TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

Tarsh Bates is an artist/researcher interested in the aesthetics of interspecies relationships and the human as a queer ecology. She has a PhD in Biological Art and is an Honorary Research Fellow at SymbioticA, UWA. She has worked variously as a pizza delivery driver, a fruit and vegetable stacker, a toilet paper packer, a researcher in compost science and waste management, a honeybee ejaculator, an art gallery invigilator, a raspberry picker, a lecturer/tutor in art/science, art history, gender & technology, posthumanism, counter realism, internet studies, and popular culture, an editor, a bookkeeper, a car detailer, and a life drawing model. She is particularly enamoured with Candida albicans.

Photo credits: Still from Biogenesis, Ep5, dir. Steven Alyian (2019), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Roberta Buiani is an interdisciplinary artist, media scholar and curator based in Toronto. She is the co-founder of the ArtSci Salon at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Toronto) and co-organizer of LASER Toronto. Her recent research creation project draws on feminist technoscience and on collaborative encounters across the sciences and the arts to investigate emerging life forms exceeding the categories defined by traditional methods of classification. Her artistic work has travelled to art festivals (Transmediale; Hemispheric Institute Encuentro; Brazil), community centres and galleries (the Free Gallery Toronto; Immigrant Movement International, Queens, Myseum of Toronto), and science institutions (RPI; the Fields Institute). Her writing has appeared on Space and Culture, Cultural Studies and The Canadian Journal of Communication among others. With the ArtSci Salon she has launched a series of experiments in "squatting academia”, by re-populating abandoned spaces and cabinets across university campuses with SciArt installations. Currently, she is a research associate at the Centre for Feminist Research at York University. ArtSci Salon website: https://artscisalon.com Personal http://atomarborea.net

Andrew Carnie is an artist. His artistic practice often involves a meaningful interaction with scientists regarding themes and ideas. A starting point is often recent scientific studies on the brain and neurology. His overarching concern is how we get a sense of ourselves, through science theory, ideas, and images. He works in a variety of media and scales, from watercolor to large sculptural and video installations. The work is most often time-based in nature, involving slide projection using dissolve systems or video projection onto complex screen configurations. In a darkened space layered images appear and disappear on suspended screens, the developing display absorbing the viewer into an expanded sense of space and time through the slowly unfolding narratives that evolve before and around them. This work has been exhibited widely from the Daejeon Museum in South Korea to Exit Art in New York and more recently in the exhibition Brain(s) at the CCCB, Barcelona and Espacio Fundacion Telefonica, Madrid.

Prof Joanne Cassar joined the department of Youth and Community Studies at the University of Malta in 2009 after teaching in other higher education institutions for 17 years. Her doctoral studies focused on adolescent girls' conceptualisations of different aspects of sexualities expressed covertly at school. In recent years she continued to develop her research interests in gender, sexual identities, the formation of masculinities and femininities, body image and sexuality education in formal and hidden curricula. Her academic publications revolve around the notion of young people's sexualities as social, discursive and materialist constructs, which reflect the myriad ways sexual behaviours are perceived and acted out. A number of her publications also examine the notion of belonging and voice in relation to refugees. Prof. Cassar has carried out various research projects about young people on a local level as well as in collaboration with other European and international research partners. She is also one of the authors of the Maltese National Youth Policy.

Maria Chalkou holds a Ph.D. in Film Theory and History (University of Glasgow), sponsored by the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.), and an MA in Film and Art Theory (University of Kent). Currently she is an assistant professor in History, Theory and Practice of Cinema at the Department of Audio & Visual Arts of the Ionian University. She is also the principal editor of Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies. Her research interests focus on film cultures of the 1960s, Greek Cinema, contemporary European cinema, film censorship, film criticism and cinematic representations of the past. She has also researched and co-directed the documentary Oneira Mikrou Mikous (1960-1967)/Dreaming in 'Shorts' (1960-1967) for the TV program Paraskinio (2007).

