Between Art, Science, and Queer Ecology: A Conversation Between Kuang-Yi Ku and Liang-Kai Yu

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the increasing collaboration between science and visual art/design projects. Kuang-Yi Ku, a Taiwanese artist based in the Netherlands whose artistic practice that converges art, design, and biotechnology is a case in point. Ku's works often deal with the human body, sexuality, interspecies interactions, and medical technology that aim to investigate the relationships among technology, individuals, and the environment. Based on Ku's practices in and observations on the expanded field of “Art and Science Collaboration”, he converses with Liang-Kai Yu, PhD researcher in radical museology and queer studies. Firstly, they begin with Ku's speculative approach in bio-art/design that mobilizes not only visual languages in arts but also biomedical technology. Of interest here is whether the future orientation of a speculative approach in art/design could not only stimulate imaginations but also trouble the linear notion towards the future. Secondly, Ku and Yu reflect on the increasing demand for social and ecological goals requested by science-based artist residencies and open calls in Europe. This institutional phenomenon concerns the functionality of art and remains a debated subject. Thirdly, they discuss the shared concerns between bio-art/design and STS studies and consider how both fields could benefit from each other. Finally, the conversation moves back to Ku's bio-artistic projects with a focus on reproductive technology as well as the cross-species future. They address Ku's recent projects such as “Grandma Mom” (2021) that questions the patriarchal regime within the medical field and the ongoing “Queer Termite Project” that speculates an inter-species architecture in which humans and termites reciprocate one another.