Vanessa Yaremchuk is a researcher who loves using artificial neural networks (and machine learning more generally) with music, image, sound, gesture, dance and other joyful things. She may or may not actually be a robot, but it really wouldn't be polite to ask her such a thing.
They created identical student CVs with only one difference - whether there was a man’s or woman’s name at the top - and gave them to other scientists to assess. Half the subjects were given an application with a male name attached, and half were given the exact same application with a female name attached.
Results found that the “female” applicants were rated significantly lower than the “males” in competence, hireability, and whether the subjects would be willing to mentor the student.
It wasn’t only male scientists ranking women as less qualified or hireable (is that a word? anyway…) than men. Women also judged other women more harshly. When asked to criticise the “female” applicants, they gave very detailed reasons for rejecting them.
Things that didn’t read as sexism. Things that failed candidates would almost certainly take to heart.
20 Hz observes a geo-magnetic storm occurring in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Working with data collected from the CARISMA radio array and interpreted as audio, we hear tweeting and rumbles caused by incoming solar wind, captured at the frequency of 20 Hertz. Generated directly by the sound, tangible and sculptural forms emerge suggestive of scientific visualisations. As different frequencies interact both visually and aurally, complex patterns emerge to create interference phenomena that probe the limits of our perception.
Cellular Memorabilia by Tagny Duff (Assistant professor, Communication Studies, and graduate of the Studio Arts MFA program) features three works that utilize the tools and practices of tissue culture engineering to reflect upon the changing status and perception of bodies at the turn of the post-biological era.
The Living Viral Tattoos (2008) is a series of four tissue samples of human breast tissue donated by an anonymous donor from elective breast reduction surgery. The samples are transfected with a biological virus, Lentivirus, and fixed with immunohistochemical stains to produce the appearance of bruises.
Tissue Culture Point of View (2008) features a video installation that reverses the anthropocentric gaze of the microscope placing the gallery visitor in the role of the cellular tissue specimen.
Cryobook Archives (2010) is a portable library of frozen human-animal viral tissue bound into the form of books. The work reflects on the history of early surgical practices in Europe that sought to extend and preserve the lifespan of human tissue through the practice of anthropodermic bibliopegy, the binding of books made from human cadavers.
