia Davies’journal and map of inquiry.
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The following sections will compile short essays developed around notes, references and formal writing material gathered by the students. They include a survey amongst some of the most radical, emerging practices featured in the fields of anatomy, such as the transformation of bodies into clear, luminous states; by considering other extreme concepts of nature, they had looked for ways to inform and inspire their making. Whereupon their scientific research had been recorded
Exposition
and processed through the art of journaling, the synthesis of these practices had hoped to address questions arising from the realignment of contexts and the aesthetic affects of science.
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Considering the limitations of reconstruction, there were apparent doubts about what the students could achieve with their knowledge of anatomy being removed from the body. Forced to produce with a different set of skills, observations and material, what would they make of their creative expectations? Whilst their research had shown that science is driven by aesthetic experiences and moments of serendipity, it had not completely separated their responsibility of making
Aesthetic and avocation
something ‘useful’, which may result in a more designdriven practice or a didactic representation of their ideas. The separation of form from function has thus made it difficult to carve a middle ground between the freeforming exploration in fine art (art for art’s sake?) and prescriptive outcomes in science. There were also divided views on their appropriation of the body, where the artist’s use of flesh or bodily fluids is not seen as being more abject than the medic’s use of hair to make art i.e. possessing a higher degree of knowledge or medical access does not make its purpose of use less partial. In curating the medics’ involvement in art, it focused on a more social and inclusive way of working; the practices of such interdisciplinary exchange involved the sharing and congregation of resources from different fields, generating a new map within their overlapping differences and links.
on facing page: top left image Written notes and references from Joel Sugarman’ s journal.
Much of their research had cited upon references from projects of similar collaborative nature, leading to the discovery of other communities and online journals such as ‘spaceandculture.org’5 and ‘e-flux’6 that make work upon the multiplicity of culture.
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The potential theories of exchanging human traits with other animals have raised many questions towards our taste for the curious. At the beginning of her research, Claudia Davies had come across several studies prescribing the implications of switching a pair of human eyes with that of an arthropod. The main differences between the lensbased human eye and a compound eye of the arthropod are namely in their visual acuity and field of depth: the human eye possesses a single lens with a much higher resolution than a compound eye made up of many multiple
Technology and the conduct of nature
lenses with lower units of resolution; this has compensated for our inability to see a wider field of vision (depth of field) and laterally. In Kirschfield7 drawing of the relative size of the compound eyes one has to reach in order to attain the same level of sharpness in vision (i.e. the increase in the size of the compound eyes necessary to match our level of acuity will exceed the volume of a human head), it had concluded that in principle, not all hybrid concepts would work favourably. However, the ‘objectification’ of incurring hybridisation amongst different classes of organisms could be very useful in developing upon the features and attributes of different species of nature; also known as biomimicry, it produced solutions to real world problems. In this case, studying the constructs of the arthropod eye to reconstruct its panoramic vision of the surrounding had prompted researchers to look at the invention of 360 degrees viewing lens in surveillance cameras8. The advent of 3D scanning technology uses a similar approach of compositing photographs taken from different angles and viewpoints to create a virtual 3D replica of objects, humans or architecture. If used in a medical context, this type of imaging has enabled us us to recreate a virtual 3D model of our internal body, where we could ideally conduct a surgical procedure without using a
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physically invasive means of operation.9 This digital outlook of nature would potentially help us to visualise ways to create sustainable solutions for our environment. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s photoillustrations of artificial life in ‘Designing for the Sixth Extinction’10 , an exhibition in Dublin, had showcased upon various ways in which her designs could help regulate the ecosystem autonomously and keep its imbalances in check. In one example, Ginsberg had drawn up a device that would look and behave like a slug; moving across the forest ground, it would agitate the topsoil while neutralising the soil’s high acid levels caused by pollution by dispersing an alkali hygroscopic fluid11. The clever use of the marginal and camouflaged forms would allow them to blend in more seamlessly with the existing wildlife. Revealing the beauty of nature through science, Joel Sugarman had discovered Dr. Adam Summers’ intriguing work of transforming specimens into transparent creatures that show the fine arresting details of its internal structures.12 His clearing and staining of fish, a newer revision to an older technique, involved dipping the specimen into blue and red dye separately, which stained the cartilage bright blue and the bones bright red; he then soaked it into a digestive enzyme solution known as trypsin where it would eat up most of the proteins but leave the collagen, which makes up the skin and other connective tissues, intact - holding the specimen together. The last step would be to store it in glycerine, wherupon its refective index would make the skin, tendons and ligaments become completely see-through, forming a spectacle of tinted anatomy in 3D. Although ‘the colour presented by the biochemical properties of the specimen does not reflect the colours in life’,13 the rendering of fine skeletal details had exemplified 19
