bioart

As part of the START initiative we hosted STARTS Talks with winner Giulia Tomasello. Lucas Evers moderated both in Hannover and Amsterdam.

 

An interview with artist-in-residence Pei-Ying Lin on becoming friendlier with viruses and the using them as ingredient in the kitchen.

 

De biokunstenaars Xandra van der Eijk met ‘Seasynthesis’, Cheng Guo met ‘Anon. - An intervention in the Anthropocene’ en Jiwon Woo (USA) met ‘Mother's Hand Taste (Son-mat)’ zijn op vrijdag 19 mei uitgeroepen tot de winnaars van de Bio Art & Design Award 2017 (BAD Award).

 

At MU gallery in Eindhoven, the 7th edition of the Bio Art & Design Award shows works of the winning teams and several other works of bio art and bio design under the title Fluid Matter.

 

With Cellular Propeller, Howard Boland seeks to investigate one of the possibilities of synthetic biology.

 

The next performance in the Trust Me, I'm an Artist (TMIAA) project will take place at the transmediale festival in Berlin. TMIAA focuses on the ethical issues that occur at the intersection of art, biotechnology, and biomedicine. Waag is a lead partner within the TMIAA project and Lucas Evers, head of our Open Wetlab, works closely with our artists in residence. Because Lucas has such a unique perspective on the initiative, I recently decided to interview him. The following is a condensed account of our conversation.

 

In March 2014, Leonardo/Olats and Decalab were organising a conference on Bio art - bio design. At this occasion, Lucas Evers of Waag's Open Wetlab presented our activities.

 

This book investigates new ethical issues arising through art and science collaboration and considers the roles and responsibilities of the artists, scientists and institutions involved. The projects decribed raise interesting questions for science ethics committees and help to reveal the mechanisms that drive this usually hidden process, enabling readers to understand the driving forces behind ethical decisions and the role of artists working in scientific settings more deeply.

 

Intervening in evolution by creating the perfect pigeon, food production from toxic waste and new habitats on the border of fresh and salt water in which the four cultures of people, plants, fish and shellfish come together. These three projects, each good for € 25,000, were proclaimed to be the winners of the Bio Art & Design Awards by the five-member international jury at NWO in The Hague.

 

I think that BioArt can be seen as the significant other of both scientists and artists. A menáge-a-trois between love for the rational and explainable, and the form and aesthetic of living organisms.

 

In ‘Hybrids, Chimeras and other Monsters’ the goal was to step away from the yuk-factor, and to take a closer look at BioArt from artists like Guy Ben-Ary.

 

In February 2014, Waag's Wetlab brings a new series of three lectures by Joanna Jeśman at the Waag titled 'Living tissues and living issues', as a continuation of the series The Future of Art & Science Collaborations we started last year in October.

 

The successful Designers & Artists For Genomics Award (DA4GA), the unique competition that encourages young artists internationally to discover and further develop the world of bio art and bio design, will be continuing under a new name: Bio Art & Design Award.

 

Waag collaborates with embedded researcher Louis Buckley in a project of the Creative Industries Research Centre Amsterdam (CIRCA, part of the University of Amsterdam) to evaluate Bio-Art, Ethics and Engagement.

 

Until 15 December 2013, the exhibition of the winners of the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award was on display in Leiden. Just the day after the opening, the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant already published a nice review of the special exhibition.

 

Genetically modified embryos of Zebrafish injected with GMO algae are playing an important role in the artwork Errorarium by Adam Zaretsky.

 

Three years ago the project called 'Cell explorer' was amongst the finalists of the first edition of the DA4GA (2010/2011). Unfortunately they didn't win but did succeed in finding partners (the UMCG and RUG) that supported them to realize the project.

 

Bio artist Adam Zaretsky constantly finds himself on the edge of the legally permissible. His Errorarium, for example, is home to zebra fish embryos injected with algae. The aim is that these embryos grow up to be completely self-sustaining fish and that they can make food from sunlight just as plants do.

 

Yes Naturally is an art exhibition at the GEM Museum for Contemporary Art, Fotomuseum and Gemeentemuseum Den Haag raising the fundamental question: What is natural? And who or what decides? International artists present new viewpoints, challenge old patterns and encourage sustainable behavior.

 

In the presence of the public artist Charlotte Jarvis donated blood, urine and skin tissue, to be used by Mummery’s group of stem cell research at the Hubrecht Institute. The living cells found in those substances will be medical metamorphosed into induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS) and after that into totally different sorts of bodily tissue of the artist: brain cells, blood vessel cells and hart cells, thereby creating a half-life portrait or semi-living portrait of the artist in a life support system yet to be designed.

 

The documentary Talking Plants & Morning Urine follows three young designers after winning the Designers and Artists 4 Genomics Award (DA4GA).

 

Bulletproof skin, Exploring Boundaries by Piercing Barriers, a beautiful book of art & writing about project 2.6g 329m/s.

 

The antlers on the wall on either side of the hall come from all over the world. The same thing goes for the audience - young men and women with fast glasses or flashy lipstick are sitting beside men in suit or a casual sweater. There is tension in the air. We are in the ‘Pesthuis’ at Naturalis for the announcement of the winners of the third edition of the Designers & Artists for Genomics Award, which rewards leading bio-art initiatives.

 

Mutamorphosis is an eclectic conference with over a hundred speakers with a background in art, science and activism. Last week a second edition was held in Prague, after the first successful meeting in 2007, of which all information can be found online. Themes are crisis, uncertainty, complexity and cognition; the format exists of panels of three of four speakers with a discussion.

 

On 6 December 2012, the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Awards were handed out. This unique Dutch contest brings art, design and life sciences together.

 

We’re making a fresh start with our Open Wetlab on November 16th. We'll be working with do-it-yourself biologists on bottom-up innovation: new machines, techniques and protocols – often cheaper than regular lab equipment, like a low-cost malaria tester. Anyone with an interest in biology and life sciences can get started in our lab.

 

The opening of the new Designers & Artists 4 Genomics exhibition is a fact! In the crowded Life Science room in Naturalis, the winning teams of designers/artists and scientists were put in the spotlight.