Body stories
Body stories
Contributor(s): Monika Michałowska (Editor), Anna Alichniewicz (Editor)
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
ISSN: 1730-7775
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego
- Page Count: 172
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: English, Polish
Bioethical strategies in the context of bioart.
Bioethical strategies in the context of bioart.
(Bioethical strategies in the context of bioart.)
- Author(s):Kamil Gibas
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:10-27
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:bioart; contemporary art; biotechnology; bioethics; art and science movement
- Summary/Abstract:The paper discusses topics such as bioart, in the perspective of a cultural phenomenon, present in contemporary Polish and world art. The space of contemporary art, which as a material of expression uses specialist knowledge in the field of bioengineering and tissue culture along with living material, has been a challenge for artists and analysts of art, culture, science and ethics for years. The activity of Eduardo Kac is recalled as well as the Polish bioartist, Karolina Żyniewicz. In her projects, the artist collaborates with scientists, building an interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences. These deliberations are supplemented with literature on bioethics: positions, opinions and other regulatory documents (The Committee for Bioethics PAS, the Council of Europe, CIOMS, UNESCO) in the context of non-medical and artistic activities. The paper is an attempt to find answers to questions about the way in which new bioethical regulations should be updated and formulated. What bioethical strategies should be taken in this historical moment of our time, where an artwork is both artistic and also strictly scientific?
Becoming liminal – existence in anti-structure.
Becoming liminal – existence in anti-structure.
(Becoming liminal – existence in anti-structure.)
- Author(s):Karolina Żyniewicz
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:28-45
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:liminality; liminal lives; bio art; biology; nature; culture
- Summary/Abstract:This paper is based both on my empirical experience, related to the implementation of artistic projects in biological laboratories, and on theoretical consideration. It focuses on the cultural and biological meaning of liminality. First, I introduce the idea of liminality derived from anthropology, and more precisely from the theory of the trigeminal structure of ritual as formulated by Arnold van Gennep and developed by Victor Turner. Then, to those anthropological theories pertaining to culture I add the voice of Susan Merill Squier, who draws attention to the fact that technological changes around our corporeality should affect the expansion of liminality and its biological significance. Finally, I refer to her concept of the existence of liminal beings − non-human agents living in the area of the in-between, between any current form of embodiment and a future one. In Squier’s opinion in being humans we become liminal while coexistence with liminal beings can help us to pass this important bio cultural ritual. I would like to post the question: what does this coexistence look like? Can bio art create an opportunity for this coexistence?
Biometric trails of nonhuman environments. Medical imaging of plants’ bodies in bio-artistic projects.
Biometric trails of nonhuman environments. Medical imaging of plants’ bodies in bio-artistic projects.
(Biometric trails of nonhuman environments. Medical imaging of plants’ bodies in bio-artistic projects.)
- Author(s):Ewelina Twardoch-Raś
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:46-64
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:body; affect; posthumanism; medical imaging; biometrics; plants; non-human actors
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of the article is to introduce the problem of plants’ representations in the contemporary artistic projects based on medical imaging. The author analyses the problem in the perspective of posthumanistic philosophy, especially in reference to the theories of animal studies (Wolfe, Bakoff, Waldau). She also introduces the concept of Michael Marder, who builds his argument around the question of whether people are the only ones who have political, social and ethical rights. The second part of the article concerns strategies and method of plants’ bodies parametrization used in the selected artistic project. The author presents a few of them to show how artists investigate the problem of identity, autonomy and agency of non-human beings, with special regard to plants. The projects are analyzed in reference to various theories of connections between human and non-human beings, as well as to biopolitics’ strategies.
The interactive context of discovering the category of corporeality in a phenomenological approach.
The interactive context of discovering the category of corporeality in a phenomenological approach.
(The interactive context of discovering the category of corporeality in a phenomenological approach.)
