With Louise Mackenzie and Kathy High

Art Laboratory Berlin is delighted to invite you to take part in our Colloquium, a discursive format on research in art, science and humanities, curated by Regine Rapp. It takes place in tandem with our Reading Club, curated by Tuçe Erel.

The Colloquium addresses an international interdisciplinary research audience to present and discuss past, present or future projects by artists and scholars, curators or editors from the fields of art, science and the humanities. The topics could refer to an art project, a book, text or chapter, a research or exhibition project, a lab experiment, a lecture series, a conference concept or other.

The presentations and exchange will focus on the work-in-progress. Methodological approaches – theoretical or practical – are also of great interest here. While researching, we often tend to shift between practical inquiry and theoretical research, browsing various disciplines. Following the original meaning of colloquium as “speaking together”, we want to provide a platform for exchange and embrace various kinds of work processes which are often not seen or talked about.

Structure of the sessions: Each session will include two presentations followed by discussions, altogether 90 min. The colloquium welcomes informal conversations amongst the participants.

Start: 20:00 pm CET
End: 21:30 pm CET

Speakers on 18 April 2023 Session

Louise Mackenzie | Developing a Greater Planetary Consciousness

Louise Mackenzie, PhD, is an Edinburgh-born interdisciplinary artist, curator and writer. Her practice explores human relationships with the non-human world. With an interest in experimental and experiential practices, sound and new/found media play an important role in her work. She is co-founder and curator of interdisciplinary cinema project Black Box and co-founder of Alive Together, an interdisciplinary community for research in human/ animal relationships. Current projects includes BioDwelling, an exploration of human/microbial relations in the context of the built environment and BE THE SEA, an exploration of our relationship to and impact upon coastal marine life through sound and listening. Louise’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including ZKM (Karlsruhe), ISEA Montreal (Canada), Pomona Museum of Art, California (USA), National Library of Spain, Madrid (Spain), BALTIC CCA, Newcastle (UK), Charles Darwin House, London (UK), Basement 6 Collective, Shanghai (China) and Lumiere Durham (UK). Louise has written for MIT Press, PUBLIC Journal, Manchester University Press, Routledge, Bloomsbury and Intellect.

In the Colloquium Louise Mackenzie will talk about ongoing research that explores how challenging existing forms of perception might allow us to develop a greater planetary consciousness. This is most recently manifested in the project, BE THE SEA, which uses deep listening, field recording and imaginative listening techniques to try to understand the subject positions of coastal marine life and in the nascent project Transgenic Petting Zoo, with animal behaviour scientist, Dr. Anna Olsson.

Kathy High | Subtle Sounds_Queer Laughter

Kathy High (USA) is an interdisciplinary artist / educator who collaborates with scientists & activists, and considers living systems, animal sentience, and ethical dilemmas of biotechnology and medical industries. She is Professor in Arts department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and director of BAT (BioArt and Technology) Laboratory in RPI’s Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies. She is a supporter of community DIY and do-it-together science and ecological art practices. She is Coordinator for the community environmental center NATURE Lab with The Sanctuary for Independent Media. She is committed to queer and feminist approaches to reshaping ecological bio-science research and learning-by-doing, and to collaborative action. She is recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, and Guggenheim Foundation. Her artworks have been shown at documenta 13 (Germany), Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, (NYC), Science Gallery (Dublin), Festival Transitio_MX (Mexico), and MASS MoCA (North Adams). She has had residencies with SymbioticA, UWA (2009-10), Finnish Society of Bioart (2013), Ectopia, Lisbon (2022), Metabolic Arts Gathering, Medical Museum, Copenhagen (2023).

In the Colloquium Kathy will talk about updates of her recent Rat Laughter project. Many creatures and materials operate in a sonic range that is beyond our human hearing, communicating in an ultrasonic or subsonic range of frequency. Ultrasonic vocalized sounds and communication exist side-by-side our own limited audible range, perceived only subtly by us. Artists Kathy High with Michelle Temple, sound technologist Matt Wellins, audio engineer Eric Rosenthal and scientist Jeffrey Burgdorf, are working on developing tools to engage with this hidden audio world of rat ultrasonic communication. One project to date has been Rat Laughter that uses recorded ultrasonic rat giggles to compose a chorus of laughter for laboratory rats to enjoy.