PROSJEKT CELLF

A SPACE FOR INNER WORKING

The project developed from 2023 onward and is protected by BONO and international copyright laws. Original draft by Mari Amman and Jason Falkenburg, Autumn 2023, updated by Mari Amman Winter/Spring/Summer 2024. Amman_Cell f_ Prosjektbeskrivelse

 

PROSJEKT-CELLF, 2024, 03:11 minute, single-channel video with stereo audio, created at Atelier Nord Studio. This video and those on this website are in the Videokunstarkivet, in Oslo, Norway. Contact: mariammanart@icloud.com

POETIC TEXT: MARI AMMAN EDITED FROM CINZIA PROGIDA‘S SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY

Endoplasmatic reticulum ( en · dow · plaz · muhk  –  ruh · ti · kyoo · luhm)
is a space for inner working
as a cellular compartment
where webbed networks
promote proteins
(forged) with amino acids

 

Metastases (Muh · ta · stuh · seez)
are promoted
by dynamic structures invading tissues
continually generated
and destroyed
these forms are also called
focal adhesions
producing faster movements
than those in healthy cells

 

Lysosomes (lai · suh · sowmz)
digest
nutrients
pathogens and damaged cellular parts
these dynamic vesticles
perform as stomachs
altered in function
by cancer cells
for reasons yet to be
discovered.

 

#Terminal #Velocities #Cellular #Movements #Webs #Synthesis #Networks #Compartments #Dynamic #Digestion #Proteins #AminoAcids #Focal #Adhesions #Damage #Health #Cancer #Kreft #ArtisticResarch

Bone cancer cell in 3D, focal adhesions (feet) and endoplasmic reticulum are visible.

 

 

 

 

MOTIVATION

Create multi-disciplinary art installation with an opening night performance, on the primary question of lead researcher, Cinzia Progida, and postdoctoral researcher Jonathan Townson: How do cancer cells move differently from healthy cells? The UiO research team is “especially interested in elucidating the molecular mechanisms which control the spatio-temporal dynamics and the coordination between membrane traffic and the cytoskeleton, as well as cell motility. To functionally characterize these processes, a combination of imaging approaches, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology techniques are used to create visual art, sounds, cancers, and the ways those can be spacially-temporally constructed to as biological or cosmological forces.

 

The aim is to educate and inspire viewers to witness the wonders of cellular behavior on different surfaces, hidden to the naked eye – helping to hold a grounded perspective on cancer cell research conveying a sense of curiosity and ease on an often fear laden subject. The multimedia art installation invites deeper interest in science to inspire both healthier environments and people.By looking within a singular cell, from the ground up, the video artwork and installation of the video in the Suspended Planes installation at various sites in Norway and abroad. The materials produced are utilized by UiO after the completion of the exhibition, and no profit will be made from this exhibit to follow the regulations on open-source knowledge. The audio-video installation affords the opportunity for music/dance performance during the vernissage, and creation of printed materials with Cinzia and Jonathan.

 

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

Our goal is to develop a multidisciplinary installation about the research area of cell motility. This will be done by:

• • • Detailed, colorful multimedia video shows viewers inner movements and behaviors of cancer and immune cells. Animation of the Focal Adhesion mythos. Focal Adhesions are cellular components present on the cell surface, acting like feet to move the cell forward. Metaphorically, “cellular glue” bridges the organelles inside the cell to the extracellular environment. The function of focal adhesions is often altered in cancer. (This video was created Oktober 2024 at Atelier Nord Studio).
    • Create visual art works with drawing, painting, textile and installation material techniques based on the lab visualizations provided by Jonathan and Cinzia and the poetic, fact based text.
    • Collaborate/d with Łukasz Sabat. Though cells do not make sounds, the proposed sound compositions add an emotional layer to the multimedia installation and music/movement performance on opening night.
    • National and international exhibition at Oslo Gallery, TEKS in Trondhiem, UiO, Kreftforening, others TBD
    • Created audio, visual and historic art and documentation with key moments in image technology development and how UiO’s research focus on the ground-up perspective of cell movement reveals how forces morph cell response. All artworks and recordings afford the usability after completion by UiO.

 

HOW WE COLLABORATE 

Our art project will answer specific questions Cinzia and Jonathan work with in their scientific research to create artwork sparking public and granting agencies interest, to deepen understandings of biological processes. The project develops upon Amman and Falkenburg’s installations and art at the crossroads of imaging-technology, anthropology, and ecology: https://mariamman.net/category/artistic-research/, https://mariamman.net/prosjekt-cellf/

 

We plan to work in the Progida lab at IBV with Cinzia, Jonathan and researchers:

