L I F E B O A T
ORON CATTS | NIGEL HELYER | SARAH PELL | IONAT ZURR

Expositions | Residencies | Laboratories
MI2 Touch Me | In Out Open | Intelligent Abuse Festival | Zargreb | 2005
Heireka Science Museum | Lifeboat TC&A Workshop | Helsinki | 2004
ISEA04 | Silja Liner 'Opera' | Finland - Swedan - Mariehiemm - Estonia | 2004
SS Innvik Theatre | Creative Development Performance | Oslo Harbour | 2004
Riks Utstillinger | Creative Development Residency | Olso, Norway | 2004



THE IDEA
LifeBoat established a fully functional biological laboratory and psychological profiling station enclosed within a fully enclosed ship lifeboat. The crew used the vessel to produce and process ‘living’ cultures as part of a creative development residency with Riks Utstillinger, the Norwegian Government Touring Exhibition Organisation, Oslo Norway 2004.




Lifeboat proposed multimedia performance as a complex living system. The performative stratosphere included a fully operational biological laboratory and psychological profiling station (contained within an off-shore platform lifeboat), visa and passport processing terminus, web presence and audiovisual broadcast across the Oslo Fjord, and then on Silja Liner “Opera” for ISEA2004 and the ‘Touch Me’ Intelligent Abuse festival, Zagreb Croatia 2005.

The Lifeboat Crew employed protocols both for, and as of a point of departure to “culture” living, semi-living, non-living and the partially living on board the vessel. They devised multi-layered systems as ubiquitous ‘processing operations’, which guided visitors through the real and transformative terms of participation and consequence. The production re-contextualized existing bodies of knowledge of living systems to perform tactical manoeuvres between modes of data, operation and discourse. The complex network of artistic, biological, technological, bureaucratic and political productions discussed the interrelatedness of life on an unprecedented level. The audience examination traces the accumulative Meta culture of socio-biomaterial sustained by Lifeboat to critique the un-locatable and complex nature of ideas and presences of performance across all living systems.

The performance utilized biological, ecological, societal and technological strategies to cultivate a lifeboat state. Crew issued health warnings about DVT: Deep Vein Thinking and the effects of Cell Disassociation as audiences lined up to be ‘processed’. Without question, visitors ‘gave’ their name, address, signature, data-of-birth, occupation, passport photo, and fingerprint, completed a 73 part psychological profiling questionnaire and donated DNA samples in full view of a quad-video surveillance system. The unique ‘profile’ they generated affected a life form assigned to them. Crew assured audiences that they ‘were with them every step of the way’ and their ‘privacy is important to us’. Post performance, visitors were left to ponder their level of engagement – was it symbolic? Was it metaphoric, virtual or worse, an actual system? Lifeboat proposed a new type of live(d) art terrain for all of us.

DISCUSSIONS OF THE PROCESS
“When a person is part of a system, he cannot easily see what his role accomplishes…. Unless he understands the system thoroughly, he will not have any inkling of the networks of controls that may or may not exist to keep the flow(s) continuous, adapted to inputs, adapted to outside demands, and stabilized in the face of fluctuations. Odum, 1971 [Suzuki 1997: 141]




CREW WEB LINKS

Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr (Tissue Culture and Arts Project)

Nigel Helyer Sonic Objects: Sonic Architectures

SymbioticA Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts

LifeBoat Mobile bioart lab This research project was generously supported by the New Media Arts Board of the Australia Council, Riks Utstillinger, The Norwegian Government Touring Exhibitions Organisation. M-Cult and Silja Liner in 2004. Also the research partnerships between SymbioticA: the art & science Laboratory, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, University of Western Australia; Sonic Objects: Sonic Architecture and ARTi Aquabatics Research Team made this possible. I would like to acknowledge the support of an ArtsWA Artsflight Grant to travel to Norway to be artist-in-residence at Riks Utstillinger, Norway and attend ISEA04 International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Scandinavia.
WEBLINKS:

http://www.life-boat.org
www.isea2004.net
www.riksutstillinger.no
www.m-cult.fi
www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au
www.sonicobjects.com

PRESS | MEDIA | TELEVISION

Big Brother (2005) Croatian TV Appearance

Majda Juric, p., (2005) Vampires, butterflies, sheep, golden girls, semi-living entities and other miraculous encounters, Touch Me festival OutInOpen 08 – 17.09.2005 stara tvornica Badel/ old factory Badel, Zagreb K-021 Catalogue: M12 & Kontenjner, Croatia, pg 19

Touch Me – artists, Melville, St. Jacques & Jona Touch Me festival OutInOpen 08 – 17.09.2005 (2005) stara tvornica Badel/ old factory Badel, Zagreb K-021 Catalogue: M12 & Kontenjner, Croatia, pg 70 - 73

Fitzgerald, M., (2004) Giving (Real) Life to Art, TIME Magazine, August 23, pp. 66-67

Gjerstad, I., (2004) Biologisk kunst pa Oslofjorden, Aftenpoften Idag, (Norway) July 26, pp. 1, 6-7

King, T., (2004) Under. Currents, Artist Studio Program, ArtSource Newsletter Winter 2004, Vol. 13, Ed. 2, p.12

Helyer, N., (2004) Sonic Objects, Artist Profile, AFWA Newsletter, Autumn 2004, Vol. 13, Ed. 1, p.3

Norro, N., (2004) Lifeboat, Cultivating Living Cells & Critical Biological Art, M-Cult (Finland) ISEA 2004 Mag p.7

McDonald Crowley, A., (2005) New Media Art investment in Australia, ARSIS 3-04 New Media Art and Multi-Media, University Helsinki Press, pp. 26-28

Pierce, J., (2005) Beyond the Borders of Turing-Land, Experimenta- MESH 17: New Media Art in Australia and Asia, Jan 9 http://www.experimenta.org/mesh/mesh17/pierce_print.htm

Roudavski, S., (2005) ISEA2004 Layers of Performance, NY Arts Magazine, (US) January/ February 2005 http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/articles.php?aid=886

Roudavski, S., (2005) International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2004 Layers of Performance, Art Fairs International http://www.artfairsinternational.com/articles/isea_article.html

Click picture for close up view

032-1 | LIFEBOAT | ST.JACQUES | 2004 ISEA04 | Silja Liner 'Opera' | The Baltic St. Jacques (a.k.a. Oron Catts) Lifeboat Crew Member | ISEA04 | Photo M-Cult, Finland.

032-2 | LIFEBOAT | MELVILLE | 2004 ISEA04 | Silja Liner 'Opera' | The Baltic Melville (a.k.a. Dr. Nigel Helyer) Lifeboat Crew Member | ISEA04 | Photo M-Cult, Finland.

032-3 | LIFEBOAT | GEDDY LEE | 2004 SS Innvik | Riks Utstillinger | Oslo Harbour | Norway Geddy Lee (a.k.a. Dr. Stuart Hodgetts) Lifeboat Crew Member | Riks Utstillinger | Photo Stale Stenslie, Norway.

032-4 | LIFEBOAT | PEARL | 2004 SS Innvik | Riks Utstillinger | Oslo Harbour | Norway Pearl (a.k.a. Dr. Sarah Jane Pell) Lifeboat Crew Member | Riks Utstillinger | Photo Stale Stenslie, Norway.

032-5 | LIFEBOAT | JONA | 2004 Port Markets | Helsinki | Finland Jona (a.k.a. Ionat Zurr) Lifeboat Crew Member | Selecting Specimens from local Fish Mongers | Photo Sarah Jane Pell.