PROFILES | 2019 FIELDS INSTIT
The Fields Institute Fellowships are lifetime appointments that recognize individuals who have made
outstanding contributions to the Fields Institute and its activities. Created in 2002 as the Institute celebrated
its first 10 years, the designation of Fields Institute Fellows continues to be awarded to a small number
of people who have had significant input and involvement in the Fields Institute and its activities.
Roberta Buiani
Roberta Buiani (PhD Communication and Culture,
York University) is a media scholar, artist and
curator based in Toronto. She is the co-founder
of the ArtSci Salon, which is held at the Fields
Institute, and co-organizer of LASER Toronto (part
of the international Leonardo/ISAST Network).
Her recent research creation project, funded by
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council, draws on collaborative encounters
across the sciences and the arts to investigate
emerging life forms exceeding the categories
defined by traditional classification.
With the ArtSci Salon Dr. Buiani has launched a
series of experiments in “squatting academia”, by
re-populating abandoned and under-used cabinets
and glass showcases across university campuses
with installations featuring collaborations between
art and science and science inspired artwork.
Currently, she is a research associate at the Centre
20
Dr. Roberta Buiani and her AI double
for Feminist Research at York University.
Describing her current project, “Emergent: coping
with new categories and complex phenomena”
(2018-20), Dr. Buiani said, “My current project reflects
on the ethics and the methodological strategies
needed to address those newly emerging or newly
created life forms that won’t fit, or will exceed,
the categories defined by traditional classification
criteria. Among those new life forms are some
AR- and VR-generated digital entities, genetically
manipulated organisms engineered for research
or medical procedures, and organisms adapted to,
or emerging from, environmental mutations.
This research creation project draws on encounters
between scientists and ethicists, social scientists,
media practitioners, and performing artists,
and aims to formulate new methodological
guidelines based on interdisciplinary exchanges
rather than on disciplinary blackboxing.”