Andreas Giannakoulopoulos is Professor at the department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University, where he teaches courses related to Internet Communication, New Media and the Web Technologies. He holds a BA (Ptychio) in Economics from the University of Athens (UoA), a BA (Ptychio) in Communication and Media Studies from UoA, a Master of Arts in Communication and Media Studies from UoA, and a Master of Science in Logic from the University of Amsterdam. His doctoral dissertation, approved by the University of Athens, was in the field of web accessibility. The main fields of his academic activities are computer mediated communication, web technologies and e-learning systems as means of effective communication via the web. He has participated in international programmes with a particular interest and experience in dissemination and communication activities. During the last few years he is particularly interested in web applications with academic and artistic content.

María Antonia González Valerio holds PhD in Philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with postdoctoral studies in the area of aesthetics. Full-time professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature. She works within the research line of ontology-aesthetics and the interdisciplinary line of arts, sciences and humanities. Head of the research group Arte+Ciencia (Art+Science) which gathers artists, scholars and scientists in an interdisciplinary work that produces education at an under and postgraduate level, specialized theoretical research, artistic productions and exhibitions, www.artemasciencia.org Leader of the research project “Medium and Species: Ecology and Evolution within Philosophy of Nature” Author of the books: Cabe los límites. Escritos sobre filosofía natural desde la ontología estética (México: UNAM/Herder, 2016), Un tratado de ficción (México: Herder, 2010) and El arte develado (México: Herder, 2005). Coordinator of the artistic collective «BIOS Ex Machina: Workshop for the fabrication of the human and the non-human» which develops projects of transgenic and biotechnological art. She has also worked as curator of exhibitions on art and science.

Adnan Hadzi is currently working as resident academic in the Department of Digital Arts, at the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta. Hadzi has been a regular at Deckspace Media Lab, for the last decade, a period over which he has developed his research at Goldsmiths, University of London, based on his work with Deptford.TV. It is a collaborative video editing service hosted in Deckspace's racks, based on free and open source software, compiled into a unique suite of blog, cvs, film database and compositing tools. Through Deptford TV and Deckspace TV he maintains a strong profile as practice-led researcher. Directing the Deptford TV project requires an advanced knowledge of current developments in new media art practices and the moving image across different platforms. Hadzi runs regular workshops at Deckspace. Deptford.TV / Deckspace.TV is less TV more film production but has tracked the evolution of media toolkits and editing systems such as those included on the excellent PureDyne linux project.

Dr Nigel Helyer (aka DrSonique) is a contemporary interdisciplinary artist whose work links Art and Science, or more accurately Poiesis and Techne, creating a strong embrace of the environment, identity and cultural history. He has an international reputation as a sculptor and sound artist who creates large-scale environmental artworks and inter-active bio-art projects that invite us to engage with our sense of place and re-imagine our relationships with an ever more complex world. He is a prolific contributor to journals, conferences and broadcasts. He was the founding editor and publisher of PraxisM the contemporary art journal of Western Australia and has authored several books, including "Crayvox," "The Deluge Ark(ive)" and "Culturescape; an Ecology of Bundanon." His recent series of digital editions include; "Freeze Frame" a Cine-roman about the relationship of cinema to the afterlife; "Semi-Auto" which hybridises a novella and a libretto; "Déjà vu, Presque vu, Jamais vu" selected essays on art and the Graphic Novel Sonique. His new book "Science meets Art" was released in August 2022. Nigel is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Media, Music, Communication & Cultural Studies of Macquarie University and is a board member of the Association International de Critiques d'Art. Principal web archive - http://www.sonicobjects.com

