V2_ Knowledgebase

In the summer of 1996, Æ was initiated as an artistic research unit based on a philosophical exchange between artists Gisèle Trudel and Stéphane Claude, with the regular participation of other collaborators. Through a more anonymous framework, Æ cristallizes their interest for an ecological awareness in the use of technology, as echoed in the arts, science and shamanic traditions. Æ prepares audiovisual essays, electronic performances, databases, in-situ installations, publications, psycho-geographic walks, audio recordings to be listened in the dark... Æ is striving to reintroduce a certain figuration of the mineral/vegetal/animal world into the electronic medium, as a concrete and enlarged view of the human condition, with the objective of breaking down a generally anthropocentric societal view.

BBa_K221000 is a sequence of DNA that produces an enzyme called geosmin, which is responsible for the smell of wet earth when it begins to rain. When BBa_k221000 is transformed (injected) into the DNA of E. coli bacteria, it transforms the bacteria into “living machines” that produce the smell of rain. The mystique surrounding the aroma of the Indian monsoon is encoded as a genetic sequence. This is an artistic investigation into the narrative and promises of synthetic biology. The installation comprises a mobile DIY bio lab housed in a geodesic dome. The lab is equipped with all the facilities needed to perform rudimentary genetic engineering and is built entirely out of hacked, local, homemade consumer electronics. The bacteria / “living machines” are grown inside the lab in a custom-made incubator inviting the audience to engage, up-close in critical debates around such forms of biotechnologies. The lab also functions as a pedagogical space and artist studio, as it hosts artists’ workshops and performances and also facilitates the conceptual development of artworks that are produced by borrowing tools and methodologies from the life sciences. This mobile bio lab is collapsible and can be re-assembled in a day. The entire process of building the lab is documented and made available at http://artscienceblr.org or http://hackteria.org/wiki

Biomodd is an art project that integrates cross-cultural dialogue, ecology and technology while encouraging innovative collaboration. I and artist, scientist, and TED Fellow Angelo Vermeulen led a Biomodd workshop as part of the KIBLIX Festival and theInternational Computer Arts Festival in Maribor, Slovenia, from November 18th to the 28th, 2010. The workshop resulted in an installation piece which was exhibited at KIBLA until mid-December. Over the course of ten days, we disassembled old computers, tested computer components, installed Ubuntu (or in the case of some really old motherboards, Xubuntu) on them, designed and built different structures that incorporated plants and computers together, troubleshot algae, and met up and had long discussions with other new media artists participating in the festival.

A website about research in the field of Architecture. I have been exploring novel ways to passively harvest energy from around buildings with devices and mechanisms and finding ways to make it do useful work, this website is about that ongoing exploration. This is a research topic where there is an opportunity to gain because the principal energy resource is the sun which is completely free. A measure of success in this area is to balance the available energy from ambient resources with the possibility for buildings that respond to the dynamic changes in their surrounding environment. This is a research topic that is as much about observation of what there is to be harvested as creative thinking about matching it in time and place with the design of buildings. I think that this can be achieved in effective but subtle ways in the passive design of building enclosures, and this is a research topic that has been explored through doing design projects to demonstrate this. Please explore

Haberlandt is a vending machine food crops. At the same time biorector for growing a superfood -Arthospira platensis microalgae-and automated avant-cuisine machine. An array cyborg. Mechatronic ecosystem where life and technological systems coexist. A sharp but open system with inputs and outputs typical of an entity that depends ona chemical-energy exchange for their persistence. The machine produces algae as the ultimate goal but needs to be recharged with a minimum contribution of nutrients, being able to reduce this cycle of exchange of seaweed to human consumption (output) and human urine of rejection (input).

NCUBATOR Hybrid Laboratory at the Intersection of Art, Science and Ecology is a physical and theoretical hub, a new art/science laboratory at The University of Windsor. Founded in 2009 it functions both as an apparatus in which environmental conditions can be controlled towards the assisted proliferation of life, but also as a site that supports the proliferation of new ideas – new artistic practices. Physically and metaphorically INCUBATOR serves as site for innovative productive and performative imaginings of biotechnology as a technology of the body – a complex ecology – that implicates each of us intellectually and biologically in the continued propagation of the life sciences.

Chris Bosse, Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck founded the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture [LAVA] in 2007. It was established as a network of creative minds with a research and design focus and has offices in Sydney, Shanghai, Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi. LAVA explores frontiers that merge future technologies with the patterns of organisation found in nature and believes this will result in a smarter, friendlier, more socially and environmentally responsible future. The potential for naturally evolving systems such as snowflakes, spider webs and soap bubbles for new building typologies and structures has continued to fascinate LAVA – the geometries in nature create both efficiency and beauty. But above all the human is the centre of their investigations.

Makrolab is an autonomous communications, research and living unit and space, capable of sustaining concentrated work of 4 people in isolation/insulation conditions for up to 120 days. The project started in 1994 and was first realised during an art exhbition, documenta X in Kassel in 1997.

The installation Plantas Parlantes is a collaborative work between the artists Gilberto Esparza (MX), Javier Busturia (ES), Jigni Wang (CN), Ricardo Nascimento (BR) and Jelle Dekker (NL). Dordrecht (Netherlands), April 2010. After an initial investigation on local water planning in a context so rich and fragile as the Dutch one, the group discussed the creation of a system capable of establishing relations between the human world and the vegetable world, building a sonic sculpture formed by plants and electronic circuits where the contact between man and plant triggers sounds and poetically embodies this relationship.

The future of water is the subject of tension. Water is both disposable and sacred, a muse for artists and a necessity for life – a source of healing and of conflict. The Earth has abundant water, but only a very small proportion is available for human use. How should this be managed and sustained, and what would a water-scarce future look like? SURFACE TENSION brings together work by artists, designers, engineers and scientists to explore the future of water, playing on its physical properties, its role in politics and economics, and ways in which it may be harnessed, cleaned, and distributed.

The World in a Shell, an ambitious work in progress by artist Hans Kalliwoda, brings together themes including art and science, communities and cultural heritage. The World in a Shell is a high-tech, self-sufficient container that functions as a mobile laboratory and living unit. The container can be folded out into a large shell-shaped construction in which exhibitions, presentations and workshops can be held. In collaboration with Delft University of Technology, Kalliwoda and his team have equipped the container with the very latest sustainable technologies. Solar energy, water recycling, and communication facilities ensure the container can function autonomously in every possible environment. The project is a model of sustainability and spreads the message that the most advanced technologies can be used without harming the environment or disturbing a community's way of life.

The Environmental Health Clinic at NYU is a clinic and lab, modeled on other health clinics at universities. However the project approaches health from an understanding of its dependence on external local environments; rather than on the internal biology and genetic predispositions of an individual. The clinic works like this: you make an appointment, just like you would at a traditional health clinic, to talk about your particular environmental health concerns. What differs is that you walk out with a prescription not for pharmaceuticals but for actions: local data collection and urban interventions directed at understanding and improving your environmental health; plus referrals, not to medical specialists but to specific art, design and participatory projects, local environmental organizations and local government or civil society groups: organizations that can use the data and actions prescribed as legitimate forms of participation to promote social change.