the view that the delicate works of nature are delegated by both man and nature. The usefulness to a similar process of examining anatomy without its dissection is discussed by Claudia in her brief study on ‘CLARITY’ - a process devised by Stanford University researchers.14 Like the clearing and staining method, it had made mice brains completely see-through with the use of chemicals. This form of practice is directed to studying an organ for any defects without incising its form. It first soaked the brain in a chemical solution to remove most of its tissue mass. To prevent the structure from collapsing when the opaque lipid contents are extracted out, it is immersed in a hydrogel fluid, a polymeric material that is designed to hold large amount of water, and heated slightly to produce a mesh that would hold the brain together. These studies hope to make up for the inadequacies of utilising medical imaging to generate a more complete internal profile; the use of histology, in which a thin slice of tissue is examined under the microscope, can only show us a fractional, two-dimensional view of the organ; while Computed (Axial) Tomography, also known as CT scan, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) often lose miniscule or soft tissue details and may be lower in resolution.15 While these chemical clearing procedures had not yet been performed on living creatures, improvising the way light could be conducted or permeated from the body had resulted in the transfer of bioluminescent genes taken from certain jellyfishes into the DNA of mice, which make their skin, eyes and organs glow.16
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This configuration of one’s genetic and modular properties had also been actively studied upon, as a group of students from the University of Cambridge had engineered the acceleration of light-yielding enzymes, hoping to test upon the creation of self-illuminating trees that could function as street lights.17 In Japan, a team of scientists had achieve a breakthrough by capturing the first ever photographs of a human subject giving off an imperceptible amount of light.18
right: A brochure from the‘Limits of Perception’summer science exhibition at the Royal Society, 2014, showing the different imaging techniques in medicine; From Claudia Davies’journal.
While these developments have revealed an entirely different set of possibilities towards the future, these projections of biomorphosis had been quicker to implement with the use of computer algorithm. One example, the application of Raycounting, derives the calculation of light and its indices to produce the exact specifications of a 3D form as desired - a rarefied technique explored by Neri Oxman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab:19
‘Raycounting is a method for generating customized
light-shading constructions by registering the intensity and orientation of light rays within a given environment. 3D surfaces of double curvature are the result of assigning light parameters to flat planes. The algorithm calculates the intensity, position and direction of one, or multiple, light sources placed in a given 21
environment and assigns local curvature values to each point in space corresponding to the reference plane and the light dimension. Light performance analysis tools are reconstructed programmatically to allow for morphological synthesis based on intensity, frequency and polarization of light parameters as defined by the user.’
Although it had yet to be realised, Joel hoped to put his ‘final art form through algorithm and produce Raycounting reflection as a 2D piece’20 where the altering of spatial conditions would generate another modified expression of his intended creature.
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Bones express the fragility of life as with the endurance of death and decay; they help to recover history through present advances in forensic applications of craniofacial reconstruction techniques. For an artist, part of the excitement is to reveal and speculate upon their missing identity; yet this has put a different price to the marvel and suspension towards the process of reconstructing for medical and moral purposes.
Sculpting bones from
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reality: an unbridled affair?
In the absence of skeletons, forms can still be generated through the use of synthetic or processed material, i.e. wires and cotton, in animal taxidermy. Similarly, Joel had created a sculpture of his re-imagined creature using mostly synthetic material (with the exception of human hair). The pastel beige-pink colour of Super Sculpey, a polymer clay he used to build the creature out of, suggested its substitution of flesh; in constructing a ‘skeletal’ frame out of wires and masking tape, he intermittently asked, “what is the advantage of using bone over a synthetic material?”
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The perceptive differences between a live and dead animal lie in an external media or technology to destruct them, in the hope of transforming an inanimate object into something capable of movement. This movement ‘had required a structural form open to manipulation - one that effects a change on the environment surrounding the organism.’21 In his work, Joel had analysed how new realities could be formed from misinterpretation of (skeletal) structures in morphology. He underlined the following origins of this misinterpretation: the incorrect order of bones as with their misalignment i.e. head and tail wrongly swapped or in the wrong place; two or more specimens combined together to form a disguised singular unit; visual representations produced without having seen the organism; and the lack of skill in depiction. He also noted the compulsion to recognise and fit this error of judgement into a cultural framework, perpetuating the mistaken analysis from fossils or bone structures to construct thesis about their existence. This could be reinforced by the ‘feedback effect’, an example of how ‘the sightings of manatees in the New World are as well misinterpreted to ‘confirm’ the concept of Mermaid.’ “It seems like an automatic response to render animals as legible with human meanings.”22, he wrote. The record of animal ancestry had also compounded more information on their behavoural traits and diet over their mating habits.
