Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Developing Ethical Frameworks for Artists, Cultural Institutions and Audiences Engaged in the Challenges of Creating and Experiencing New Art Forms in Biotechnology and Biomedicine in Europe is supported by funding from Creative Europe and is a collaboration between Waag Society, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, The Arts Catalyst, Ciant, Kapelica Gallery, Medical Museion, Capsula and Leonardo/Olats. The lead artist on the project is Anna Dumitriu and the lead ethicist is Professor Bobbie Farsides.

The aim of “Trust Me, I’m an Artist” is to investigate how artists and cultural institutions can best engage with biotechnology and biomedicine in order to drive innovation in artistic production, ways of presenting artworks, and developing new audiences in Europe.

The main goal is to provide artists, cultural institutions and audiences with the skills to understand the ethical issues that arise in the creation and exhibition of artworks made in collaboration with biotechnology and biomedicine.

Additionally the project will provide science and technology collaborators with new ethical frameworks for successfully working with cultural and creative players. By giving confidence to stakeholders it will open up opportunities for artists and creative organisations to work in new partnerships across Europe and internationally.
Lead artist Anna Dumitriu said:

“Artists tend to work at the forefront of innovation and push boundaries, whilst engaging in ethical and philosophical challenges that resonate through society around new technologies, and this project has the potential to situate them at the forefront of the latest research. Our high impact outputs will prompt new ways of thinking about how art, biotechnology and biomedicine can intersect, and bring together diverse stakeholders and audiences to create new ways of working at the cutting edge of art, science and technology.“ Trust me, I’m an Artist will involve a series of practical and discussion-based participatory workshop activities; a major series of performative events (before a live audiences) where a specially selected artist will propose an ethically complex artwork to a specially formed ethics committee (following the rules and procedures typical for the host country), the ethics committee will then debate the proposal and come to a decision, the artist will then be informed of the ethics committee’s decision and, alongside the audience, they can enter into a discussion about the result.

The learning from the project will be shared through a major symposium; a touring exhibition; a series of publications; a website; and an exciting distributable format designed to give other cultural institutions, artists groups, community groups, students and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue by creating their own DIY Trust Me, I’m an Artist events, leaving a strong legacy for what we learn.

This new project builds on the strong foundations laid by the previous “Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art and Science Collaboration” project. The book of that project is available here

The UT Dallas ATEC ArtSciLab supports and participates in the Trust Me, I’m an Artist project through the Leonardo Initiatives projects in Experimental Publishing including the Creative Disturbance platform channel on art and biology associated to Audiolats and the Meta-Life project website.

Partners Website links:

Waag Society – http://waag.org
Brighton and Sussex Medical School – http://bsms.ac.uk
The Arts Catalyst – http://www.artscatalyst.org
Kapelica Gallery – http://kapelica.org
Medical Museion – http://www.museion.ku.dk
Leonardo/Olats – http://www.olats.org
Anna Dumitriu – http://normalflora.co.uk

Financing Parties links:

Creative Europe Programme of the EU – http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/

BanGiro Lottery Fund: http://bankgiroloterijfonds.doen.nl