Thesis Title:
Carrying the Residue: From Ancestral Gesture to the Biodigital - Bio-Material Translocation and Situated Biochemistry
Candidate:
Elizabeth Henrietta Scholtz
Supervisor:
Daphne Dragona
Date & Time:
Thursday, 17 September 2026 - 17:00 Greece / 16:00 South Africa
Join via Zoom:
https://ionio-gr.zoom.us/j/94101130584
Examination Committee
- Daphne Dragona - Assistant Professor, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
- Dalila Honorato - Professor, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
- Bill Psarras - Assistant Professor, Department of Performing and Digital Arts, University of the Peloponnese
About the Thesis
Carrying the Residue introduces Bio-Material Translocation (BMT) as a framework for tracing what happens to biological materials, in and as artistic materials, as they cross between making, encoding and public encounter. Emerging from The Illuviation Project (2025), a solo exhibition at Origins Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, the research follows a lithic-to-biodigital arc, reading contemporary bio-based and computational making in continuity with archaeological accounts of early tool-making and ochre use in southern Africa. Inks and pigments were extracted from locally foraged plant material and ochre, then used in a series of works on synthetic substrate. In Medicine as Medium, medicinal DNA isolations carried those same inks forward, worked as drawing medium and supplying the organisms whose protein sequence data fed Biojack.score, where Benchling visualisations were answered vocally and the sequence values mapped as code parameters for an audio-responsive audio-visual work. Through the synthesis of the exhibition and drawing on existing theory, the thesis develops its own lexicon, situated within BMT: situated biochemistry, a localised, context-aware mode of biochemistry performed through found and adapted process; noisy thresholds, the metastable zones where layers meet before they settle; and soft delineations, the permeable dwellings that form there. The research set out to trace residue and found thresholds. The answer was not in any one layer but at the points of contact between them.
About the Candidate
Henrietta is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in South Africa, and a former assistant curator with the national broadcaster's art collection. She holds a degree in English and Theory of Literature and a postgraduate degree in Communications Management, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her practice focuses on bio-based materials and their translocation into technological spaces, both as artistic medium and philosophical inquiry. She is currently Artist-in-Residence Fellow at the University of Johannesburg, and her second solo exhibition, Planetary Cognitive Ecologies: Gondwana, opens at Origins Centre in October 2026.
Attendance
The defense is open to the public. Students, researchers, artists, and all interested individuals are welcome to attend.