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above: Joel Sugarman, Pet 2014. The Imaginary Wild Exhibition.
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‘These reconstructions have a tendency to adhere to a repetition physiology with scales and emphasised predatory features.’- Joel Sugarman
In the last century, scientists suggested that many prehistoric creatures had coats of feathers based on their discovery of fossils which bear scaly skin similar to those found in birds.23 Yet they have been rendered in a distinctive reptilian form that has been widely recognised today. An assumption would be that their enormous bone sizes and teeth had justified predatory instincts which does not seem to fit in with the classification of most birds these days. Thus, the process of reassembling skeletons is still inconclusive in projecting what form they had existed in. The cultural appropriations of dinosaurs and other ‘unclassified’ species in natural history museums around the world could even be the result of self-publicising amongst paleontologists24 who had been eager to fill upon this gap.
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Symbolism in the imagined form
‘To overly construct is to examine more openly and
destruct upon these illusions.’ 25
The imagined form, therefore, would aim to project an alternative and tangible structure from the complicits of reality - one which is fostered by the constructs of perceptions in material discovery and questioned by its propagation of history. The desire to resolve ‘the gap between rediscovering life and the emergence of life never seen before’26 has made redundant the need to extend “purpose” beyond maintenance of existing functions. His observation that suggestion could be of greater use than in realistic models of representation could essentially impact the creation of more conscious, intuitive design of the environment.
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above: Highlighted extracts from a magazine article“Same shade of blue for me and you”. Published on 28 May 2005. From Claudia Davies’journal on the differentiation of colours in linguistics.
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This summer, following my first year of medical school, I joined The Imaginary Wild - a project involving UCL medical students and organised by Lan Lan, another student from the Slade School of Fine Art. Each student was given a sketchbook, a set of guidelines and some ideas for research, with the aim of producing a final piece during the ‘making week’ towards the end of the project. Initially I made the mistake of feeling constrained by the brief that we had received. Coming from a scientific Claudia Davies:
Can art change our approach to
background, I applied the same studying skills I have honed at university to the art project. I felt an internal pressure to want to ‘do it right’ and failed to appreciate that it was more about the exploration of ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration rather than the end result.
medicine I was limited by my inability to think beyond the daunting prospect of the final piece I would need to produce. I felt that everything I had done need to have a purpose and direction I could rationalise. However I started to relax and let my imagination go wild when I reframed my perspective. Worrying less about the final outcome and discovering there wasn’t necessarily a ‘right’ way of doing things was liberating. I had the chance to simply follow the questions of a wandering and curious mind. I believe I have learnt things which I can apply to my study of medicine. Too often I am driven by the end result, be it this topic I have set myself to understand or the fear of failing those end of year exams. In doing so I believe I may be stopping myself from following some of the thoughts that I dismiss as being trivial or unimportant. Part of this is indeed due to the high workload and time pressures of studying medicine. I have been fortunate to be doing this art project when I have had the time to indulge in my 29
whims. However, I believe that setting aside time each week where I let myself contemplate and follow up on some of the ideas and questions which have occurof the ideas and questions which have occurred to me, whether independently or in group discussions with friends and colleagues, which would enrich my learning and help me contextualise concepts which can feel distanced from their application in a medical setting. It strikes me that opportunities for medical students to collaborate with other disciplines should not be undervalued. I am reminded of the theories of Foucault, which I studied as part of my course earlier this year. He identified the idea of the ‘episteme’; the structure and context of how we are taught to think encourages us to see and in doing so perhaps limit our minds in their questioning of what we are presented with.27 In my project there were certain developments I could not have planned for, as new ideas about materials and how to use them only arose through hands on experimentation. I believe this is the same in the study of medicine - to me it is essential that it is a practical course. In particular I value the opportunities I have for dissection, as I believe it answers questions I would not have even posed simply through examining images and textbooks. Several studies including that by Aizer and Eizenberg (Do we need dissection in an integrated problem-based learning medical course? Perceptions of first- and second-year students) support this, concluding that “interactive multimedia resources, have not replaced students’ perceptions about the importance of dissection”. 28 Moreover, I believe there is an argument for teaching some parts of the medical curriculum as integrated sessions with 30
above: Claudia Davies reassembling anatomy model of brain used in casting.