- Author(s):Alicja Długołęcka
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:65-80
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:body; corporeality; carnal self; embodied presence; care; gratitude; mindfulness; ethics of touch; therapeutic relation in physiotherapy
- Summary/Abstract:The article presents different ways of dealing with the subject of the body and corporeality in the humanities, which can form the epistemiological and axiological basis in a reflection on the psycho - and physiotherapeutic relationship with patients, and confronts them with the results of two qualitative studies based on the grounded theory concerning exploration by women of their own body and experiencing their own corporeality, intimacy and touch in medical relations. The author shows that phenomenological philosophy, taking into account the concepts of “carnal self” and “presence of the embodied” that human knowledge always has a carnal character, is the most adequate for use in analyses regarding therapeutic interactions related to the body. Analysis of qualitative research on the process of realising your own corporeality in the cognitive-emotional dimension in the relationship with oneself and in the therapeutic relationship fully confirms the legitimacy of applying the grounded theory method in the study of phenomena regarding carnality and such values as gratitude, mindfulness, care, efficiency and autonomy emerge.
“We understand each other, my friend”. The freak show and Victorian medicine in "The Elephant Man".
“We understand each other, my friend”. The freak show and Victorian medicine in "The Elephant Man".
(“We understand each other, my friend”. The freak show and Victorian medicine in "The Elephant Man".)
- Author(s):Małgorzata Bugaj
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts
- Page Range:81-94
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:The Elephant Man; David Lynch; clinical gaze; cinema; medicine; freak show; deformed body; horror; pornography; body genres
- Summary/Abstract:A large part of David Lynch’s oeuvre centres around corporeal anxieties and grotesque, divergent bodies drawing attention to their own biological nature. One such example is the 1980 feature The Elephant Man, focusing on John Merrick, a freak show performer severely afflicted with a disfiguring disease. The film juxtaposes key characters in the film and moves between their different perspectives: that of Merrick, a freak show performer; Doctor Treves, a man of science; Bytes, an entertainer; and finally, a number of peripheral observers from both the high and low classes of Victorian society. The titular Elephant Man’s disfigured body becomes the object of spectacle both in a freak show and in a medical lecture theatre. This paper compares scenes presenting Merrick’s body as an exhibit and argues that Lynch draws parallels between the domain of sensational entertainment (Merrick as a carnival monster) and scientific analysis (Merrick as a medical specimen). In this way, the film highlights the similarities between the perception of the body in those two seemingly incongruous discourses. I suggest that the exhibition of a monstrous body in The Elephant Man, both in the context of a sideshow and Victorian medical lecture, are consciously theatrical.
Revelations of science: discussing images of prenatal development by Ernst Haeckel and Lennart Nilsson.
Revelations of science: discussing images of prenatal development by Ernst Haeckel and Lennart Nilsson.
(Revelations of science: discussing images of prenatal development by Ernst Haeckel and Lennart Nilsson.)
- Author(s):Matylda Szewczyk
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:95-115
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Ernst Haeckel; Lennart Nilsson; fetal images; embryo images; pregnancy
- Summary/Abstract:The paper discusses images of prenatal development created by Ernst Haeckel and Lennart Nilsson. Despite the obvious differences between a 19th-century biologist and philosopher of nature and a 20th-century photographer, substantial similarities exist in the way their respective narrations situate embryos and fetuses within the cultural realm. The paper traces the processes of creating the representations of stages of embryogenesis and the controversies surrounding them, analyzes the discursive frame within which the images are produced and function, and discusses their media specificity. It also examines the metaphysical ambitions surrounding the process of producing embryo- and fetal identities and the relation of these identities to the important cultural characteristics of their historical epochs.
Polskie, czyli jakie? Kino polskie w oczach odbiorcy brytyjskiego (na wybranych przykładach z lat 2008-2018).
Polskie, czyli jakie? Kino polskie w oczach odbiorcy brytyjskiego (na wybranych przykładach z lat 2008-2018).
(Polish – meaning what exactly? Polish cinema through the eyes of British audiences (based on selected films made between 2008 and 2018).)
