bioartbox

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SILENT BARRAGE

by - Philip Gamblen, Guy Ben-Ary, Peter Gee, Dr. Nathan Scott & Brett Murray in collaboration with Dr. Steve Potter Lab, (Dr. Steve Potter, Douglas Swehla, Stephen Bobic & Riley Zeller-Townson) Georgia Institute of Technology.

Silent Barrage declares its presence in scale and sound. This architectural scale arrangement of noisy pole robots is more then a mere amplification of neuronal activity in a culture dish.

Silent Barrage investigates the nature of thoughts, free will, and neural dysfunction. The work focuses at the bursts of uncontrolled activity of nerve tissue, a typical characteristic of epilepsy and cultured nerve cells. Silent Barrage uses audience movements in, and responses to the architectural space of amplified neuronal activity to feed it back to the cultured nerve cells in an attempt to silence the barrage of electrical impulses. The scientists hope that this might help them understand better how to quieten the activity in the culture dish, and this in turn would assist in treating epilepsy.

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Silent Barrage afferma la sua presenza in scala e suono. Questa disposizione architettonica di rumorosi pali robotici è più di un mero ampliamento dell' attività neuronale in una capsula di Petri.

Silent Barrage indaga la natura dei pensieri, il libero arbitrio e la disfunzione neurale. Il lavoro si concentra nelle raffiche di attività incontrollata del tessuto nervoso, una caratteristica tipica dell'epilessia e delle cellule nervose in coltura.

Silent Barrage utilizza i movimenti del pubblico e le risposte allo spazio architettonico dell'amplificata attività neuronale per alimentare nuovamente le cellule nervose coltivate nel tentativo di mettere a tacere la raffica di impulsi elettrici.

Gli scienziati sperano che questo possa aiutarli a capire meglio come acquietare l'attività nella capsula di coltura e questo a sua volta potrebbe aiutare nel trattamento dell'epilessia.

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BIOARTCAMP

BioARTCAMP is a two-week residency program at The Banff Centre directed by Dr. Jennifer Willet from The University of Windsor, Canada. BioARTCAMP is a hybrid workshop / conference / performance event where 20 national and international artists, scientists, filmmakers, and university students will work for two weeks to build a portable biology laboratory in Banff National Park.  BioARTCAMP will serve as a “field research station” housing a functional biological sciences lab and a variety of art/science projects.

The BioARTCAMP Video was co-produced by G-Netwerk & INCUBATOR

(Jeanette Groenendaal, Zoot Derks and Jennifer Willet) and serves an evocative artwork itself, while providing a glimpse of the BioARTCAMP experience to a larger general audience. 

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LATENT FIGURE PROTOCOL by PAUL VANOUSE

Latent Figure Protocol takes the form of a media installation that uses DNA samples to create emergent representational images. The installation includes a live science experiment, the result of which is videotaped and repeated for the duration of the gallery exhibit. Employing a reactive gel and electrical current, Latent Figure Protocol produces images that relate directly to the DNA samples used. The above images were re-produced live.  Each performance lasts approximately one hour, during which time audience members see the image slowly emerge.   In the first experiment, a copyright symbol is derived from the DNA of an industrially-produced organism (a plasmid called “pET-11a”), illuminating ethical questions around the changing status of organic life and the ownership of living organisms.  Future instances of the LFP will use the DNA of other subjects and create other images.

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ITA.

Latent Figure Protocol si concretizza di una installazione multimediale che utilizza campioni di DNA per creare immagini emergenti rappresentative. L'installazione è un esperimento scientifico vivo, il cui risultato è videoregistrato e ripetuto per tutta la durata della esibizione in galleria. Utilizzando un gel reattivo e corrente elettrica, Latent Figure Protocol produce immagini che si riferiscono direttamente ai campioni di DNA utilizzati. Le immagini qui sopra sono state ri-prodotte live. Ogni spettacolo dura circa un'ora, durante la quale i membri del pubblico vedono l'immagine lentamente emergere.