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students from other disciplines. I recall a course I participated in some years ago at UCL medical school on ‘Anatomy, Art and Anthropology’ run by Professor Christopher Dean. This course aimed to combine aspects of art and anatomy in a course consisting of lectures, discussions, time in the dissection laboratory and opportunities for students to go and visit exhibits in art galleries or museums of their choice. I believe this is a holistic approach to anatomy and the opportunity to network with other students (including a wax modeller from Madam Tussauds) has made me think
right: Journal page by Claudia Davies, expressing nerves and other cognitive structures in brains through materials and craft as a manifestation of who we are.
about dissection, anatomy and the cadavers in a different way, as often students from other disciplines asked questions and followed paths that I would never have independently considered. Studies such as those by Bell and Evans (Art, Anatomy and Medicine: Is there a place for art in medical education?) even indicate that similar courses have been shown to develop skills of clinical observation.29 In 2013 UCL opened the Institute of Making, where The Imaginary Wild Making Week took place. It is a space, where following a short induction, all students and staff can use freely for projects and experimentation.
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Again, it creates opportunities to collaborate with those from other disciplines and encourages us to share ideas with other people. I have found participating in The Imaginary Wild Project enriching and it has made me evaluate how I approach my medical studies. Chances to widen the ‘clinical gaze’ can be few and far between in the initial years of medical education. I hope that the impetus from this initial Imaginary Wild project will lead to an ongoing collaboration between Slade and UCL Medical School, offering an opportunity for students and staff to try something new and think a little differently.
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above: Microscopic images of tissues and biomaterial collected by Claudia Davies.
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The future of material would see the manufacturing of metaphysical concepts i.e. solids lighter than air, as in the case of airloys and aerogels. These material are designed to have multiple or extreme spectrums of properties inculcated into one form; airloys and aerogels have super-insulation in its thermal conductivity, and can hold additional gently applied weights 2000 times of their own despite having extremely low densities.30 The silly putty, a toy-based silicone material that behaves as both solid and liquid, can bounce and flow like a viscous fluid, but it
Future material
can also break or crack if a sudden force has acted upon it.31 The development of hydrophobic surfaces in spectacle lenses, textiles and shoe sprays would also be channeled towards large scale urban planning of water or underwater architecture.32 The term ‘organic’ may become far more precious in the advent of biomaterials; In regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, the use of bioactive glass which ‘converts cellular material into bone on contact’ has helped to build scaffoldings for harvesting new connective tissues and organs.33 With similar porosity and compressive strength as bones, Joel Sugarman had suggested in its use to convert a “living” sculpture into a fossil, outlining how the
right: Small sculpture of torso moulded by Joel Sugarman; synthetic modelling material deriving a similar quality to flesh.
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use of pre-existing material could be reversed to produce something new. This appealing blend of synthetic and organic development would also effect a sustainable outlook in resource acquisition amongst other applications, such as generating electricity from blood glucose, which could essentially produce 7.45 - 0.16 micro wattle of power.34 On a wider scale, bio-fuel cell production from the ‘direct collaboration between metabolic and electrical activity’ could initiate functions similar to a hybrid car. The transference of bioenergy would aim to mobilise infrastructures or integrate gravitational potential energy into flight.
above: Joel Sugarman’ s journal showing electrical conductivity of organisms and our environment.
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With the internet and other amaterial sources, they could then deliver or store these material data for future use, or replicate their vital ‘DNA’ into a desired form.
right: Implanting human hair into synthetic material; Clay mockups by Joel Sugarman.
The preservation of the body as future material has led to the interest in muscular plastination35 and cryonics - a process of freezing the body for later resuscitation. For Joel and Claudia, the remodelling of flesh and organs for the purposes of art had given them the creative control over the use of the body.
___________________________________________________________ Additional findings: “Algues (French for Algae) - “ (a) biomimetic sculptural system based on multi-branching plastic module that can be attached to other modules with plastic pegs”
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- Extract from
http://transmaterial.net/algues/ . 37
In between their week-long production at the Institute of Making workshop, the team had spent a day visiting the studio of Tom Lomax, an artist who uses bronze-casting and digital modelling techniques widely in his practice.37 Having retired from teaching at the Slade School of Fine Art, he talked about how his background in engineering has influenced the methodologies used to produce his extensive practice. The conversations around the table created a valuable
Studio visit and making week
opportunity to learn about one another’s personal histories that had shaped their involvement in the project; Joel revealed his hobby in drawing satirical victorian-style motifs, sharing similar interests as Tom in designing stencils; on the other hand, Claudia, who had spent some time working at public engagement and recreational events in Kew Gardens, has enjoyed making paper-crafts in her spare time. Referring to one of his works, Tom explained how he had used Autocad and Magics, an additive manufacturing programme to create a series of ‘angel forms’;38 by engaging in the transfer of gestures from the mouse, the keyboard to the screen, he shot miniature spheric shapes onto another three-dimensional plane in the computer. His process combined the element of chance, geometry and algorithm to produce a physical, 3D-printed sculpture. In particular, Claudia had found the diversity of his work quite inspiring. He shared generously on the usage of various computing software, explaining how his process of translating vector drawings into volumised forms had created a dialogue amongst his pieces of work, each one a derivation of the other. Commenting on material as being the biggest
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influence in his decisions, he discussed how each process in traditional forms of sculpture i.e. bronze-casting can be added or subtracted to achieve a different sentiment or outcome that we want. Colour has always been an important function in his work; feeling dissatisfied by the brittle ‘biscuit’ texture of his 3D-printed objects, he chose to cover them in a rich flock of velvety hues, creating a more dynamic surface design in his computer-aided renderings.
above: Group discussions at digital sculptor Tom Lomax’ s studio.
