Discovering Biomaterials in Art and Society

Discovering Biomaterials in Art and Society

Panel talk: 6-8PM, Wednesday, 11th June

Martina Hynan PhD (Interdisciplinary Artist & Researcher)
Eileen Hutton PhD (Artist, Head of Art and Ecology at Burren College of Art)
Dr Tanja Narancic (Assistant Professor at School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science at University College Dublin)

Discovering Biomaterials in Art and Society invites curious minds to explore the fascinating world of biomaterials, where science meets imagination. In this dynamic and informal setting, two artists and researchers and a scientist explore from their unique perspectives how materials transcend traditional boundaries, and how plastic, the most controversial material, can be looked at.

During this panel talk our guests will walk us through the bio-based materials that shape our daily lives and the latest advancements and sustainable practices, comparing these to artistic approaches to materials that – through evocative textures and forms – bring wonder, fascination and a novel view on ecology. Attendees will be immersed in a thoughtful narrative that redefines the interconnectedness of sustainability, artistic practice and society, challenges perceptions, and redefines the relationship and meeting points between science and art.

We invite the wider community and communities of interest to join us in this open conversation to share their insights and perspectives. Time is set before and after the talk to gather informally. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions and share their thoughts and experiences in a relaxed exchange, blurring the usual roles of panellist and audience.

Biographies

Martina Hynan is a feminist artist researcher whose work deals with themes of childbirth and maternity care. Her recent PhD project explores the entanglement of birth with place as part of a more-than-human world. Her current work is building on the experiments with biomaterials initiated during her PhD. She continues to explore birth as a co-creative entanglement of the human with the non-human as part of her eco-social art practice. It is her hope that developing a more-than-human relationship with birth and consequently birth politics will open ways to challenge the current hegemonic maternity system.
Her work encompasses biomaterials, video, photography and painting.
She has a longstanding commitment to collaborative and participatory methods as part of her socially engaged practice. She was a member of the Elephant Collective (2015-2019), community activists who successfully campaigned for new legislation to secure mandatory inquests for all maternal deaths in Ireland. Central to this campaign was the multimedia art exhibition, Picking Up the Threads: Remaking the Fabric of Care’. Hynan curated and contributed work to this exhibition.

Eileen Hutton is a visual artist whose practice aims to generate reciprocal relationships with the more than human world and in the process create replicable models for informed ecological actions. After completing her PhD in Studio Art in 2012, Hutton developed the Art and Ecology MFA at Burren College of Art and University of Galway. She worked as the Researcher/ Evaluator for An Urgent Enquiry (2017- 2021) a series of think tank sessions and residencies that address the intersection between art, biodiversity and climate change. Select essays are included in the publications Ecoart in Action, a collection of essays and provocations on pedagogy and Ecoarts practice, becoming Feral, and the upcoming Sharing Agricultural and Gardening Cultures in Ireland: Writers and Artists. Recent exhibitions include Earth Rising, Eco Arts Festival at the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Performance Ecologies at Interface, Below Ground: Soil Life in A Changing Climate at Johnstown Castle, and Home: Being and Belonging in Contemporary Ireland, with The Glucksman. She is part of the collective, Roots for the Future, who have been awarded the Invitation to Collaboration Irish Arts Council funding to research the potential for a Climate Art Citizen Assembly and works with the Youth Ecology and Art Collective in association with Butler Gallery.

Dr Tanja Narancic teaches Microbiology and Biochemistry at University College Dublin, and leads a group of brilliant young researchers working on redesigning bacteria and yeast to be better at producing what is valuable for us as a society, and develop biotech concepts that could be applied to solving grand challenges, such as climate and waste. One of the products they work with are biobased and biodegradable polymers, frequently called bioplastics. The group is passionate to learn how and why microorganisms make bioplastic, so their capacity could be harnessed and improved, and to make these polymers more affordable and applicable.Tanja holds a PhD in Applied Microbiology from University of Belgrade, Serbia. She worked at the Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering before moving to Ireland for a two-year postdoc in 2013. She was lucky to be in the multidisciplinary team that aimed to convert municipal solid waste into syngas, which was then used as a feedstock for bacteria to produce bioplastics. Following this, she worked on the conversion of waste plastic to bioplastics, again by using bacteria. She loves to teach and to learn.