Kathy High is an interdisciplinary artist / educator who collaborates with scientists and activists, and considers living systems, animal sentience, and ethical dilemmas of biotechnology and medical industries. She is Professor of Video and New Media in the Arts department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and is director of BioArt and Technology Laboratory, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. She is a supporter of community DIY science and ecological art practices and Project Coordinator for the NATURE Lab Urban Environmental Education Center with The Sanctuary for Independent Media where she is a board member and co-founder. She is committed to queer and feminist approaches to reshaping ecological bio-science research and learning-by-doing, and to collaborative action. Among many honors, she is recipient of awards from National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. Her artworks have been shown at documenta 13 (Germany), Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, (NYC), UCLA (Los Angeles), Science Gallery (Dublin), NGBK (Berlin), Festival Transitio_MX (Mexico), MASS MoCA (North Adams), Para-site Gallery (Hong Kong), Esther Klein Gallery, (Philadelphia), Medical Museum (Copenhagen). She has had residencies with SymbioticA, University of Western Australia, Finnish Society of Bioart, Coalesce, University of Buffalo, Djerassi Scientific Delirium Madness. www.kathyhigh.com

Dalila Honorato, Ph.D, is the starter of the conference "Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science". She is Associate Professor in Aesthetics and Visual Semiotics at the Ionian University, Greece. One of the founding members of the Interactive Arts Lab,where she coordinates the Art & Science Research Group, she is also a collaborator at the Center of Philosophy of Sciences - University of Lisbon, and a commissar of "FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and Technology" launching in 2018 organized by Cultivamos Cultura. Her research focus is on embodiment, monstrosity, the uncanny and the acrobatic balance between phobia and paraphilia.

Photo credits: Dolores Grande

Professor Claude Mangion, is Head of the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta, as well as convenor of the annual international conference called 'Engaging the Contemporary". His research interests are: Philosophy of Communication, Nietzsche, Continental Philosophy: Badiou, Meillassoux and Zizek, Speculative Realism Contemporary Philosophy: analytic and continental traditions, The Problem of Evil and Film as Philosophy.

Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist with a degree in Fine Arts by the University in Lisbon, a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture by the University of Oxford, and a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden. She has been exploring the intersection between Art and Biology, working in research laboratories demonstrating that new biological technologies can be used as new art medium. In 1999 de Menezes created her first biological artwork (Nature?) by modifying the wing patterns of live butterflies. Since then, she has used diverse biological techniques including functional MRI of the brain to create portraits where the mind can be visualised (Functional Portraits, 2002); fluorescent DNA probes to create micro-sculptures in human cell nuclei (nucleArt, 2002); sculptures made of proteins (Proteic Portrait, 2002-2007), DNA (Innercloud, 2003; The Family, 2004) or incorporating live neurons (Tree of Knowledge, 2005) or bacteria (Decon, 2007). Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, articles and lectures. She is currently the artistic director of Ectopia, an experimental art laboratory in Lisbon, and Director of Cultivamos Cultura in the South of Portugal.

Prof Murphy joined the UoM as Assistant Lecturer in 1994. During that time, while lecturing, supervising students and carrying out administrative duties, she was also researching for a PhD at the University of London. Following the award of PhD in 2002, she was promoted to Lecturer. In February 2008 she was promoted to Senior Lecturer, and in 2009 she moved from the Centre of Communication Technology to the deBono Institute for the Design and Development of Thinking. In February 2010 she was appointed Director at the Institute, responsible for the Masters in Creativity and Innovation and International MSc in Strategic Innovation and Future Creation..

In November 2013 University Council approved the Department of Gender Studies, she joined this Department as a founding member. This was a team-driven exercise developing a Masters in Gender Studies (Research); Masters in Gender Studies (Taught); and PhD’s in gender focused research. In October 2014 she was elected to the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA) Executive Committee and appointed President, and in October 2016 was elected and appointed General Secretary. In Feb 2017 she was also appointed Research Associate with Institute for Mediterranean Studies.

She was appointed Head of Department in February 2016 and the department launched a Masters of Gender Studies, and Masters of Gender, Society and Culture.