• • • Jonathan provided video files and images of microscopic images for Amman to edit at Atelier Nord, 2024
    • Łukasz Sabat recorded audio 14 Oktober 2024, UiO lab, Kristine Bonnevies Hus with Amman, research team leader Cinzia Progida, and postdoctoral researcher Jonathan Townson
    • The installation will look at ways visual forms appear on different surfaces, within a spacial installation.
    • The ways the chemistry of the cellular forces can be realized in space will be exposed with the multimedia artwork and opening night performance. Cells have no eyes to see, therefore the multimedia installation will ‘imagine’ detailed organelle regulations during movement, checked against Cinzia and Jonathan’s research to ensure fact-based art work.
    • Movements/forces within the cells’ key features, i.e, organelle structures, DNA, nucleus will be investigated using state-of-the-art microscopes by the research team.
    • Use the exhibition space as an inside “mapping” experience. Movement/forces emphasized as key focus areas, interpretive dance and music is considered to be choreographed/performed by Amman/Sabat
    • Auditory components convey movement/force. Movements/sounds will be based on Jonathan and Cinzia’s “mapping” methods and tools. Jonathan looks for innovative tools to answer questions. Cinzia looks at ways research fits into the bigger picture answering research questions.
    • Amman worked at Atelier Nord’s editing suite 28 October – 3 November 2024, with musician Łukasz Sabat to work on the audio-video component of the multi-disciplinary work, installed as part of the Suspended Planes installation at TEKS (Trondheim Elektronisk Kunstsenter), September – October 2025. Amman works with Daidda Galleri and Atelier Nord (Grünnerløka), Vasli Souza FotoGalleri (Ullevål), the Italian-Cultural Institute to continue growing relations between US, Norway, Italy, and potentially Iceland. Additional exhibitions and screenings can include but are not limited to The Kreftforening, Oslo, NTNU, Meta Morph Biennalen.
    • We understand no fees can be collected on the video-art because the research materials have to remain open source.

 

HIGHLIGHTING INDIVIDUAL COLLABORATORS

• • • Printed booklet and/or QR Code linked webpage.
    • Biography profiles of Cinzia Progida and Jonathan Townson, UiO researchers, gives viewers information on the research conducted at the department, shared as print/digital media.
    • Łukasz Sabat: audio engineering, musician, vocalist, composer.
    • Mari Amman: artist and project manager.
    • Jason Falkenburg: curator and concept development.

 

ARTISTIC PROFILES

Mari Amman’s lifelong, multidisciplinary artwork results in international performances, photography, videos, sculptures, paintings, and installations. Inspired by being raised near a nuclear power plant, industrial agriculture, ancestral heritage to Swedish-Bavarian, Ellen Ammann (human and women’s rights political activist), Swedish artist Harriet Sundström, and Italian ancestors founded Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago, Amman developed her artistic research on resonances through her own personal history with immunology and decades of skill development in the arts, to share grow public knowledge and interest in biology, violence (domestic/geopolitical), built environments, and human relationships with resources and technology. Her open and in-depth approach combines her polymath background in music, dance, interior design, textile, writing, poetry, and visual arts. The Cellf, Real Art project, can help save lives, by deepening empathy and understanding for the mind-body connection. Academically, she completed with honours, a Bachelor of Fine Art in Advertising/Interior Design, Illinois Institute of Art (2006), Master Fine Art with Frankfurt School Theory/Conceptual Studio Practice at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angles (2015), both NOKUT accepted in 2015, after she moved to Norway. Her work was awarded 1st by the jury in the Imaging New Eurasia Exhibition in  South Korea. She completed residencies, exhibitions, and developed artistic research methodologies on imaging technology, A.I., psychology, and mythology in Switzerland, France, USA, Italy, Mexico, and Norway including AWMAS in Santa Barbara, California and Kjerringøy Land Art, Norway (2020). Her Le Lapin journal cultivated a diverse, public audience and she is active with BONO, NBK, and Oslo Art and Culture, as well as TEKS and Lademoen Kunstverksted in Trondheim.

 

Łukasz Sabat is a vocalist, multi instrumentalist, live -loop artist, DJ. He plays Armenian duduk, alto saxophone, hulusi, sopilka-bas, flutes, all kinds of pipes. He combines traditional sounds with electronics. From 2016, he is a member and co-founder of the INSZA duo. 2022 Sounds of wind instruments, throat singing and sounds inspired by nature w: Film RÓJ. 2024 Polish Audio Community. He lives and works in Asker, Norway.

 

Jason Falkenburg’s anthropology, curating background informed his expertise in concept development, exhibition making, and academic research. After completing a Bachelor of Art in Archaeology (2011) and Master of Museum Studies in Anthropology/Archaeology (2013) at University of Leiden, Master of Research in Social Anthropology (2015) at University of Aberdeen, and a PhD in Museum Studies, History, and Contemporary Archaeology from (2019), he focused on exhibitions related to ecology, climate change, and natural history. He curated exhibitions, developed projects for museums and heritage institutions in Amsterdam (NL), Bergen, Oslo, Tromsø (NO), Aarhus, Copenhagen (DK), Uppsala (SE), and Jedda (SA). Falkenburg is currently completing a postdoc at The Hauge in The Netherlands.

 

Amman + Falkenburg share a mission to spark wonder in viewers, while cultivating a greater sensitivity to the nuances of life.

 

BUDGET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES

The visual installations proposed for our project are partly inspired by the following artists: Tal Danino, Eshel Ben Jacob, Jakob Steensen, and Nina Nowak.

https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/miraculous-beauty-and-healing-power-ordinary-bacteria

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/colonies-of-growing-bacteria-make-psychedelic-art-22351157/

http://www.jakobsteensen.com/tongues-of-verglas-les-langues-de-verglas

https://ninanowakstudio.com