His process-based approach had enabled the members to take from the application of 2D and 3D materials in the course of their making.
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above: A tour of the studio; 3D printed sculptures in purple flock. Courtesy of Tom Lomax.
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above: Joel Sugarman consulting with Tom about 3D printing, as he shared photos of his rat dissection. below: Tom Lomax setting up his machine and the vinyl cutter.
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on these pages: The process of casting an anatomy model in papier-mâchÊ.
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above image and right: Painted papier-mâchÊ casts are displayed on a medical tray.
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The making of Claudia’s papier-mâché sculpture created layers of newspapers around the brain anatomy models; as a metaphor for building a vessel or containment of her thoughts, she had intended to make a pair of hollow shells instead of a fully solid form. The prospect of having to wait for days to remove and reveal the casts had made her both anxious and excited. Once hardened, she proceeded to trim off the edges of the casts until it was relatively smooth to the touch and applied two coats of white acrylic paint, creating a pair of organic forms. She placed them on a white tray to create a more clinical atmosphere which she had been used to working in, and continued to experiment with other material to fill the interior surface of the brain casts.
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‘I want to make something with my hands. I am a tactile person, I don’t think I would feel as connected to something computer generated or virtual - I want something I can feel and mould and interact with.’
‘At what point is a collection of material something more - an object with a new definition?’
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above and the following pages: Anatomy models wrapped up in cling film. Its plastic surface is obscured by the layer of film.
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The cling film which she had used to protect the anatomy models had created a semblance to fascia and other delicate tissues that surround the organs; the wrapping of the brain disguises its plastic surface, making it appear more realistic. The images had later been photoshopped to give it a richer hue of life. Joel started building a wire armature of his creature from his sketch of a rabbit’s skeletal structure. He covered the ‘torso’ of the frame in masking tape to create mass around the structures, allowing the clay to sit and build up around its surface. He then referred to images of skinned animals to sculpt the muscles of his imagined form.
below: Basic scaffolding of Joel’ s re-imagined creature.
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Joel had wanted to create a slightly stylised form as depicted by the giraffe in Hieronymus Bosch’s painting of The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1490 - 1510),39 which was also inspired by etchings of the exotic creature in Egyptian Voyage (c. 1440) by Cyriacus of Ancona.40 The giraffe had been presented to the imperial court of Beijing in 1414 by Chinese Admiral Zheng He, where its tall stature and gentle disposition was favoured upon as an animal of good omen.41 Within its depictions, he had noted the tendency ‘to give it more (of a) vertical stance by shortening (its) hind legs and angling the body’42 as an elevation of status. His desire to give his creature a sense of spirited movement was stopped short by its unstable form from the weight of the battery and its clay work.
on facing page: Joel assembling his wire frame using masking tape and battery.
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“The density of muscular tissue can be seen here to be the highest around an animal’s abdomen and thorax, but fades away at extremities. Only the marginal surface layer is seen but there still remains overlapping layers of tissue to the animal’s core.” ___
As Joel continued to sculpt his creature form without a head, he considered the desired qualities to his entity in question:
Demonstrate organic origin? Bone, collagen (hydrocarbon) Demonstrate synthetic origin? Metal, plastics (hydrocarbon) Allows construction physically? Malleable, obtainable Allows construction conceptually? Recognisable, perceived, aesthetic draw Has tactile appeal? Want to touch? Repel? Ignore physical presence? Draws an audience preconceptions? Disgust, desire, comical Denotes function? Adaptations, strategy for ecosystem Denotes energy potential?
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on this page: Joel referencing his creature form from the muscular anatomy of a rabbit.
