Active Materials: Posthuman Sculpture Practice with Casting, 3D Modelling and Bioart

In response to "wicked problems," for example, climate crisis, ongoing colonial violence, and increasing numbers of forcibly displaced refugees, many contemporary art practices, philosophers, and scientists have been compelled to complicate established ideas about the distinction between "nature" and "culture". In this course we will explore a critical posthuman understanding of artistic practice, appreciating and engaging with the activities and agency of materials, technologies and forces. Understanding the artist's role as one actor among others in the networked creation of a work, we will explore how to bring the relations between different actors to the fore. The course will involve critical thinking about and experimentation with decolonial, historical, and contemporary art projects. Students will develop projects that explore specific systems and relations, activating different media and materials. The course will incorporate technical instruction in manipulating living systems as art material (bioart), casting a range of materials alongside 3D modelling and printing as a way to examine the agency and potential of three different technologies and materials of replication.