Midterm Jun Nishimura

http://bha5.bioclub.org/participants/jun/

I want to make a visually beatiful art work by using my genital bacteria or sperm which are treated, in general, as dirty thing

Mid-term(plan A) Video: vimeo link
Mid-term(plan B) Video: vimeo link

Feedback

Georg: Jun's idea is to work with sperm as a biological material. Possible approaches could be to prolong the potential life of sperm outside the body, which raises questions about the incubator, and creates an interestig dilemma with the incubator as an artificial womb. Sperm cells are also special, as they only carry a haploid (or a single) set of chromosome. All other body cells have a diploid set, one set from your father, one from your mother. The sperm cells also underwent meiosis, which breaks and recombines the parent's cell. Another way of looking onto it: sperm cells are the only cells that are really unique to you!

The second approach of out-growing the body micro-biome is a recurring theme amongst artist/designers working with biology. One interested development - which came from last Saturday's discussion - is to make an inverted copy of the micro-biome: 1. Wear an absorbent, nutrian-primed, overall-type suit (including hoody) for XXX hours. 2. Reverse the suit, prop up to retain body shape 3.Add more nutrients 4. Incubate 5. Result: microbial geminoid... maybe microboid... my microboid -> mycroboid?

Keisuke: Jun's project seems interesting to propose a problem about sexual terms. Nowadays, sexual expressions are sometimes regarded as dirty things, but in some contexts such as in myths, these types of expressions are treated as divine things. I'm curious why these different points of view coexist in the society. His speculative idea perhaps makes it clear what the point of the difference is.

Roland: When Jun's video was shown the first time during the mid-term presentations, the video was stuck at the first slide. Basically, this made the experience of listening to a podcast, which allowed my brain to come up with images to go with the research project, imagining up aesthetics queer and edgy ( like the work of Vladimir Storm. ) Regarding the 2nd point of Georg above of wearing the microbiome on the outside: that's very interesting, also with regards to non-wearability you can look at the research of Victoria Geany for inspiration.

Jan: I second that what Roland mentioned, about not being able to see and only hear. I think it is a wonderful idea to develop, already in class you caused a reaction which goes to show you can create something very impacting and powerful. Maybe look into the "process" of creating this artwork, what challenges, thoughts, research do you encounter. Sexuality can certainly be beautiful and powerful, maybe looking deeper into where your need to question it and work with it comes from could help you.

Laura: When listening the project it came to my mind not only the intimacy of sexuality and its hidden side, but also the topic of what kind of life is selected to live and what life is determined to be discarded, and in both cases , in which terms. These topic is part of a general biopolitic discussion not only as a private domain but also at public policies, that incide on biotechnological practices, health policies and education. There is a very interesting project of Helen Chardwick, called Nebula an Monstrance, that showed as Victorian jewels those human embrions that were discarded in the implantation process in maternal uterus. Also Adam Zaretsky uses to deal in a very performatic way with these topics. I think that the big challenge to target in this project is not only the visualization of the sperm cells, but also of the concepts that Jun points beyond the visualization.