Natural Science by Jennifer Willet

In July 2011, twenty artists, scientists, filmmakers, theorists and students engaged in an art/science research experiment where a diverse set of individuals came together to live and work at a bioart field research station in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  BioARTCAMP was a collaborative art/science project designed by Jennifer Willet and co-produced by INCUBATOR Lab and The Banff Centre. Participants worked to build a portable laboratory in the forest and conducted a variety of scientific, ecological, creative, and theoretical projects. BioARTCAMP served to provide alternative visions of of the biotech future: ecological, embodied and responsible visions of our relations and responsibilities to the other life forms we share our planet and our laboratories with.

In this exhibition, NATURAL SCIENCE, Willet will present an un-natural history collection; a collection of items, life forms, images, and stories resulting from the BioARTCAMP project. In the NATURAL SCIENCE collection traditional hierarchies between what is natural and unnatural are undermined. Lab specimens co-exist with local ecological specimens, cultural artifacts and human subjects. These objects, in tandem with photographic, video, and archival documentation of the camp attempt to recount the BioARTCAMP experience and serve to re-imagine the role of biotechnology in our shared natural history.