Postdoctoral fellow WhiteFeather Hunter awarded grant to support BioArt in Canada project

School of Interactive Arts & Technology (SIAT) postdoctoral fellow Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter was recently awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant to support her research, BioArt in Canada.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grants support funding opportunities to address global challenges identified through the Imagining Canada’s Future initiative and are intended to support the synthesis of existing research knowledge and to identify knowledge gaps.

The $20,000 grant was awarded to Hunter to examine bioart in Canada as a complex, evolving field situated at the intersection of contemporary art, biological sciences, and critical theory.

Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter’s research: BioArt in Canada

BioArt in Canada is a research synthesis project led by Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter that will investigate how Canadian bioart intersects with biotechnology, microbiology, tissue engineering, biofabrication, ecological practices, and feminist, Indigenous, and decolonial approaches to knowledge production, by mapping the people and programs currently active in bioart in Canada.

The work done by Dr. Hunter’s research team, including research assistant and new SIAT PhD student Ludmila Lima de Morais, will examine bioart work being conducted in Canada through ethical, political, and cultural lenses, and identify the gaps, barriers, and inequities in access to resources and infrastructure faced by those working in the field, in order to situate Canadian bioart practices within broader international contexts.

WhiteFeather hopes that BioArt in Canada will increase the visibility of the field in Canada, and create more opportunities for Canadian bioart organizations, researchers and artists to connect, share knowledge, and build strong support networks.

Working out of the Critical Media Art Studio (cMAS) at School of Interactive Arts & Technology, this research is supported by project partners like the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence and Art/In Forum, who are providing Dr. Hunter’s research group with a virtual residency that includes data collection and visualization technical support, and web hosting for the project’s microsite.

“The opportunities for new art forms and integration of art production, critique and consumption into daily life are considerable” Dr. Hunter says, “as are potential challenges to IPR and royalties, artistic authenticity, and the roles of museums in an age of scanning, digital archives, and 3D printers. Potential evolution of art into new spaces (undersea or in deep space), or as new media (living art or genetic design), suggest that arts may be the new strategic literacy.”

About Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter

Dr. Hunter’s recent projects include Sentient Clit—The Pussification of Biotech, an exploration of 3D-bioprinting clitorises embedded with her menstrual stem cells differentiated to neuronal types, in order to produce a synthetic organ that responds to stimuli. The project was awarded an Ars Electronica 2024 S+T+ARTS Prize jury nomination.

About the Critical Media Art Studio

Critical Media Art Studio (cMAS) is a feminist research-creation studio formed by a community of artists, researchers, and scholars working at the intersections of art, science, and technology.

Engaging deeply with history, theory, and practice, cMAS examines how old and emerging technologies shape cultural narratives, artistic forms, and embodied experiences. Their work is grounded in feminist theories, decolonial perspectives, and research-creation methodologies that value collaboration, situated knowledge, and experimentation as modes of inquiry.

cMAS is directed by Dr. Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda and shares space with Dr. Kate Hennessy’s Making Culture Lab in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus. Our work takes place on the unceded territories of the Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Kwantlen, Katzie, Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), and Qayqayt First Nations.