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In his research into material, he wanted to build upon a complex surface inspired by Based Upon’s showcase of an alchemy of synthetic liquid layered on top of one another.43 He had looked into different surface patterns of each species including stingray skin, laburnum leaves and human palms to create a more nuanced surface from his sculpting process of clay. He gathered samples of human hair to make a fur section in his animal; creating an uncanniness in encountering a familiar yet incongruous object, he hoped to stir a kind of cognitive dissonance within the experiencing audience. This paradoxical emotions of being ‘attracted to similarity on facing page: Mounting tufts of hair into clay by layering each tuft until the base had been fully covered.
yet repulsed by difference’, causing a sense of unease, is reflected by a phenomenon known as the ‘uncanny valley’, where one would experience a sudden revulsion towards something that appear almost too life-like.44 He was careful to retain and give attention to the muscular form of the animal, as ‘it is (the) variance of surface that cause this recognition or alien divide; without marginal structure(s), (the) uncanny does not have the same impact.’45 This simultaneous construction of being menacing and intimate was also present in his study of artist Mona Hatoum’s work, in which her use of common domestic kitchen utensils had also invoked industrial connotations and the potential danger, creating a ‘shattering of wholesome environment’.
(a)
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above: Sculpture was overcooked and had to be re-layered over and sanded.
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‘There is a preconception of connection with structure, movement and support.’
To finish off, Joel attached the human ‘fur’ piece to the creature, which resembled the mane of a galloping animal, and set it to bake in the oven. Despite careful control over the timing and heat, parts of the sculpture was noticeably charred around the ‘leaner’ areas. He speculated that the tape underneath the clay might have had conducted more heat and so the sculpture was cooked from both its inside and outside.
He built upon the charred areas with another layer of clay and baked it gently to harden. The surface of his sculpture was sanded down to alter its appearance and form slightly. The additional layer of clay had added weight to the torso, making it more unstable and prone to toppling over. A decision was made over whether to keep the existing wire legs or to create a new support system.
on following pages: Sculpture is re-polished into a new form.
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above: Sculpture being edited in Photoshop.
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The photographs of his sculpture were later edited in Photoshop to create a digital narrative; in trying to give the creature a sense of movement, its background was replaced by an air of black to evoke a timeless, cosmic environment. The rest of the sculpture had also been darkened in relative to its backdrop, which had revealed a stark contrast of colours and details that resembled the appearance of a developing fetus - evoking the illusion of a possible circulatory system within the sculpture. It had appeared to come alive.
‘Newly imagined or reimagined forms are projected onto pre-recognized landscapes, but their root seems often abstract. Necessity to support qualifications of life are not met. this is rebuffed by placing the organism in a dreamscape: it is made exotic and otherworldly, representative of concept.’
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above: Digital rendering of the final sculpture in green.
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Both students had tried to produce a virtual replica of their sculptures using 3D scanning applications. Instead of scanning an object from life, the team had taken a multiple views of their works on camera and processed them into a 3D reconstruction using an online app known as the 123D Catch.47 It had enabled the manouvre of its stationary form in a virtual space.
right: An attempt to scan Sculpey model made by Joel Sugarman using a laser 3d scanner is later aborted due to the machine’ s malfunctioning.
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above: A three-dimensional virtual replica of a Claudia’ s papier-mâché sculpture.
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on these pages: Papier-mâchÊ sculpture were photographed radially and overhead to be composited in 3D scanning.
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on these pages: Virtual sculpture being edited and filmed.
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on this page: Screen recordings of virtual sculpture as a video work.
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Screen recordings of Claudia’s papier-mâché sculpture were taken and edited into a short film; In the first half of the clip, the sculpture appeared to be an obscured object that loomed larger towards the screen to expose its abstract surface. This projection of a sublime, enigmatic sphere had later been dissolved into a haptic presentation of the moving papier-mâché cast. An altered image of the brain model wrapped in cling film was displayed alongside the film credits.
above and right: Anatomy models wrapped in cling film and photoshopped to resemble real organs.
For the internal surface of the casts, she had decided to use a variety of colours and types of yarns wrapped in cling film to create circular, woven swirls in place of patterns symbolic of the Encephalopathic EEG waves.48 In using yarns of varying tension, thickness and texture, she had wanted to form a more rhythmic composition of ‘herself’ through the musings of ‘a wandering, curious and imaginary, wild mind’.
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on these pages: Film stills of papier-mâchÊ sculpture in virtual 3D.
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top: Wandering Mind, sculpture by Claudia Davies exhibited at Woburn Research Centre. bottom left image: Fingertip cast in cling film and embroidery thread to resemble a unit of barnacle. bottom right image: A page from Claudia Davies’journal exploring the definitions of being minuscule.
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The repetitive action of curling and twisting each string to produce a multiple whole had begun to feel ‘like a production line’. She wrote, “Part of me feels a bit guilty at changing my piece during the project, but it is also quite exciting and interesting to feel that I ‘can’ just follow my instincts and change my mind about ideas - I don’t know where it will end up! In a way the process of creating this artwork is in itself the artwork - I’m letting my imagination go wild and indulging its whims and fancies.”
