Insights: Svenja Kratz
Intrigued by her talk at Neolife Conference organized by SymbioticA in October 2015, we talked with Svenja Kratz about what it means to design with life.
Hi Svenja, can you introduce yourself and your background?
My name is Svenja Kratz and I am a new-media artist currently based in Brisbane, Australia. I was originally trained in interdisciplinary and collaborative practice at Griffith University majoring in Creative Writing and Contemporary Art. I have always been fascinated by the potentials of cross-disciplinary practice, particularly the nexus between art and science. From 2008–2013, I was fortunate to work as an artist with the Tissue Repair and Regeneration Group at QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) as part of my PhD research into ArtScience practice. This long-term engagement enabled me to train in cell and tissue culture and basic genetic engineering techniques, which has formed the foundation for my ongoing creative practice.
How do you envisage collaborations between scientists and artists?
I think there are many ways that collaborations between artists and scientists can function. It really depends on how you define ‘collaboration’ and structure the project and team roles. While the format of the collaboration can vary, the most important thing for me is that it is mutually beneficial. A collaboration should not only add to the richness of the work through the inclusion of multiple perspectives and disciplinary knowledge, but also enrich the understanding of each participant — it should be an exchange and dialogue that results in something that could not be accomplished alone. Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to work with some truly amazing scientists that have not only shared their technical knowledge, but have also challenged my assumptions about science and scientists and opened new ways of seeing and understanding the world. Based on feedback from project partners, the expansion of world views is something that has been shared. This makes me feel that the collaborations were successful, regardless of physical outcome.
How do you use the posture of speculative design in your work? How does it foster your approach?
Many of my early works were largely exploratory and commented on my experiences in the laboratory including the transformative potential of organisms, laboratory materials and processes, as well as inter-species connections.
More recently, I have become interested in the possibilities of speculative practices to interrogate the potentials of new and emerging technologies in a tangible way. I am an avid science-fiction fan, and draw a lot on popular cultural engagements with new technologies and storytelling strategies to create imaginative platforms for discussion. I am particularly interested in how speculative works can reveal current beliefs, values, fears, systems of power and techno-scientific trajectories, and prompt thought and discussion about which potential futures are preferred, and whose interests we wish to continue to support. In this way, I think speculative engagements are about positing interesting questions and starting to reveal the complexities and unexpected potentials of technologies, but also our own ideologies and how these necessarily become embodied in the processes and outcomes of production.
Which kind of engagement or interaction with the public are you looking for with your projects (reflecting, thinking, stepping into action)?
I am most interested in facilitating a transformative moment within an audience — to reveal something or encourage viewers to see the world slightly differently through an encounter with my work. In terms of engagement, I aim to prompt viewers to think and reflect on their experience and consider their response to the work and issues raised. To accomplish this I often use contradictory visual elements and create intricate and uncanny situations that capitalise on curiosity and wonder.
While I do not necessarily want to incite action in an activist sense, I would ultimately like to encourage viewers to become more engaged and aware of contemporary debates surrounding science and technology including human-animal relationships, gene technologies and bioethics.
As you are dealing a lot with living matter, do you see your work only evolving in galleries or are you experimenting with dissemination in the public space?
I am very interested in disseminating my work though public avenues. The HSE Project, completed in 2013, for example, involved the production of custom jewellery pieces incorporating dermal scaffolds of my own skin seeded with participant skin cells. The resulting jewellery items were never formally exhibited in a gallery space. They were co-designed with participants to reflect their experience and thoughts regarding tissue culture and became their property at the close of the project. The aim of the project was to enable discussion through everyday encounters when people commented on the jewellery. It was also about allowing the unique perspectives and insights of participants to form part of the ongoing dialogue surrounding biotechnologies.
1. Surgical removal of skin sections and creation of de-epidermised dermis DED as a dermal scaffold for HSE development.
2. Plucking of participant hair follicles and isolation/culturing of skin cells (keratinocytes).
3. Seeding participant skin cells on prepared DED, development of HSE, later staining to show metabolically active cells.
