Soft Science « Rachel Mayeri

Soft Science

Image of bacterial colony by Michael Elowitz

Soft Science is a collection of video-curiosities created by artists and scientists. Behind laboratory doors are some of the most astonishing outsider art projects around. Autopoetic bacteria, tethered flies, ebullient nanogears – these data gems create wonder, beauty – not to mention knowledge. Artists have been mining science for years – in diverse experiments with icky substances, authority figures, and the ever-elusive idea of Reason. This unique program includes digital movies by biologists alongside contemporary video art.

Other Projects

Primate Cinema: How to Act Like an Animal Workshop

In May 2008, a number of people in the Los Angeles area of California, not far from Hollywood, participated in a three-week workshop that took place in an art gallery called TELIC Arts Exchange. They signed up through The Public School, an extra-institutional learning forum run by TELIC, which enables people to post classes they […]
Baboon Cinema

[Excerpt from entry for the Institute of Extraterrestrial Sexuality book to be published in fall 2011] The reaction to the video was startling. 743 and 825 were there with me setting up, and they immediately focused on the monitor when the program began. The remaining twenty members of the troop, noticing their interest, grouped behind […]
Miracles and Disasters in Renaissance and Baroque Theater Mechanics

Exhibition at Museum of Jurassic Technology, completed May 2004 Scene Paintings by Jose Clemente Orozco Production of the Museum of Jurassic Technology Consultation by Dr. Frank Mohler, Appalachian State University Guest Curator Rachel Mayeri Miracles and Disasters in Renaissance and Baroque Theater Mechanics is an exhibition at the Museum of Jurassic Technology that showcases the […]
Intelligent Design: Interspecies Art

Intelligent Design: Interspecies Art is a group exhibition of twenty international artists exploring human interaction with animals through a collection of provocative video installations, photographs, paintings, and sculptures. Artists in the exhibition collaborate with cockroaches, pigeons, dogs, cats, ants, bears, baboons, rats, spiders, trout, and other species, which may be domesticated, imaginary, laboratory, modeled, or […]
Orfeo Nel Canale Alimentare

Orfeo Nel Canale Alimentare (Orpheus in the Alimentary Canal) is an animated opera about the digestive tract. It was commissioned by Imagine Science Films and it is part of a compilation of ten films on the theme of chimeras. In the film, Orpheus attempts to rescue Eurydice from a bout of indigestion by crossing the river of her […]