Cell is a radical re-envisaging of the way in which stem cells operate. It is a collaborative project between Neil Theise - an international scientist whose ground-breaking research into stem cells and cell behaviour is changing the way that we understand the body, and Jane Prophet - one of the leading UK artists working with artificial-life computer programming.

Cell is part of a longer term project to create, through digital media, a representation of biological activity, in the form of an online virtual environment. Cell brings together several strands of scientific research and arts interests. It presents a new paradigm of cell activity which challenges long held beliefs about cell reproduction. It explores how the body is viewed as a site of extreme beauty on a microscopic level. It uses artificial life programming but injects into it a new level of biological complexity.

It also deals with the way that knowledge and understanding are communicated and how highly specialised hypotheses about the body can be represented visually rather than didactically. There will be open site days as process moves forward and series of public talks.

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cell

Jane Prophet
Jane has been noted as one of the leading UK artists working with digital media since the production of ‘TechnoSphere’ in 1995, a multi-award winning (and BAFTA-nominated) internet project, Other work includes East England based projects ‘Decoy’ at Blickling Hall and ‘Conductor’ at the Wapping Pump House.
Dr Neil Theise
Dr Theise is one of the world’s leading researchers of stem cell activity. His ground-breaking work has shown that adult stem cells from one part of the body can enable organs and tissue to regenerate in other parts. He is based at New York University Hospital, and works with collaborators at Harvard University.