tag:peatix.com,2011:1 2024-01-21T12:39:41+08:00 Peatix Immortal Words tag:peatix.com,2024:event-3806733 2024-01-20T11:00:00SGT 2024-01-20T11:00:00SGT

Immortality: Words, Art and DNA (online)Public program: panel discussionAssoc. Prof. Eric Yap, LKC School of Medicine, NTUTaihei Shii, Startbahn Founder and CEOBoedi Widjaja, ArtistModerated by Loredana Pazzini-ParaccianiDate and VenueSat, 20 Jan 2024, 11am to 1230pm (GMT+8)Black Box, 42 Waterloo Street, SingaporeTaihei Shii will join the event from TokyoFree admission, with registration via PeatixThe oldest DNA ever found is 2 million years old. Ultraconserved words have descended largely unchanged in sound and meaning since the end of the last Ice Age. Has the lineage of art found immutable permanence through blockchain? Presented in conjunction with Immortal Words by Boedi Widjaja, the multidisciplinary panel discussion will cast to the deep past and look to the far future, engaging intimately with material that is immortal, almost. Immortal Words is a bioart project by Boedi Widjaja and the title of his solo exhibition. In consultation with geneticist Eric Yap, Boedi writes ultraconserved words* in the DNA language, materialising them into DNA molecular structures. Continuing Boedi’s decade-long research into body, memory, language and encoding, the project explores through the ancient words our deep ancestral past and the memories that we hold within. Immortal Words is supported by the National Arts Council as part of Singapore Art Week; and with additional support by ShanghART, IDMxS, and Startbahn. Produced by Audrey Koh, and curatorial essay by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani.Assoc. Prof. Eric Yap, a medical geneticist and a former Rhodes Scholar, is Associate Professor at LKC School of Medicine in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. As one of the few researchers with dual backgrounds in medicine and biology, his professional interest is in molecular microbiology and genomics. Over the course of his career, he has helped tackle Covid-19 and other epidemics, developed PCR for detecting biothreats, studied ancient DNA in archaeological specimens, analysed forensics in Asian populations, and researched the genes for common conditions like myopia. He has interdisciplinary collaborations with doctors, computer scientists, engineers, pastors and artists. He is now at the Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS), where he is developing next generation methods and applications for analysing DNA.Taihei Shii is a contemporary artist and the founder and CEO of blockchain technology company Startbahn, and the CEO of media company Tokyo Art Beat. He holds a BA in oil painting from the Tama Art University and a MS in interdisciplinary information studies from the University of Tokyo. He has served as Adjunct Professor in Tokyo University of the Arts, Research Fellow at Interspace Research Center, Institute of Industrial Science, and since 2022 is director of Eastern Culture Foundation.Boedi Widjaja is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice contemplates on house, home and homeland through long-running, interdisciplinary series developed in parallel. Informed by the intercultural liminality of his migrant experience, his works span across diverse media. He has exhibited in biennales and museums internationally, including the Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rai; Tropical, 9th Asia Pacific Triennial, 6th Singapore Biennale, Diaspora Pavilion Live Art program in the 57th Venice Biennale, FACT Liverpool and Katonah Museum of Art. Boedi is represented by ShanghART. Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani is an independent scholar and curator of Southeast Asian contemporary art. Her research and curatorial practice revolve around critical sociopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, advocating a counter-hegemonic and non-Western-centric discourse. Together with Patrick D. Flores, she co-edited the anthology Interlaced Journeys: Diaspora and the Contemporary in Southeast Asian Art, published in 2020 by Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong. Loredana served as one of the curators for the Bangkok Art Biennale 2022.