In November 2017 she was appointed Assoc. Professor – she continued to be Head of Department, Research Associate with Institute for Mediterranean Studies and General Secretary of the Staff Association.

Prof Murphy is engaged in projects such as the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) as National Coordinator; COST Actions and other EU funded projects for the European Institute for Gender Equality. Alongside extensive teaching experience and research projects, she supports her department administratively and has nurtured links between it and other Universities, and between University and industry, by coordinating projects in gender, culture and media research. Working with bodies such as the Commission on Domestic Violence (wirer she recently completed guidelines for media producers reporting DV), Department of Health, National Commission for Promotion of Equality, the Employment and Training Corporation, the President’s Foundation.

Ingeborg Reichle holds a PhD in Art History from the Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin with postdoctoral studies in the area of visual culture. She teaches and writes on contemporary art, new technologies, and new media with a focus on biotechnology and artificial life. Currently, she holds the position of a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam; until 2021 she held the position of a full professor of Media Theory and served as chair of the Department of Media Theory at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, she was also the Founding Chair of the Department of Crossdisciplinary Strategies (CDS), where she set up an integrated BA study programme on applied studies in art, science, philosophy, and global challenges. Before joining the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2016 she was FONTE professor at Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin. She is the author of the books Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art (Springer, New York 2009), and Kunst aus dem Labor: Zum Verhältnis von Kunst und Wissenschaft im Zeitalter der Technoscience (Springer, Vienna, New York 2005).

Peruvian trans artist feminist, chola techno-witch, language activist. M.A. Digital Arts, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Founding member of creative and digital heritage division, MyAP Electron Microscopy Laboratory. Her artistic work is made with technology in concept and realization exploring its relationship with gender, society, and nature. From a decolonizing vision, it develops in the borders of art and science, connecting ancient technologies with the new ones. Her main goal and poetic are to encourage reflection through revelation using technology. ISEA2020 Montreal and ISEA2023 Paris IPC Member. CITAR Journal Reviewer. Seven Art Residency Programs: Mexico, Bolivia, USA, and Brazil. She has exhibited her work, organized exhibitions, and given lectures in Peru, Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Spain, Cuba, Chile, Norway, Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, and the USA.

Claudia Westermann is an artist and architect, licensed with the German Chamber of Architects, and Senior Associate Professor in Architecture at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou, China. She holds postgraduate degrees in Architecture and Media Art from the University of Karlsruhe (KIT) and the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) in Germany respectively, obtaining a PhD from the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Integrative Arts (CAiiA), Planetary Collegium, UK, for her research on a poetics of architecture entitled 'An Experimental Research into Inhabitable Theories.' Her works have been widely exhibited and presented, including at the Venice Biennale (Architecture), the Moscow International Film Festival, ISEA Symposium for the Electronic Arts, the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, and most recently the Michigan State University MuSeUm. The public art work Seats for Seeing is permanently installed in Fujian province, China. Since 2020, Claudia Westermann is a member of the Editorial Organism of Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research (ESCI). She sits on the Executive Board of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) as Member-at-Large.

Clive Zammit, PhD Univ Essex, is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Cognitive Science of the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences. His research interests are Contemporary philosophy,Consciousness, Identity, Time, Memory, Knowledge and Ethics.

Dr Evripides Zantides is Professor in Graphic and Visual Communication in the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology. He studied at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece where he gained a PhD in Visual Communication, as well as at University of Kent, UK (MA in Graphic Fine Arts-distinction award with full scholarship), at University of Wolverhampton, UK (BA Graphic Communication) and at Higher Technical Institute, Cyprus (HND Electrical Engineering). He started his academic career in the Department of Design and Multimedia at Intercollege, Cyprus (1997–2007) which then gained University status (2007) and continued working as coordinator of the Graphic Communication Program (2004–2009) at University of Nicosia. He joined Cyprus University of Technology in 2009, where he acted as Chairperson of the Department (2014–2017), coordinator of the BA Graphic Arts Program (2009–2013, 2019–now) as well as the MA in Graphic Communication (2012–2013) and board member of the University Council (2020–now). His research interests are based on semiotics in the process of fine or applied audio/visualisation of verbal language, using image, text/typography and sound. He is the founder and director at the Semiotics and Visual Communication Lab of the Cyprus University of Technology.