4. Fixation of HSE model and in personal jewellery item designed in collaboration with participants and artist.
How does your work participate to the debate about ethics in biotechnologies?
I hope that my work forms part of the larger dialogue and provides new entry points for viewers to gain insight into some of the ethical implications of new technologies. I also talk a lot about the ethical guidelines that govern the access and use of biotechnologies — the processes that are in place and what this reveals about our cultural values. For example, it still surprises me that insects are exempt and do not require any ethics clearance process for scientific use or experimentation. It is also fascinating to think that we are now able to create living organisms in the laboratory with fully synthetic genes. I anticipate that issues of patenting and containment are going to become more prevalent. The more people know about current practices, policy and research directions, enables them to participate more effectively in discussion surrounding biotechnologies. I would like to think that my work does not present a clearly defined position on any issue, but rather starts to reveal the complexity of ethics and how many of our ethical guidelines are socially and culturally determined.
Do you try to collect reactions from the audience confronted to your work, and if so what kind of reactions do you usually gather?
Overwhelmingly, I have had positive reactions from audience members that have attended my exhibitions. There have been instances in which press sensationalised the more abject or uncanny aspects of my work (such as the use of cells from potentially deceased donors) which resulted in some negative reactions from the public. However, in these instances, a detailed and considered reply that clearly and sensitively contextualised the work and the aims of the project helped alleviate fears and assumptions that the work operated on shock value alone and trivialised/exploited donor material. Indeed, in all instances, and particularly when integrating biomaterials, I endeavour to show respect and care for the donor entities. I would like to think that this consideration comes through, and that although viewers may feel uncomfortable or confronted by the questions that the work raises, they are not affronted by a sense of frivolousness or misuse of bio-materials and technologies.
You recently started to develop projects related to microbiome and genetic legacy, can you tell us more about it?
Genetic Legacies is a speculative project that aims to tap into the human interest in immortality and the preservation of individual genetic information and family lineage. It was originally inspired by my own consideration of how, as a single woman in my 30s, I might be able to use biotechnologies to create an alternative genetic legacy. One idea is to create a synthetic gene that incorporates unique genetic information from my body and microbiome and introduce this into a host organism using viral vector — so essentially repurposing gene therapy techniques to perpetuate my custom DNA fragment. Now, I need to be clear that this project is speculative only. I have no intension of actually infecting other organisms with my DNA fragment. What I am really interested in is using the project as a means of revealing interspecies connections and the way that our DNA is also subject to co-evolution and symbiosis and tied to our environment, as well as the environment, history and actions of our ancestors.
What are your next steps or projects?
At the moment I am having my gut bacteria analysed. I plan to use the resulting data in conjunction with SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) from a basic DNA analysis to devise an artificial gene sequence. This will form the basis for further creative development and critical engagement for the Genetic Legacies series. The first creative project in development is a fountain composed of a life cast of my upper torso that will emit a vapour containing my DNA. Inspired by Teresa Margolles’ En el Aire, which consisted of a room filled with bubbles made from morgue water, the work aims to tap into viewer’s fears of foreign DNA, despite the fact that we are in constant contact with DNA from other organisms.
I am also currently working on another project called BioSynthetic Systems. This work is being developed in partnership with the QUT Creative Industries Interactive Visual Design (IVD) Discipline and the IHBI Regenerative Medicine Group, led by Professor Dietmar Hutmacher — one of the world leaders in the field of biofabrication. The project is funded by a Creative Sparks grant from the Brisbane City Council and involves the development of a custom holographic bioreactor chamber for the display of living 3D printed sculptures based on speculative biotechnological creatures. The long-term aim of the project is to integrate electro-conductive polymers and combine the 3D sculptures with a feedback system and AI interface to enable viewers to ‘converse’ with the living objects and raise potential issues regarding the production of living products and engineered organisms.
Discover more of Svenja’s work on her portfolio.
