Artist in residence Professor Kathleen Rogers is an internationally-acclaimed bio-artist producing interdisciplinary projects that integrate art, biological science and technology. She is currently a visiting artist researcher within Medicine. Her hybrid projects offer new ways of seeing and interpreting the cultural and social impact of contemporary life sciences.
Her work within Medicine explores how art can be used to help people have a deeper understanding of medical research. To look at her latest project for the Faculty of Medicine please follow the link to Intra-actions and re-configurings.
Her current projects are concerned with the human immune system and phenomena linked to cell death. Artists excel at creative innovation on the margins of disciplines and her projects are bringing together two distinct research cultures aimed at creating synergies between the arts and sciences through public exhibitions and seminars.
Her position is an on-going collaboration between the University for the Creative Arts, based in Kent and Surrey, and Medicine at the University of Southampton.
"Artists making hybrid art projects have been combining bio- or other technologies and art for some decades with differing intellectual and aesthetic intent. Artists are positioned to understand the conceptual unity between different disciplines. Working outside of categories into shifting hybrid domains they can reach across and build bridges between many levels of complexity, from molecular genetics, to the production of art. It is no longer enough to look at things as art or science - we need to go beyond these divisions." The global reach of medical and biological research requires international innovative collaborative strategies across art and science programmes. The fielding of interdisciplinary collaborations between research institutions such as The University of Southampton Medical School and the University for the Creative Arts can ensure that the arts are in a position to respond to and express broader cultural shifts that challenge our concepts of ‘humanness' and ‘nature'".
Kathleen Rogers is a leading member of the UCA Art Science & Culture Research Cluster, a diverse group of artists and researchers finding new ways to enable people from different disciplines and the public to come together and exchange cutting edge ideas on art, science and culture. Her projects are aimed at setting up longer-lasting collaborations between the University for the Creative Arts and The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton
