Laura Splan (b. Memphis, TN) works at the intersections of science, technology, and culture. She creates embodied interactions, tactile experiences and sensory encounters that connect materialities of biotechnology to familiar domains of the everyday. Her conceptually based art practice combines a wide range of media including experimental materials, digital media, and craft processes. Her biomedical themed artworks have been commissioned by The Centers for Disease Control Foundation and Davidson College. Her projects combining digital fabrication and textiles have been exhibited at the Museum of Arts & Design and Beall Center for Art + Technology and are represented in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the NYU Langone Art Collection. Her widely acclaimed lace viruses including SARS and HIV (2004) have been exhibited and published around the world. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Discover Magazine, Hyperallergic, American Craft, and Frieze. Splan has received research funding from The Jerome Foundation and her residencies have been supported by The Knight Foundation, The Institute for Electronic Arts, Harvestworks, and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She is currently a Creative Science member at NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator. Splan lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
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Project support provided by:
uCity Science Center Bioart Residency, Integral Molecular, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Knight Foundation, Lampire Biological Laboratories, BioBAT Art Space, Esther Klein Gallery, Harvestworks, Institute for Electronic Arts, Coalesce Center for Biological Arts
Additional project, research, creative, and production support provided by:
Michael Dickins, Reuben Lorch-Miller, Frank Musarra, Angela McQuillan, Ben Doranz, Edgar Davidson, Frank Masciocchi, Joe Rucker, Thomas Charpentier, Elena Soterakis, Jeannine Bardo, Alana Conner, Billy Renkl, Tobi Schmidt, Yukako Satone, Laura Forlano
uCity Science Center Bioart Residency, Integral Molecular, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, Knight Foundation, Lampire Biological Laboratories, BioBAT Art Space, Esther Klein Gallery, Harvestworks, Institute for Electronic Arts, Coalesce Center for Biological Arts
Additional project, research, creative, and production support provided by:
Michael Dickins, Reuben Lorch-Miller, Frank Musarra, Angela McQuillan, Ben Doranz, Edgar Davidson, Frank Masciocchi, Joe Rucker, Thomas Charpentier, Elena Soterakis, Jeannine Bardo, Alana Conner, Billy Renkl, Tobi Schmidt, Yukako Satone, Laura Forlano
GALLERY GUIDE
Unraveling: Forest, Skyblue, Marine, Teal, Chromium, Palladium, Mercury
(SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein with Nanobody Complex)
2021, 3-channel animation, TRT: 4 minute loop
Unraveling is part of a series of animations created using molecular visualization software and SARS-CoV-2 models. Laura Splan playfully manipulates the folded protein forms, known as "conformations," which determine biological function, including infectivity. Using the specialized features of the software in unconventional ways, Splan animates the coronavirus spike protein by unraveling it and morphing the folded and unfolded forms. The colors are chosen from the software's palette for their references to nature, such as plants and animals as well as chemical elements. The video titles echo the colors' names that are entangled with idyllic representations of the natural world such as blue skies and green forests and are contrasted with the names of heavy metals found in personal computers such as mercury. The series presents a mesmerizing meditation on increasing entanglements between natural and constructed worlds. "Unraveling" was developed in remote collaboration with scientists Ben Doranz and Edgar Davidson of biotech company Integral Molecular while "sheltering in place" for COVID-19.
Termination Sequence (Into the Void)
2020, Zoom recording of live improvised electric guitar performance by Frank Masciocchi, TRT: 11 minute loop
Termination Sequence (Into the Void) is part of a series of recordings made by prompting biotech workers and scientists to play “A” notes and chords on guitar 33 times, the number of adenine nucleotides at the end of the SAR-CoV-2 mRNA sequence. Into the Void is a Zoom recording of a live improvised sound performance by Frank Masciocchi. Masciocchi is a musician as well as the lab instrumentation engineer at Philadelphia biotech company Integral Molecular where he is responsible for installation, calibration, and maintenance of lab equipment.
Remote Entanglements
2019, wind data networked microcontroller, fan, infrared sensor, vinyl wall text
Faint text on a wall invites viewers to come close to read, "our distance allows our intimacy." The phrase refers to the complexities of existence in the biotechnological age, where an understanding of our own bodies and the bodies of others is increasingly mediated by technology. The sculpture blows a breeze in the viewer's face as they read the text. The speed of the networked fan intermittently adjusts to the wind conditions at the biological laboratory in rural Pennsylvania. The lab provided the artist with wool and feces from the shearing of their llamas for Contested Territories and Lumen.
