Magazine: "Culture of Contamination" • Laura Splan

SciArt Magazine: Culture of Contamination

SciArt Magazine is a publication of SciArt Initiative.

Editor in Chief: Julia Buntaine Hoel

Culture of Contamination Curator: Tarah Rhoda

The notion of contamination permeates many aspects of life; while contamination literally describes a biological impurity, it also metaphorically embodies the relentless threshold of “otherness.” Ultimately, contamination is the trespassing of inside and out, a mixing of what supposedly belongs and what decidedly doesn’t. Our basic reality is characterized by a construct of separateness and the vital comfort of the contained self. Our bodies, our ideas, and the environment are not only vulnerable to contamination, but shaped by the very concept of it. Even the words we speak out loud seep back into our understanding of their meaning. Declaring “rhetoric itself as parasitic or viral,” Jacques Derrida states that metaphors are “the logic of contamination and the contamination of logic.” From plastic polluted seas to unwelcome weeds, to the outbreak of infectious diseases and viral memes, the threat of unwanted exposure lurks high and low. How do we frame these invasions of boundaries and risks of ruin? What does it mean to spread, to spoil?
— Culture of Contamination Curator: Tarah Rhoda

“This issue is dedicated to "Culture of Contamination," a SciArt exhibition which has been put on hold due to Covid-19. The art work that we see here examines the idea of contamination from a multitude of viewpoints and media, expanding the idea of contaminants far beyond that which has ruled our daily lives since early 2020.”
—Julia Buntaine Hoel, Editor in Chief, SciArt Magazine, a publication of SciArt Initiative

Artworks

formed

Featuring words and work by Heide Hatry, Liz Hickok, Laura Stack, and Michelle Davison. VISIT "FORMED"

circular, linear

Featuring words and work by Adriano Marinazzo, Francois-Joseph Lapointe, Heather Parrish & Elizabeth Henaff & Léonard Roussel, Laura Splan, Jennifer Willet, and Ansel Oommen. VISIT "CIRCULAR, LINEAR"

body

Featuring words and work by Robert Forman, WhiteFeather Hunter, Laura Murray, Eva Davidova, Rian Hotton, John Paul Kesling, and Ibuki Kuramochi. VISIT "BODY"

inside/outside

Featuring words and work by Elena Soterakis, Michelle Robinson, Ramey Newell, Steph Mantis, Shanna Merola, Susan Hoffman Fishman, and Yujia Bian. VISIT "INSIDE/OUTSIDE"