- Author(s):Barbara Giza
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:118-136
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:Polish cinema; national cinema dominants; critical reception
- Summary/Abstract:Polish – meaning what exactly? Polish cinema through the eyes of British audiences (based on selected films made between 2008 and 2018). The article aims to show how contemporary Polish cinema has been received in “Sight&Sound” magazine post 2004, after Poland joined the EU. The author attempts to answer the following questions: has the British audience changed their perception of Polish cinema? Have the traits associated with the Polish Film School – the horrible experience of war, love of freedom, Polish romanticism focused on the individual, the truth (of the social kind, and free from constraining patterns), distinctive form, allusiveness and attachment to national symbols – been transformed in any way, and whether this has been reflected in articles published in “Sight&Sound”. The conclusion seems clear: there is little difference in how British audiences perceive contemporary Polish cinema, as they still heavily associate it with the subject matter and the directors of the Polish Film School (Wajda, Kawalerowicz).
Śnieżna depresja i norweskie podróże do kresu ironii. Reinterpretacje poetyki kina drogi w filmie Białe szaleństwo Rune Denstada Langlo oraz w literackiej twórczości Erlenda Loe.
Śnieżna depresja i norweskie podróże do kresu ironii. Reinterpretacje poetyki kina drogi w filmie Białe szaleństwo Rune Denstada Langlo oraz w literackiej twórczości Erlenda Loe.
(Snowy depression and Norwegian trips to the end of the irony. Reinterpretations of the road movie’s conventions in Rune Denstad Langlo’s Nord and literary works of Erlend Loe.)
- Author(s):Jakub Sebastian Konefał
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:137-148
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Norwegian cinema; national discourses
- Summary/Abstract:Snowy depression and Norwegian trips to the end of irony. Reinterpretations of the road movie’s conventions in Rune Denstad Langlo’s Nord and literary works of Erlend Loe Contemporary Norwegian cinema uses the conventions of the road movie to deconstruct the narrative structures of travel stories and deploys them as a means of social critique. Such a strategy may also demystify the involvement of national discourses in the so called “tourist view”. The article analyzes the cinematic adaptation of Erlend Loe’s screenplay called Nord (2009). The movie was advertised in Poland as an “antidepressant comedy from the polar circle”. However, this interpretation of the plot and aesthetics of the film tries to prove the opposite thesis, presenting some arguments proving that the feature structure of Rune Denstad Langlo’s film provides the basis for perceiveing it as a cultural text, which plays with the post-ironic perspective and selected pastiche formulas to reinterpret (and sometimes even deconstruct) the conventions of the road cinema in order to undertake the phantasmatic reflections on the problem of depression and postmodern fears in aconsumer society.
Sztuka performansu po The Artist Is Present. Kontynuacja działań Mariny Abramović w twórczości jej uczniów
Sztuka performansu po The Artist Is Present. Kontynuacja działań Mariny Abramović w twórczości jej uczniów
(The Art of performance after The Artist Is Present. The continuation of Marina Abramović’s actions in her followers’ work)
- Author(s):Weronika Metlenga
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:149-162
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Marina Abramović; performance; institutionalization of art practice
- Summary/Abstract:The Art of performance after The Artist Is Present. The continuation of Marina Abramović’s actions in her followers’ workPerformance art, recognized in the second half of the 20th century as niche and alternative, is currently perceived as one of the most popular genres of contemporary art. The difference that has raised due to the development of performance art is evident not only in the way a performance is created, but mainly in changing the perception of the work of art. The opening of the Marina Abramović Institute and the performance The Artist Is Present, became the main turning point showing this change. The aim of this article is to present how the art of Marina Abramović, which she consistently created for more than four decades, evolves in the works of the new generations of performers. Qualitative research based on film, interviews, exhibitions and publications related to the subject is the base for these considerations.
Kino podzielone. Recenzja książki Andrzeja Gwoździa pt. "Kino na biegunach". Filmy niemieckie i ich historie 1949-1991.
Kino podzielone. Recenzja książki Andrzeja Gwoździa pt. "Kino na biegunach". Filmy niemieckie i ich historie 1949-1991.
(Book report: Andrzej Gwóźdź, Kino na biegunach. Filmy niemieckie i ich historie 1949-1991, słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk 2019.)
- Author(s):Patrycja Włodek
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
- Page Range:164-169
- No. of Pages:6