Olga Majcen Linn is art-sci-tech independent curator and researcher, and guest lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. She is a PhD at the Faculty of Media and Communication, Belgrade at the field of transdisciplinary studies of contemporary art and media. She is a co-founder of KONTEJNER.

Simon’s background lies in International Relations but has been working in the cultural field for the past 10 years, mostly as a project developer and producer at Kersnikova Institute for Culture, Arts and Education. He develops and manages international projects in the field of “contemporary investigative art”, more specifically in area of intermedia hybrid arts, with the aim of setting-up local, national and international inter/transdisciplinary collaborations between art, technology, science, education, and social innovation on formal and informal levels. He has managed various European Culture, and Research and Innovation programmes of the European Commission. His personal interests lie in the field of artistic investigation of life systems, and the ethics connected to working with life systems in artistic context.

Image: ©Manette Ingenegeren ©Teferi Mekonen

Margerita Pulè is a curator, researcher and cultural manager, with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Malta and is founder-director of Unfinished Art Space, an independent and nomadic space showing contemporary art in Malta, through which she engages in an open, collaborative and symbiotic curatorial practice. She is also a founder-member of the Magna Żmien Foundation, which digitises 20th century analogue home archives, forming a community archive accessible to researchers and artists. She also provides training in career development for artists and curators, and is currently a trainer for CASE Malta.

She programmed much of the cultural programme in the run-up to Valletta 2018, and is currently co-director of Farfara 2031, working on the bid for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2031.

Dalila Honorato, Ph.D, is the starter of the conference "Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science". She is Associate Professor in Aesthetics and Visual Semiotics at the Ionian University, Greece. One of the founding members of the Interactive Arts Lab,where she coordinates the Art & Science Research Group, she is also a collaborator at the Center of Philosophy of Sciences - University of Lisbon, and a commissar of "FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and Technology" launching in 2018 organized by Cultivamos Cultura. Her research focus is on embodiment, monstrosity, the uncanny and the acrobatic balance between phobia and paraphilia.

Photo credits: Dolores Grande

Adnan Hadzi is currently working as resident academic in the Department of Digital Arts, at the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta. Hadzi has been a regular at Deckspace Media Lab, for the last decade, a period over which he has developed his research at Goldsmiths, University of London, based on his work with Deptford.TV. It is a collaborative video editing service hosted in Deckspace's racks, based on free and open source software, compiled into a unique suite of blog, cvs, film database and compositing tools. Through Deptford TV and Deckspace TV he maintains a strong profile as practice-led researcher. Directing the Deptford TV project requires an advanced knowledge of current developments in new media art practices and the moving image across different platforms. Hadzi runs regular workshops at Deckspace. Deptford.TV / Deckspace.TV is less TV more film production but has tracked the evolution of media toolkits and editing systems such as those included on the excellent PureDyne linux project.

Clive Zammit, PhD Univ Essex, is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Cognitive Science of the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences. His research interests are Contemporary philosophy,Consciousness, Identity, Time, Memory, Knowledge and Ethics.

Margerita Pulè is a curator, researcher and cultural manager, with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Malta and is founder-director of Unfinished Art Space, an independent and nomadic space showing contemporary art in Malta, through which she engages in an open, collaborative and symbiotic curatorial practice. She is also a founder-member of the Magna Żmien Foundation, which digitises 20th century analogue home archives, forming a community archive accessible to researchers and artists. She also provides training in career development for artists and curators, and is currently a trainer for CASE Malta.

She programmed much of the cultural programme in the run-up to Valletta 2018, and is currently co-director of Farfara 2031, working on the bid for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2031.