Matej Vakula
Faculty
Matej Vakula’s research explores the ethics of generative biological design and tissue printing. He culturally analyzes the feasibility of creating machine-learning-based automated ethics for 3D-printed organisms, organs, and organ systems. His research intervenes in debates on algorithmic bias in generative design and AI ethics by analyzing the automation of bioethics related to generating the digital biological model. How do we culturally grasp what these new models create when they are re-represented into living biological material if our culture has not yet created the language? His research opens a new direction for the cultural study of non-anthropocentric perspectives within biodesign and bioethics automation by using bioart as a counter-model that offers improved cultural and ethical investigation tools. In this talk he will describe the path that led him to the current research in ethics and how his research stemmed from art-based community engagement and specific thinking about knowledge production practices across arts and sciences. He will touch upon the current biological revolution in connection with artificial knowledge production methods in science, and their potential influence on research and discovery ethics.
About Matej Vakula:
Matej Vakula is an artist examining the role of ethics and aesthetics in emerging biotechnologies and the field of artificial intelligence. Matej studies the ethical implications of computation and nanotechnologies on biology, tissue printing, culture, and nature. Matej collaborates with the Center for Molecular Imaging and Nanotechnologies at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Advanced Science Research Center at CUNY, and he is an ABD Ph.D. candidate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Matej worked as a research assistant at IBM Cognitive and Immersive Systems Laboratory. He is part of Brooklyn’s Rensselaer BAT Lab at the Center for Biology and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Genspace community bio lab. In 2009, he was awarded a Fulbright fellowship and worked as an artist in residence at the SciArt Center in New York City. His art is published and exhibited internationally, including Arts Electronica Art and Science Network, the Sixth Prague Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Slovak National Gallery, and many others. His research was published in the Technoetic Arts Journal. My work Dark Design was part of the final selection for Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica in the Artificial Intelligence and Life art Category in 2023.
Part of the Artistic Inquiry Luncheon Series 2023-2024.