The ‘potential energy’ stored within the spiral patterns might be let loose upon by the ‘unequal encounter’ of her work.
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on these pages: Process of lost-wax casting recorded during the bronze-casting workshop at the Institute of Making; Journal pages from Claudia Davies.
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above: A miniature wax model of brain carved by Claudia Davies for bronze-casting.
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What is the rift between the materials used to create your artwork and the intended composition of your form? How can we mediate upon this to bring models and hypotheses closer to reality?
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It seems immediately apparent that, when realising something of the imagination into a physical form, discrepancies will arise. Physical limitations exist for all
Critical essay by Joel Sugarman
materials. In acquisition, the chief obstacles are price and accessibility. The scale of these hurdles are obviously dependent on the means of the artist, so that Damien Hirst can construct a skull of £14 million worth of platinum, diamonds and human bone49, while the budget and means for my own artwork are by necessity much smaller. Manipulation, too, is affected by the both the strengths and weaknesses of individual materials. Despite being valued for its clear, bright yellow pigment, orpiment was a toxic basis for paint that the artist should “beware of soiling [their] mouth[s] with it”50. What is disappointing in limitation can also be a foundation for improvement, in that a creative tension is generated. We are led to modify our process to avoid persistent injury, and in doing so often create something unexpected and novel, so that it is potentially the “limiting order of the material collected that can authorize and command the future development of artistic work”51. In my own artwork, this has emerged in three circumstances. Firstly, the original design of my sculpture allowed for a standing structure, but the eventual scale of the piece meant that its armature wire supports could no longer hold the body’s weight. This result was continual slumping into 79
a prone position, forcing a remould into a more stable but less lively piece. Secondly, the polymer clay itself baked at a lower temperature that was previously assumed, presumably due to the conducting effects of the metal in the sculpture. This resulted in a browning which gave the impression of cooked meat, but the charcoal burning at the margins of the sculpture forced a recast. This has now led me to consider painting the piece while juxtaposing it with other (unpainted) polymer clay pieces on a smaller scale, retrieving some of the lost activity of the original statue. Finally, I had considered crafting a layer of textured skin with hairs for the piece to show its imagined surface layer. However, it seemed impractical to insert hairs individually, and so the modification made was to create a fur layer by applying tufts of hair at a time. This had a new challenge of acquiring enough material, but at the same time gave a more complete look to the artwork. In that way, despite the rift widening between my intentions and the realised piece, the final product actually seemed closer to a real form. Working with organic material is also constraining. Legal and personal boundaries often regulate acquisition, while the length of time for which the piece is viable is also affected by decay and rot. Safety is a factor which feeds into this, as health concerns might arise from the piece’s microbiological or airborne elements, as in Ai Wei Wei’s Sunflower Seeds52. And while a synthetic substitute may match material necessities and aesthetics, they don’t present the same emotional pull. I hope to overcome this by working with clean rat bone, ethically sourced, but manipulation is again a problem, both in that I may damage/lose bones of such a small size or have difficult in their arrangement, or work with larger bones with their own problems. 80
right: Joel Sugarman working on the construction of the anatomy in his sculpture.
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on these pages Journal pages from Joel Sugarman.
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above: A series of video clips showing Joel Sugarman dissecting a rat in his kitchen.
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It seems inevitable, then, that compromise and adjustment must occur to realise an art piece if resources are finite, but this is not necessarily a negative development. It can be a source of creative tension which fuels innovation, either in novel use of material or technique.
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below: The Imaginary Wild showcase at the Woburn Research Centre.
Exhibition
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A selection of their work-in-progress, journals and two short films had gone on display along with their final sculptures on plinths. The exhibition had presented a survey of materials from the project to try and reconstruct the context of which their three-month long residency and exchange had developed from - as medics who had transformed their knowledge of anatomy into highly intriguing expressions of their craft.
above: Initial wall plan for the exhibition. left: Display poster.
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below: Joel Sugarman, Sunday Roast, 2014. The Imaginary Wild Exhibition.
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above: Playing of video Companion, produced by Joel Sugarman.
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I am actually very curious about why you titled your short film, “Companion”, and how you select and edit the sources.
JOEL SUGARMAN: I became increasingly concerned with
the purpose and implications of my actions, when I wasn’t necessarily benefiting my medical knowledge directly with the dissection. That got me thinking about the purpose of dissection, and why I can justify it to myself when it is in a on these and
lab situation. It was that hypocritical approach to animal life
following pages:
that formed the narrative backbone to my film.
