93% Human (video still), 2023, Helen Pynor. Single channel video projection (10.20 min), 3-channel video on screens (4.55 min), 8-channel sound (20.09 min), scientific glassware objects. Lead Collaborators: Amanda Cole, Composer; Associate Professor Jimmy Breen, Bioinformatician and Geneticist, Chief Data Scientist, Black Ochre Data Labs at Telethon Kids and The Australian National University. Image courtesy of the artist. 93% Human has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and ANAT (Australian Network for Art and Technology).
Helen Pynor
Dr Helen Pynor’s work explores philosophically and experientially ambiguous zones such as the life-death boundary, the inter-subjective nature of organ transplantation, and the human/non-human boundary. Her work is informed by in-depth residencies in scientific institutions and she collaborates extensively with scientists and clinicians in the development of her work. Pynor has had a long-standing association with ANAT, including as recipient of an ANAT Synapse Art-Science Residency and an ANAT Bespoke Residency.
“Artworks emerging from dialogues between artists and scientists can offer experiential encounters with scientific, philosophical and ethical phenomena that viewers can engage and connect with, and which can be provocative, surprising and wondrous.”
Habitation, 2021, Helen Pynor. Unglazed bone china (made from the artist’s bone removed during surgery, supplemented by animal bone), unglazed earthenware, felt, coral, metal, acrylic, archival pigment prints (drawn from the artist’s own archive of CT and X-Ray scans), lightboxes Dimensions variable. Photo: Helen Pynor. Image courtesy of the artist. An Experimenta Commission. Habitation has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and City of Joondalup, Western Australia.
Dr Helen Pynor is an Artist and Researcher. Her work has been exhibited widely nationally and internationally including at Tekniska Museet (National Museum of Science and Technology), Stockholm; ISEA 29th International Symposium on Electronic Art, Brisbane; Beijing Media Art Biennale; FACT (Foundation for Creative Art and Technology), Liverpool UK; and currently at ZKM Centre for Art and Media | Karlsruhe. She has been awarded an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica, Austria, and national awards in Australia.