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LET A THOUSAND PROTEINS BLOOM by ABHISHEK HAZRA

Medium: Human Breast Milk, Assorted Glassware, Various Laboratory Reagents | Dimensions: Variable | Exhibition Details: VISCERAL: The Living Art Experiment. The SymbioticA anniversary show curated by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, Science Gallery Dublin, 2011 " In attempting to produce ammonium nitrate (a chemical used both as a fertilizer as well as in explosives) from human breast milk, this project interrogates popular perceptions around ‘good’ and ‘bad’ material. A process called deamination is utilized to extract ammonia from the milk proteins. The work ironically evokes a dystopic scenario where ‘rogue nation states’ of a not so distant future are forced to harness biomaterials in unforeseen ways. Also, in staging this entire attempt as a failed experiment, the work foregrounds the constraining logic of efficacy and utility that often frames our scientific discourse. This project evolved from my ongoing interest in the history of science as well as in organic chemistry with its cyclical scripts for chemical transformation. "

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ITA.

"Nel tentativo di produrre nitrato di ammonio (una sostanza chimica utilizzata sia come fertilizzante che come esplosivo) dal latte materno umano, questo progetto si interroga sulla percezione popolare riguardo ai materiali 'buoni' e 'cattivi'. Un processo chiamato deaminazione è utilizzato per estrarre l'ammoniaca dalle proteine ​​del latte. L'opera evoca ironicamente uno scenario distopico dove ‘rogue nation states’ di un futuro non così lontano sono obbligati ad utilizzare i biomateriali in modo imprevisto. Inoltre, nel tentato fallimento di questa messa in scena, viene messa in primo piano la logica vincolante di efficacia e di utilità che spesso iquadra il nostro dibattito scientifico. Questo progetto si è evoluto dal mio continuo interesse per la storia della scienza, così come per quella della chimica organica, con i suoi script ciclici nella trasformazione chimica."

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BLOOD WARS by KATHY HIGH

"Blood Wars is an art project that looks at the biological reaction of competing human white blood cells and also questions traits inherited through blood. This project is a competition in an ironic simulated tournament where different individuals’ white blood cells vie for dominance in the petri dish.

Blood Wars playfully engages with age-old debates about blood traits and the powerful histories of blood. Designed like a series of World Cup tournament playoffs, the cellular ‘winner’ of each round goes on to fight another participant. Participating in Blood Wars brings a better understanding of the processes of blood cell division, cell staining, immune cells and the functioning of the immune system, time-lapse microscopy and laboratory protocol. As well Blood Wars can function as a mediation tool, used for conflict resolution, to end wars and solve entanglement.

Blood trophies are offered to the winners. "

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ITA.

Blood Wars è un progetto artistico che prende in esame la reazione biologica competitiva dei globuli bianchi umani e le caratteristiche ereditate attraverso il sangue. Questo progetto è una gara che simula ironicamente un torneo in cui i globuli bianchi dei diversi individui si contendono il predominio nella capsula di Petri.

Blood Wars innesta giocosamente dibattiti secolari sulle caratteristiche del sangue e le storie di sangue e potere. Progettato come una serie di tornei da Coppa del Mondo, il 'vincitore' cellulare di ogni round va a combattere con un altro partecipante.

Partecipare ai Blood Wars porta ad una migliore comprensione dei processi di divisione cellulare del sangue, colorazione delle cellule, cellule immunitarie e il funzionamento del sistema immunitario, la microscopia in time-lapse e il protocollo di laboratorio.

Blood Wars può anche funzionare come strumento di mediazione, utilizzato per la risoluzione dei conflitti, per terminare le guerre e risolvere grovigli.

Trofei di sangue sono offerti ai vincitori.

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THE VISION SPLENDID by ALICIA KING

The Vision Splendid explores biotech processes and the physical, ethical and ritual body, through the augmentation of human tissue in sculptural form.

Cells and tissue are presented ‘living’ in the purpose-built glass bioreactor, designed in collaboration with (USA) - a portable, low-tech, low cost artificial body, used to support the life and growth of living mammal cells and tissue – including the artists own.

