Just another Monday at the bio-art lab
So, after an evening of robust debate, kimchi and sake, an update on the happenings on Day One of the RMIT SymbioticA Workshop. As discussed in the two previous posts, the major task of the day was the construction of 'laminar flow' hoods within which various bio-science activities can be conducted in a sterile micro-environment. We self-organised into groups of about 6 or 7 to →
Antrhropocentric Sterile Hood
How predicatble humans are. The silliest group attempt to create a sterile hood today couldn't help itself animating the otherwise very rational scientific instrument with human characteristics. What started with a pair of goggles inserted into the protective cover to overcome the problem of not being able to see through cloudy plastic quickly evolved into arms, hands and teeth. Even the holes →
Day 1 – Monday 16 November
by Girish Sagaram Throughout the world, a growing number of artists and designers are investigating science and technology and its implications for society and the environment. Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of SymbioticA are leaders in this field. Together they created the Tissue Culture and Art Project which is concerned with combining scientific knowledge with artistic practice and revealing "inconsistencies in →
DIY sterile hood.
Sterile hoods aim to keep the microbes out of the air, or in other words, to make sterile air conditions. Sterile spaces. This enables specimens to be worked with/prepared in controlled conditions. These contraptions usually look something like this: This is Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr at a sterile hood. We will be working with these expensive, stainless steel bits of →
Nature/Culture: The Tissue Culture King
In preparation for the SymbioticA Workshop over the weekend I read 'The Tissue Culture King' a short story by the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley. The story concerns an English biologist held prisoner by a 'lost tribe' somewhere in darkest Africa who, motivated by the desire to experiment, convinces the ruling elite to use biotechnology to reinterpret and transform the religious →
Becoming an Amateur Biologist
Published in 2002, but containing instructions for doing simple experiments/projects at home. Looks great.
EcoLogicStudio
On the eve of the SymbioticA workshop commencing, I imagine that many of the participants are wading through the reading material in preparation. I haven't got through it all, and I am already full of questions. More on that later. Having posted out invites on facebook, and in emails to various people who I thought might be interested in engaging →
Oron Catts seminar at RMIT Bundoora
The School of Applied Science at RMIT is hosting a seminar by Oron Catts this Thursday. I have only ever attended his presentations to an audience of artists and the like. This will be an almost all science crowd. This is the poster/info:
Abstract Intimacy
The New Worlds magazine discussed in the previous post, was something I "stumbled upon". I got there because I did a search for 'Harrison 2002 Light' and found this useful review of M J Harrison's 2002 sci-fi novel Light. This contains a link to something about New Worlds , which doesn't go anywhere, but obviously I persisted and found info. Now, →
Built Systems: 2040 City Exhibition
The Plastic Futures project was exhibited as part of the Design Laboratory 2009: Built Systems/2040 City presented as part of the 2009 State of Design Festival