Syndemic Sublime in "Second Sundays" at Pioneer Works

installation with animations & networked sculpture exploring interconnected systems in the biotechnological landscape
Group Exhibition

Syndemic Sublime in "Second Sundays" at Pioneer Works

September 12, 2021 from 12–7PM
Installation for Second Sundays series
Pioneer Works
Brooklyn, NY
Curated by Sandy Kassalias
dimensions variable

Syndemic Sublime was included in Pioneer Works Second Sunday series. Second Sundays engages Pioneer Works disciplines through live music, food, artists’ virtual open studios, and programs.

Syndemic Sublime is an installation including a networked sculpture and molecular animations exploring interspecies entanglements in the biomedical landscape where understanding of our own bodies and the bodies of others is increasingly mediated by technology. The installation includes a networked fan connected to wind data at a vivarium in rural Pennsylvania, where llamas are used to produce antibodies for human vaccines (including the COVID-19 vaccine). The installation also includes new and recent animations created with molecular visualization software using coronavirus and antibodies models. By using the software in unconventional ways, Laura Splan manipulates protein structures both “by hand” and with code, using data from pandemic related data sets. The mesmerizing tableaus result in animations that are sometimes spastic and sometimes sublime as they blur the boundaries between what is constructed and what is natural, what is biological and what is technological.

Syndemic Sublime was included in Pioneer Works Second Sunday series. Second Sundays engages Pioneer Works disciplines through live music, food, artists’ virtual open studios, and programs.

Syndemic Sublime is an installation including a networked sculpture and molecular animations exploring interspecies entanglements in the biomedical landscape where understanding of our own bodies and the bodies of others is increasingly mediated by technology. The installation includes a networked fan connected to wind data at a vivarium in rural Pennsylvania, where llamas are used to produce antibodies for human vaccines (including the COVID-19 vaccine). The installation also includes new and recent animations created with molecular visualization software using coronavirus and antibodies models. By using the software in unconventional ways, Laura Splan manipulates protein structures both “by hand” and with code, using data from pandemic related data sets. The mesmerizing tableaus result in animations that are sometimes spastic and sometimes sublime as they blur the boundaries between what is constructed and what is natural, what is biological and what is technological.

Second Sunday Programs: All-Day

Environmental Photojournalism Student Gallery
Exhibition Scavenger Hunt
The Hidden Life Of Ice With Marco Tedesco
Little Skips
The Matchmaker Is Present
Monster, Tin & Ed
Syndemic Sublime, Laura Splan
Subspace Envoy
Synth Library Nyc Pop-Up Library
Tomato / Tomato

Second Sunday Open Studios

AlexandraBell
Claudia Bitran
Xenia Bond
Lizzi Bougatsos
Hackett
Jordan Kisner
Lauren Lee Mccarthy
Brian Oakes
Suneil Sanzgiri
Cy X
Katherine Young & Yarn/Wire

Interalia: Meeting Points

...Laura Splan spent three months in 2020 collaborating with Integral Molecular scientists Dr. Benjamin Doranz and Dr. Edgar Davidson over Zoom to produce her series...created using Pymol to visualize intricate molecular models of SARS-CoV-2. Splan explains that “by using the specialized features of the software in unconventional ways, I unravel and distort the folded structure of the coronavirus spike protein. I playfully manipulate the folded forms...

Voice of America

...With the coronavirus outbreak, people worldwide have become preoccupied with a threat so physically small that it can’t be seen. The invisible world of viruses has long fascinated multi-media artist Laura Splan, who is artist in residence at a biotech lab...

Pioneer Works
NY State Cultural Affairs
NY State Council on the Arts

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Additional Installation Support: Reuben Lorch-Miller, Kyle Keays Hagerman, Matthew Mann, Julian Townley

Data Source: CDC