In this incarnation, the living tissue growing in the glass bioreactor originates from an anonymous female. Her cells were purchased through the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) online catalogue of over 4,000 human, animal, and plant cell lines for order. Listed are the cell type and characteristics, donor age, ethnicity, and date of sample. These are Hs 53.T Fibroblast cells, isolated from the skin sample of a 13 year old African-American female on January 31 1969.

Trawling through the thousands of products in the ATCC catalogue for these cells drew to mind searching through online obituary notices, though depersonalised to the point of their pathology alone – so completely devoid of subjectivity.

In The Vision Splendid these cells and tissue, estranged from the donor’s body, present here re-embodied within a form of mobile contemporary living reliquary, much like the first reliquaries which toured between towns like travelling sideshow ‘miracles’.

Though, unlike traditional relics, this contemporary use of tissue outside the body re-commodifies and de-subjectifies, further eliminating all traces of the individual from whom it came, in a self-reflexive metaphor of its own cultural status.

In response, the living tissue sculpture takes the form of fangs - referencing the use of human material in biomedicine, poignantly described by Scheper-Huges as a ‘new form of late modern cannibalism’* in which the individual’s need for tissue (flesh and blood) consumption is broadened to a society’s commodification of the flesh and blood of its common population to pursue economic and physical immortality.

This cannibalistic attitude towards the body is expressed through the active tissue economy in which the body has become an amalgamation of raw material for commodification and production, laying dormant in mausoleum-like biological tissue banks such as ATCC, awaiting to be re-animated into a ‘living’ state.

(This project was researched and developed at SymbioticA: the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts in the School of Anatomy and Human Biology at the University of Western Australia.

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ITA

The Vision Splendid esplora i processi biotecnologici e il corpo fisico, etico e rituale, attraverso la crescita del tessuto umano in forma scultorea. Cellule e tessuti sono presentati 'vivi' nel bioreattore di vetro appositamente costruito, progettato in collaborazione con (USA) - un corpo artificiale portatile a basso costo, utilizzato per sostenere la vita e la crescita delle cellule viventi di mammiferi e tessuti - comprese quelle degli artisti.In questa incarnazione, il tessuto vivente che cresce nel bioreattore di vetro proviene da una femmina anonima. Le sue cellule sono state acquistate attraverso l'American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), un catalogo online di oltre 4.000 cellule umane, animali e vegetali. Nella lista sono presenti il tipo di cellula e le sue caratteristiche quali l'età del donatore, l'etnia e la data del campione. In questo caso si tratta di cellule Hs 53.T fibroblasti, isolate dal campione di pelle di una 13enne afro-americana femmina il 31 gennaio 1969.Pescata a caso tra migliaia di prodotti nel catalogo ATCC che ricorda la ricerca attraverso le notizie on-line di necrologi, anche se spersonalizzata dalla propria patologia e così completamente priva di soggettività.

In The Vision Splendid queste cellule e tessuti, estraniate dal corpo del donatore, sono qui presentate re-incarnate in una forma di reliquario contemporaneo vivo e mobile, proprio come i primi reliquiari che giravano tra le città e mostrati come "miracoli". Anche se, a differenza delle reliquie tradizionali, questo uso contemporaneo di tessuto al di fuori del corpo ri-mercifica e de-soggettivizza, eliminando inoltre tutte le tracce della persona da cui proviene, in una metafora auto-riflessa del proprio status culturale. Inoltre, a scultura vivente di tessuto assume la forma di zanne - riferimento all'impiego di materiale umano nella biomedicina, acutamente descritto da Scheper-Hughes come una 'nuova forma di cannibalismo tardo moderno', in cui il bisogno individuale del consumo del tessuto viene ampliato da una società che mercifica la carne e il sangue della propria popolazione per perseguire l'immortalità economica e fisica.

