Tagny Duff

During an 11 month residency at SymbioticA I will be exploring how researchers in molecular and cellular microbiology are using retroviruses as vectors to regenerate the memory of damaged cells through transduction. Scientific processes and biotechnologies for documenting the ‘performance’ of viruses and tissue culture will be considered from the perspective of both practice and critique. My practical training in tissue culture engineering practices with the supervision of Ionat Zurr,  retroviral transduction methods with the support of Dr. Stuart Hodgetts and his research team, and training on the Zeiss scanning electron microscope with support of the staff from the CMCA, will form the basis for “Moist Media Archives”, a series of new performance-based works and writings. The intention is to explore and provoke a rethinking of current practices of taxonomic and documentation strategies used in art and science to remember performance of ‘liveness’ –raising pressing questions regarding the political and philosophical implication of surveillance, data collection and storage to render the liveness of human/animal and microscopic bodies.
Tagny Duff is an artist-researcher and independent curator based in Montreal, Canada. Many of Duff’s intervention performances, performance lectures, video, net and mobile works have been exhibited in galleries, festivals and university lecture series across North America, UK, Finland, Germany and Cuba. Duff is a sessional instructor and is currently completing a PhD through the Humanities Program at Concordia University.
The artist gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support of The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture, and Le centre interuniversitaire des arts médiatiques (CIAM) for travel assistance.  Special thanks to Ionat Zurr for supervision of tissue culture practices in the lab, Dr. Stuart Hodgetts and research team, Dr. Erin Manning, SymbioticA, The School of Anatomy and Human Biology and The Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis/Biomedical Image and Analysis Facility, The University of Western Australia, which are supported by University, State and Federal Government funding.
 Recent projects and related links:“Retrospective”-The Public Domain of Contemporary Art project
http://www.pdoca.ca
“The Parasite” - Acting Between:  Space, Body and Time ( FoFA Gallery May –June 2007)
http://fofagallery.concordia.ca/ehtml/2007/acting.htm
Archive of past performances 1997-2002
http://www.smartbodies.ca/tagny/default.htm
Canadian Centre for Contemporary Art
http://www.ccca.ca/artists/artist_info.html?languagePref=en&link_id=10963&artist=Tagny+Duff