virocode

Is it alive? What one considers animate or natural is contorted under the pressure of ideology, and the devastation of catastrophe. The classic ecology of purity, and the notion of a natural balance has be - come upended, and humanity can now look for new visions of bounty in its wreckage. An environment charged with our synthetic creations promises a new primordial soup to incubate organic futures.

For this project virocode will look to image the radical biological changes that are occurring to animate bodies due to increased consumption of plastics and other non-organic material. The extent to which the biological is being transformed by the inanimate is changing our understanding of what is alive. Is this an opening of a door to the inanimate or a closing for the biological? Should we be as optimistic as the transhumanists or are we just becoming part of the furniture?

www.virocode.com

Virocode is a collaborative effort of Peter D'Auria and Andrea Mancuso which has been exhibiting work in photography, video, installation and the digital arts throughout the United States and in Europe including: The Museum of Modern Art and The Kitchen in New York City; Artist Television Access, Artspace, Southern Exposure Gallery, and the Emanuel Walter and Etholl McBean Galleries in San Francisco; The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, Diverseworks Art Space in Houston, Texas, The University of Arizona Art Gallery, in Tucson, Arizona, Impakt Festival in The Netherlands, the European Media Art Festival in Osnabruck, Germany and at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Burch - field-Penney Art Center, CEPA gallery, Squeaky Wheel and Hallwalls in Buffalo, New York. Virocode began working together while completing undergraduate studies in Art and the Social Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo, studying with Marion Faller, Paul Sharits and Tony Conrad. Andrea Mancuso received her PhD in Visual Studies in 2016 and her BA in 1989 from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and she received her MFA in Performance/New Genre from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993 studying and working closely with Doug Hall, Margaret Crane, John Winet, Kathy Acker and Tony Labat. Andrea teaches photography and video at Nichols School in Buffalo, New York and is the current President of the Board of Directors of Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center. Peter D'Auria received a BA in Art in 1989 and MA in Pathology in 1998 from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, and a Physician Assistant Degree from Daemen College in 2003. Peter currently works in clinical practice in the Buffalo area, and is an adjunct instructor in the Physician Assistant Studies Department at Daemen College.