Questo atteggiamento cannibale verso il corpo si esprime attraverso l'economia attiva del tessuto in cui il corpo è diventato un amalgama di materia prima per la mercificazione e la produzione, deposta in latenza nel Mausoleo - come nelle banche dei tessuti biologici dell'ATCC, in attesa di essere ri-animate in un stato 'vivente'.

(Questo progetto è stato studiato e sviluppato presso SymbioticA: il Centro di Eccellenza in Arte Biologiche presso la Scuola di Anatomia e Biologia Umana presso l'University of Western Australia.

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PROTO-ANIMATE 20 by ANDRE BRODYK

VISCERAL: THE LIVING ART EXPERIMENT Science Gallery, January 28 - February 25, 2011 Can non-coding DNA be given a new lease of life through modern biotech processes? Proto-animate is concerned with genetic material that is considered inanimate in so far as it does not code for proteins within the genomic environment. However, these strands of non-coding DNA do have potential properties as yet to be comprehensively defined. In Proto-animate a novel code sequence is comprised of 158 DNA letters (bases) derived from what is considered a non-coding region of a gene. This gene known as the APOE gene (Apolipoprotein E) is associated with Alzheimer's disease in humans. This sequence was inserted in E.coli bacteria and is the principal creative agent at work. Through this process a previously inanimate, non-coding section of DNA is poetically expressed in interplay of memories and repetition within the artist's childhood classroom.

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ITA

Può il DNA non codificato fornire una nuova prospettiva di vita attraverso moderni processi biotecnoligici? Proto-animate si occupa del materiale genetico considerato inanimato in quanto non codifica per proteine ​​all'interno dell'ambiente genomico. Tuttavia, questi strati di DNA non codificanti hanno potenziali proprietà ancora da definire. In Proto-animate una nuova sequenza di codice che comprende 158 lettere di DNA (basi) deriva da quello che è considerato una regione non codificata di un gene. Questo gene noto come gene APOE (apolipoproteina E) è associato con l'Alzheimer nell'uomo. Questa sequenza è stata inserita nei batteri E.coli ed è il principale agente creativo all'opera. Attraverso questo processo una sezione precedentemente inanimata, una sezione non codificanta del DNA, è poeticamente espressa nell'interazione di ricordi e ripetizioni nell'ambito dell'aula d'infanzia dell'artista.

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VARICOSE by ARI WEINKLE

Typographic experiment based on visceral movement, growth, and texture.

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ITA.

Esperimento tipografico basato sul movimento viscerale, la crescita e la texture.

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THE LIVING SCREEN by BIO-KINO

I want to write more on collective bio-kino because I come mostly from the video world and I'm particularly interested in their project.

" The Living Screen project produces new poetics, made possible by fusing bio-technology into a living cinematic apparatus. It embodies and anticipates renewed cinematic techniques and modes of expression, while also offering an alternative approach to understanding Bio-Art, which is, ‘Bio-Art as a Freak Show’.

The Living Screen is a new species, a living cinematic apparatus.

The screens are alive, transform, react and change over time and eventually die. Therefore, it contort the projected Nano-Movie in as yet – unknown ways, and confront the spectators with issues such as life, death, virtuality and reality."

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ITA

Voglio scrivere ancora sul collettivo bio-kino poichè io provengo maggiormente dal mondo del video e sono particolarmente interessata ai loro progetti.

" Il progetto The Living Screen produce nuove poetiche, rese possibili dalla fusione della bio-tecnologia in un dispositivo cinematografico vivente. Incarna e anticipa rinnovate tecniche cinematografiche e modi di espressione, offrendo anche un approccio alternativo alla comprensione della Bio-Art, che è 'Bio-Art come Freak Show'.

The Living Screen è una nuova specie, un apparato cinematografico vivente. "

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From now I decided to publish the post in my native language: Italian. In Italian there is still very little about bioart so I decided to turn this blog bi-lingual.

