YouTubeTransparent Eyeball



Transparent Eyeball is a transdisciplinary collaborative practice steered by artist Adam Vackar together with biologist Dr. Jindrich Brejcha.

Our practice at the intersection of visual art and biology, with overlaps in botany, anthropology, landscape architecture, geology, and philosophy, aims to explore new paradigms of knowledge based on the understanding of the biological perspective of life and existence for both non-human species and humans.

The fascinating processes underlining non-human life can contribute to better understanding of human existence, behavior and culture. We engage audiences with discussions, talks and exhibition
s.

 


    Life Discussions 
Transdisciplinary lecture marathon
    Centre for Contemporary Art
    Prague, Czech Republic
      March 12, 2022


    List of speakers:

    Adam Vackar and Jindrich Brejcha
    Introduction, Transparent Eyeball

    Michael Bok
    Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden

    Reuben Fowkes
    UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, London, UK

    Johannes Jaeger
    Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Miranda Lowe
    Scientist, Natural History Museum, London, UK

    Katja Novitskova
    Visual artist, Amsterdam

    Michael J. Ryan
    Professor, University of Texas in Austin

    Kostas Stasinopoulos
    Curator at the Serpentine gallery, London, UK

    Antonin Strizek
    Scientist, Academy of Sciences, Prague
     
    Transdisciplinary symposium to discuss how art and culture can co-exist, complement each other, and help to disseminate knowledge and understanding on biological problems.

    Life Discussions aims to bring new perspectives on how artists, art theorists and biologists can engage together in a collaborative insight into the relation between biological principles that drive our own creativity and our need to communicate. We want to build our understanding on solutions that life on Earth offers.

    Today’s environmental issues are often complex. Finding effective strategies that encourage public awareness and stewardship are paramount for long-term conservation of species and ecosystems. Artists and biologists combined approach thrives to disseminate knowledge about ecology to non-specialists through novel art-science participatory research. 

    We invited internationally renowed scientists, artists and theoreticians to discuss the evolutionary driven process of art-making as well as to show that humans are inseparable part of the natural world and share planet with other beings with completely different interests and perception. 

    The lectures are pondering around questions of invasiveness among among plants and humans, beauty as a biological concept, public interventions related to environement, non-human perspective, the total difference of perception of the world we take as granted by Mantis shrimp, species with the most developped sight of all known beings and other themes.  

    To watch all lectures online click here





    In-habit
    Transdisciplinary symposium
    Academy of Arts, Architecture
    and Design
    Prague, Czech Republic
    December 1 - 2. 2022


    List of speakers:

    Václav Cílek
    Geologist, climatologist, writer

    Mareike Dittmer
    TBA21-Academy, Madrid

    Habima Fuchs

    Visual artist

    Johanna Gibbons
    Landscape architect, London, UK

    Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido
    Professor of ecology University of Minnesota, USA

    Stefan Helmreich
    Professor of Anthropology at MIT, USA

    Tereza Stehlíková
    Visual artist

    Sissel Tolaas Visual
    Artist

    Neal White
    Visual artist, CREAM, University of Westminster, UK

    Šárka Zahálková
    Visual artist, curator and cultural activist


    Are we active enough in the face of the scale of current planetary and environmental challenges? Where are we heading in our thoughts and actions?
    How can we change our habits to protect our habitat (environment)? Place and environment shape us as much as we shape it; there is a deep reciprocity on Earth that has long been neglected.

    This transdisciplinary symposium was born out of an urgent need to reformulate our relationship to our physical and mental environments, near and far, human and non-human.

    The In-habit Symposium will bring together scientists, artists and cultural workers from the Czech Republic, the USA, Germany and the UK, institutions such as MIT, University of Minnesota, TBA21-Academy, Charles University.

    Where is the right balance in our relationship between human and non-human agents? How can contemporary art, science and other disciplines come together to rethink and shift our point of view, to access non-human perspectives, non-human motivations, to change our habits and successfully coexist? What role does embodiment/senses play in training our sensibility? We need to rethink human behavior and point out the functional behavioral systems for the future.

    Organized together with Tangible Territory, an open access art, science & philosophy journal, which focuses on how we make sense of the world through all our senses and the importance of place and embodied experience in giving meaning to our everyday experience of life and art.

    The symposium received financial support through grants provided by the Ministry of Culture of the 
    Czech Republic and the City of Prague.


    To watch all lectures online click here





    Niche Construction
    Group Exhibition
    NOD, Prague, Czech Republic
    25.7. – 14.9.2023



    Artists: Gerard Ortin Castellvi, Shezad Dawood, Andro Eradze, Pilar Mata Dupont, Martin Netočný, Andrey Shental, Adam Vačkář

    Biologist - texts: Vojtěch Abrahám, Martin Adámek, Jindřich Brejcha, Kristýna Eliášová, Roman Figura, Petr Tureček, Martin Weiser


    Niche construction, a vital biological process, involves organisms altering their environment or that of other species. This change can manifest as a physical alteration, a shift in the organism's role within a new environment, or even the adoption of novel behaviors prompting responses from other organisms.

    Currently, niche construction theory stands as a focal point in evolutionary ecology, captivating the attention of both artists working through moving images and biologists expressing their insights in written form. Collaboratively, artists and biologists delve into specific natural processes that underlie human existence.

    The texts penned by biologists serve as a wellspring of inspiration, sparking curiosity about the narratives of these natural processes. Understanding these processes should ideally be at the core of future education, shedding light on the intricate ways in which humans and nature are shaped and interconnected, aspects of which many remain blissfully unaware.