Contested Territories
2019, llama feces in solution, Twitter activated vortex mixers, networked microcontrollers, relays
These laboratory machines activate when Twitter hashtags associated with the culturally contested status of Science are tweeted. As the networked devices intermittently check for the latest tweets, the mixers' movements materialize the sociopolitical complexities of language. Here, the mere mention of #sciencebased agitates tubes filled with laboratory animal feces. When taking office, the Trump administration controversially advised how to improve the chances of receiving research funding with the suggestion to avoid words and phrases like "diversity" and "evidence-based."
Lumen
2019, llama and alpaca wool, wood platform, vinyl text
Lumen choreographs viewers’ movements to sit on a hooked rug made with the hand-spin wool of laboratory llamas and alpacas who are used for antibody production for human drugs, including vaccines. In biology, the lumen is the interior part of a cellular structure where a protein is folded and modified. Instructions accompanying the rug invite the viewer to perform this folding action while listening to the accompanying soundscape, Chaperone.
Chaperone
2019, TRT 5:55, stereo sound installed with Lumen (played on parabolic speaker and rumble plate designed by sound artist and The New Gallery curator Michael Dickins)
Chaperone layers sound recordings made in a biotech lab. Robotic movements of machines, gurgling dish drains, and human interactions come together to create a sonic tour that immerses the listener in the soundscape of the laboratory.
Unraveling: Forest, Skyblue, Marine, Teal, Chromium, Palladium, Mercury
(SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein with Nanobody Complex)
2021, 3-channel animation, TRT: 4 minute loop
Unraveling is part of a series of animations created using molecular visualization software and SARS-CoV-2 models. Laura Splan playfully manipulates the folded protein forms, known as "conformations," which determine biological function, including infectivity. Using the specialized features of the software in unconventional ways, Splan animates the coronavirus spike protein by unraveling it and morphing the folded and unfolded forms. The colors are chosen from the software's palette for their references to nature, such as plants and animals as well as chemical elements. The video titles echo the colors' names that are entangled with idyllic representations of the natural world such as blue skies and green forests and are contrasted with the names of heavy metals found in personal computers such as mercury. The series presents a mesmerizing meditation on increasing entanglements between natural and constructed worlds. "Unraveling" was developed in remote collaboration with scientists Ben Doranz and Edgar Davidson of biotech company Integral Molecular while "sheltering in place" for COVID-19.
Termination Sequence (Into the Void)
2020, Zoom recording of live improvised electric guitar performance by Frank Masciocchi, TRT: 11 minute loop
Termination Sequence (Into the Void) is part of a series of recordings made by prompting biotech workers and scientists to play “A” notes and chords on guitar 33 times, the number of adenine nucleotides at the end of the SAR-CoV-2 mRNA sequence. Into the Void is a Zoom recording of a live improvised sound performance by Frank Masciocchi. Masciocchi is a musician as well as the lab instrumentation engineer at Philadelphia biotech company Integral Molecular where he is responsible for installation, calibration, and maintenance of lab equipment.
Remote Entanglements
2019, wind data networked microcontroller, fan, infrared sensor, vinyl wall text
Faint text on a wall invites viewers to come close to read, "our distance allows our intimacy." The phrase refers to the complexities of existence in the biotechnological age, where an understanding of our own bodies and the bodies of others is increasingly mediated by technology. The sculpture blows a breeze in the viewer's face as they read the text. The speed of the networked fan intermittently adjusts to the wind conditions at the biological laboratory in rural Pennsylvania. The lab provided the artist with wool and feces from the shearing of their llamas for Contested Territories and Lumen.
Contested Territories
2019, llama feces in solution, Twitter activated vortex mixers, networked microcontrollers, relays
These laboratory machines activate when Twitter hashtags associated with the culturally contested status of Science are tweeted. As the networked devices intermittently check for the latest tweets, the mixers' movements materialize the sociopolitical complexities of language. Here, the mere mention of #sciencebased agitates tubes filled with laboratory animal feces. When taking office, the Trump administration controversially advised how to improve the chances of receiving research funding with the suggestion to avoid words and phrases like "diversity" and "evidence-based."
Lumen
2019, llama and alpaca wool, wood platform, vinyl text
Lumen choreographs viewers’ movements to sit on a hooked rug made with the hand-spin wool of laboratory llamas and alpacas who are used for antibody production for human drugs, including vaccines. In biology, the lumen is the interior part of a cellular structure where a protein is folded and modified. Instructions accompanying the rug invite the viewer to perform this folding action while listening to the accompanying soundscape, Chaperone.
Chaperone
2019, TRT 5:55, stereo sound installed with Lumen (played on parabolic speaker and rumble plate designed by sound artist and The New Gallery curator Michael Dickins)
Chaperone layers sound recordings made in a biotech lab. Robotic movements of machines, gurgling dish drains, and human interactions come together to create a sonic tour that immerses the listener in the soundscape of the laboratory.