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INVOCATION OF MY DEMON SCREEN by BIO-KINO

Invocation Of My Demon Screen casts a cinematic spell by employing the techniques of the French filmmaker Jean Painleve. Painleve cinematically synthesized poetry and science in his surreal zoological films from the 1930s through to the 70s. Invocation Of My Demon Screen, emphasises the properties of time over the qualities of movement with a projection of the microscopic movie onto a living screen.

Produced to celebrate the 10th anniversary of SymbioticA, VISCERAL sees the world premiere of Bio-Kino’s most recent manifestation of The Living Screen project. Bio-Kino was established in 2004 as a collective of two artists (Tanya Visosevic and Guy Ben-Ary) and an optical engineer (Bruce Murphy).

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THE SEMI-LIVING WORRY DOLLS by ORON CATTS and IONAT ZURR

Tissue Culture and Art Project

The Semi-Living Worry Dolls were the first tissue engineered sculptures to be presented alive in a gallery eleven years ago.  Inspired by the Guatemalan worry dolls given to children to whisper their worries and concerns to, these worry dolls were hand crafted out of degradable polymers (PGA and P4HB) and surgical sutures.

The dolls are then seeded with living cells that, throughout the exhibition, will gradually replace the polymers within a micro-gravity bioreactor that acts as a surrogate body. The worry dolls become partially alive. These semi-living dolls represent the current stage of cultural limbo, characterised by childlike innocence and a mixture of wonder and fear of technology. This work invites you to whisper your worries to the worry dolls—will they take your concerns away?

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Creativity Bytes: A Brief Guide To Bio-art by Kevin Holmes

"The mermaid may soon become reality. Along with the Griffin, the Centaur, and (hopefully) the unicorn. Just don’t tell PETA."

http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/creativity-bytes-a-brief-guide-to-bio-art

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::vtol:: "reading my body"

а sound controller that uses tattoo as a music score

this is a special instrument that combines human body and robotic system into a single entity that is designed to automate creative process in an attempt to represent the artist and his instrument as a creative hybrid. The device consists of a railing with comfortable hand holders and two parallel, but offset from each other black lines' sensors that move along the arm using a stepper motor. It is equipped with a 3-dimensional Wii remote controller that uses the OSC protocol in order to give a possibility of additional expression achieved by moving hand in space.

more info, images and demo - vtol.cc/filter/works/reading-my-body

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GFP bunny by Eduardo Kac

Alba is a cuddly albino rabbit that hops around, snuffles its nose, and munches carrots just like any other rabbit. Turn off the lights, switch on the ultra violet lamps and it becomes GFP Bunny, a transgenic artwork. Alba, Spanish for dawn, is both alien and cuddly. Turn on the UV light and she changes from loveable family pet to a disconcerting vision of the future, a science fiction pet with an eerie green glow emanating from every cell, from her paws, her whiskers, and especially her eyes. She is the product of Eduardo Kac's imagination. An artist who has produced two exhibits based on GFP technology, GFP Bunny and The Eighth Day. They are both part of his Creation Trilogy.

Kac and Alba were going to live in a faux living room created in the gallery, signifying how biotechnologies are entering our lives, even in the privacy of our living rooms. However, on the eve of the show the director of the institute who had created Alba reportedly refused to release her to Kac. This fueled the dialogue portion of the exhibit and soon Alba was competing with the Olympics for headlines in the Boston Globe, Le Monde , the BBC and ABC news. The GFP-Bunny exhibit was meant to be a political project that would break down the barriers between art, science and politics, and in this it succeeded.

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Reg. AlgaeFarm by ecoLogicStudio

http://www.ecologicstudio.com/v2/project.php?idcat=3&idsubcat=59&idproj=110

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H.O.R.T.U.S - ecoLogicStudio

H.O.R.T.U.S, a new exhibition from ecoLogicStudio designed for the AA Front Members Room, engages the notions of urban renewable energy and agriculture through a new gardening prototype; the proto-garden host micro and macro-algal organisms as well as bioluminescent bacteria; fitted with ambient light sensing technologies and a custom designed virtual interface, H.O.R.T.U.S stimulates the emergence of novel material practices and related spatial narratives.