Anna Dumitriu: Talking to bacteria - our relationship to the everyday microbial world in which we co-exist, plus the importance of Unnecessary Research 

(c) Anna Dumitriu

Anna Dumitriu – Founder of The Institute of Unnecessary Research. Artist in Residence at The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at Sussex University.

In this talk Anna Dumitriu will explain her approach to transdisciplinary art practice, what working collaboratively means to her, why she 'talks' to bacteria and why unnecessary research is so important. As Einstein said "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Anna Dumitriu’s highly experimental work is involved with the nature of trans-disciplinary practice-based research. She has collaborated with scientists on at least 10 major projects over the past eleven years and often tends to go very deeply into her chosen area of research, taking on, or attempting to take on the role of scientist, in an almost performative sense, raising paradigmatic questions in her work. Her installations, interventions and performances use a range of digital, biological and traditional media including video projections, mobile phones and embroidery, working with diverse audiences often in non-traditional settings. Her key research interests are normal flora microbiology, artificial life (and its links to microbiology), philosophical notions of the sublime, medicine and healthcare.

Her work has been exhibited internationally including USA, Brazil, France, Russia and Lithuania and is held in international public collections including the Science Museum, London. She is currently Artist in Residence at The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at Sussex University, participating in the prestigious e-MobiLArt project (European Mobile Lab for Interactive Artists), a visiting lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and researching her practice-based Fine Art PhD part-time at The University of Brighton.
http://www.in-particlular.net/talk-series