The makings of
Companion, 2014 Joel Sugarman Video, 02:49
The word companion comes from the French translation ‘compagnion’,
which literally means ‘one who breaks
bread with another’. It has got a sort of equality built into it. I was concerned that the relationship between human and animal often comes out unbalanced. That is why I titled (the film) Companion, to point out that animals serve a number of roles to humans but are rarely on an equal level. We are stewards and we do a good job or a bad job but we are stewarding animals all the same; the way we behave towards some animals would be abhorrent in comparison to others. The narrative, in as much as it exists, aims to draw attention to these juxtapositions and evoke an emotional response rather than a rational one, in the hope that these conflicts are crystallised.
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on these pages: Film stills of Companion featuring edits of Joel’ s dissection work and cuts taken from open source material.
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Joel Sugarman | Pet, 2014.
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“ I INVITE PEOPLE TO DISSECT MY BRAIN. ”
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I was interested by how intimate study of the body through dissection still does not reveal the personality or cognitions of the person it below: Claudia posing with papiermâché work.
once was; this remains unknown and intriguing. My final work is a papier-mâché cast of a brain and an imagined way of how my ideas, thoughts and memories might be generated and sorted within it. The different coloured strands are tightly coiled, suggesting the ability to unravel when probed, releasing information. A few wild,
on these and following pages:
loose strands form a pool of information, and it is left to the viewer to decide whether the flow of information is in or out; is it a memory being formed or an idea being realized? I aimed to
Synopsis and work
Wandering Mind, 2014 Claudia Davies Papier-mâché, acrylic paint, thread, Clingfilm
highlight the sculptural beauty of the shape of the brain itself as opposed to skull as more commonly depicted.
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Claudia Davies | Wandering Mind, 2014.
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left: Bronze sculpture of brain by Claudia Davies.
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Name. Retrieved January 21, 2015 from Eagereyes: https://eagereyes. org/blog/2011/you-only-see-colors-you-can-name 2. Ginsberg, A. (n.d.). Designing for the Sixth Extinction. Retrieved March 24, 2015 from Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg: http://www.daisyginsberg.com/ work/designing-for-the-sixth-extinction 3. BBC. (2014-2015). Ryan Gander - The Art of Everything. Retrieved March 1, 2015 from BBC Culture: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ b046s8z4 4. Thwaite, M. (2012, November 29). Knausgard and Das Unheimliche. Retrieved from February 22, 2015 from ReadySteadyBlog: http://www. readysteadybook.com/Blog.aspx?permalink=20121229134011
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40. Wikimedia (n.d.). File:Cyriacus vs Bosch giraffe.jpg. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from Wikimedia: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Cyriacus_vs_Bosch_giraffe.jpg 41. Johnson, J. (n.d.). Should the Ming End the Treasure Ship Voyages? Retrieved April 27, 2015 from Berkerley: http://orias.berkeley.edu/pallop/ timeline.html 42. Sugarman, J. (2014). Journal notes from Joel Sugarman, The
Imaginary Wild Project. 43. Based Upon. (n.d.). Surface. Retrieved March 27, 2015 from Based Upon: http://basedupon.com/surface 44. Mori, M. (2012, June). The Uncanny Valley. Retrieved March 1, 2015 from Ieee Explore: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp. jsp?arnumber=6213238 45. Sugarman, J. (2014). Journal notes from Joel Sugarman, The
Imaginary Wild Project. 46. Taylor, R. (2003, October). Mona Hatoum, Home 1999. Retrieved March 13, 2015 from Tate: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hatoumhome-t07918/text-summary 47. Autodesk. (n.d.). Autodesk 123D. Retrieved April 28, 2015 from 123D Catch: http://www.123dapp.com/catch 48. Benbadis, S. (2014, October 8). Encephalopathic EEG Patterns. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from Medscape: http://emedicine.medscape. com/article/1140530-overview 49. Brown, A. (2013, March 1). Damien Hirst and the farce of value. Retrieved September 9, 2014 from The Independent: http://www. independent.co.uk/voices/comment/damien-hirst-and-the-farce-ofvalue-8482030.html. 50. Ball, P. (2001). Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour. London : Vintage. ISBN: 9780099507130. 51. Sjรถholm, J. (2014). The art studio as archive: tracing the geography of artistic potentiality, progress and production. 3, s.l. : Cultural Geographies. Vol. 21. 52. Brown, M. (2010, October 5). Tate Modern rethinks Sunflower
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‘To overly construct is to examine more openly and destruct upon these illusions.’ ____
The Imaginary Wild Project sees a close-knit collaboration between students from University College London’s medical and fine art department, where medics had inhabited the artist’s role in making responses towards the bio-development of marginal and banal species into something far more radical and gripping. Being absolved from the consequences of altering nature and its anatomy, how would they make of their newfound exploration and creative consciousness? This journal hopes to investigate the linear relationship between art, material evolution and medicine, drawing questions from their syntheses and the aesthetic affects of science.