: HYDRART
The CREATURE in context…
The CREATURE project is…about sparking the imagination… about the strange other that the brain conjures up from a quick flash of scene in a pitch black room…about bringing the subconscious, the peripheral and the subliminal into sharp focus.

Through visual stimulation: Hydrart aim to spark thought processes in relation to science and technology; to instigate dialogue around concerns that commercial imperatives and personal ambition prevail over ethical constraints, with the potential to lead science and experimentation in the wrong direction. The control of scientific knowledge imparts a power which, rather than benefiting humanity, may be detrimental or negative, especially in relation to genetic engineering.
Pitched somewhere between a science future and an alchemical past, CREATURE raises questions about the process of acquiring and manipulating technological and scientific knowledge…the failed experiments, dead ends and ambiguous results. Through CREATURE
: Hydrart undermines the label ‘scientist’, substituting it with something more personal, individual, subjective and hence flawed. The route of evil through scientific design; the metaphor of the black lab…
Much of the science promoted to the public to foster understanding and acceptance emphasises the benefits of success through innovation; the messy stages in the development of understanding are rarely the subject of display or discussion. The focus is on the end result… the medical breakthrough…the elimination of impairment… Note that to thwart competition and exploitation, some findings are not patented or disseminated but kept secret.
How exactly does this privileged knowledge benefit mankind? Is it only, as ever, the tool of the powerful, to the advantage of the few? The development of new biotechnology is a speculative business, both experimentally and commercially – and we can speculate too – what is its real purpose? Does Dolly the sheep equate to the cloning of humans to be used as slaves… as armies… as genetic flesh? Could we be corrupted, seduced by such power…what might we create?
: Hydrart’s CREATURE installation invites the viewer to question their perceptions and preconceptions and to consider what a flexible concept ‘knowledge’ is. ‘What did I just see? What really happened? Questions answered? Knowledge gained? It’s all in the imagination…
: Hydrart is a collaborative team of multi-media artists based @ tactileBOSCH Studio’s in Cardiff see www.tactilebosch.org or email: kim@tactilebosch.org or exquisitetecorpse@btinternet.com tel: 07951 256255
: Hydrart’s CREATURE has been fed by…
cywaith cymru / artworks wales, , Arts & Business/ New Partners REGAN Gallery & TAYLOR [Mount and Framing] Out of Hand Printers, Bristol, dpiworkshop, School of Applied Sciences @ University of Glamorgan, Cardiff University’s Dept of Forensic Science & tactileBOSCHStudio, Llandaff, Cardiff & CHAPTER Arts Centre.

: HYDRART
The CREATURE

june 2005

and by appointment:

Saturday & Sunday 1-6
e: exhibitions@elastic.org.uk