V2_ Knowledgebase

The city is a vast and incredibly complex metabolism in which the human species is the tiniest of fractions; tiny and yet intrinsically linked into an organic embroidery beyond our understanding. It is within this complex fabric that (future) biotechnologies will end up. Pigeon d’Or proposes the use of feral pigeons as a platform and interface for synthetic biology in an urban environment by attempting to make a pigeon defecate soap. By modifying the metabolism of pigeons, synthetic biology allows us to add new functionality to what are commonly seen as “flying rats.” A special bacteria has been designed and created that, when fed to pigeons, turns feces into detergent and is as harmless to pigeons as yoghurt is to humans. Through the pursuit of manipulating pigeon excrement and designing appropriate architectural interfaces, the project explores the ethical, political, practical and aesthetic consequences of designing biology.

La planta nómada nace de una reflexión acerca de los entornos modificados por la actividad humana y sus consecuencias sociales y ambientales. Estos cambios abruptos, impactan en la vida de organismos que tienen que adaptarse o desaparecer.

At the extremity of The Netherlands, to the west of Rotterdam, an extension to the port of Rotterdam has been underway since September 2008. With the construction of Maasvlakte 2, The Netherlands will become 2,000 hectares larger and the port, already the biggest in Europe, will increase in size by 20%. The construction of Maasvlakte 2 prompted the Port of Rotterdam Authority to join with SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) in inviting the curatorial office Latitudes to in turn ask artists to reflect on the port, its expansion and its function. Under the title 'Portscapes', an artistic voyage of discovery has taken place throughout 2009, touching on the port's architectural, political, social and ecological past, present and future. Portscapes involves artists from The Netherlands, Mexico, Austria, Spain and Great Britain. By creating events, temporary art works, performances, photography, video work and excursions in and about the port area.

Despite its quaint reputation, agriculture has always been an early adapter of technology. This is evident from the beginning of mechanization with the cotton gin, McCormick's Reaper, tractors, hybrid seed, to genetically engineered plants that protect themselves and grow in arid environments. Yields have grown quickly, but demand from developing countries and population growth are growing faster We know that we need to continue to find ways to increase the productivity of land on a per unit basis. Agriculture has started to add computerization and automation to the current machinery with things like GPS based precision farming systems that can autonomously drive tractors, monitor yield, and apply fertilizer. However, these aftermarket add-ons are built around the single most expensive and awkward part of the equipment. The person controlling the tractor. Prospero is the working prototype of an Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a combination of swarm and game theory.

The pulser pump is a simple, water powered mechanical device, also known as a bubble pump. Components of this pump have been used for various purposes, including the extraction of oil or in refrigeration cycles. Heat driven bubble pumps are most common, but this particular design of a pulser pump using the turbulent flow in a stream to trap air has yet to become common. The two main benefits of this pump are that it has no mechanical or moving parts, and that it doesn't use any chemicals, only the water from a stream. Once installed near a stream, the pump can lift water using only the energy from the stream.

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.

Reservoir of Seasons, our microecosystem is not about presenting phenomena which many people will never experience, like dying polar bears, melting icebergs or the cooling of the Gulf Stream, but about the subtle changes we experience every day, it is an experimental project to show how we loose our springs and falls…

A world with a fluid atmosphere in a glass tank. Dark crystals grow trying to make connections. Constellations develop. They generate sound. And after some time they dissolve into clouds..., Dynamic Sculpture, 2005-2006.

In Synthetic Biology, the Biobrick has been used as an abstraction or template for creating standardized functional living parts. Searching for UGEM is an alternate re-appropriations of the BioBrick by using existing BioBrick primers as random-PCR(Polymerase Chain Reaction) primers in investigating soil samples. This random PCR will provide a succinct signature of the biological diversity present in these samples. These investigations of soil lead us to ask questions about citizen’s science "performed" by non-institutional actors using accessible tools as well as gives us a glimpse into the "post-natural world" where BioBricks may end up in our environment and may very well show up as bands in a gel. By imagining a world in which the Biobrick has become the accepted standard for synthetic biology, and where these engineered products are ubiquitous in our lives and environments, the samples we archive will serve as the baseline from which the subsequent extent of human influence can be measured. These investigations are carried out in a custom built public research laboratory, the blueprints for making one are available online. These Autonomous Public Laboratories can be used as template for creating a citizen's research lab with which one can carry out "experiments"-biotechnological or otherwise.

For the Sevilla Biennale I worked with Ecologic Studio to implement a layer of electronic intelligence and monitoring to augment their systems of biological response for StemCloud. The basic variables in the system were Water + Nutrients + CO2. The CO2 was to be provided by the visitors by blowing into the tubes. The goal for the monitoring system was to track the amount of interaction (and thus CO2) units were receiving, save this to a database to compare to the other variables over time, and reflect this through the intensity of the LEDs such that units which had received less CO2 would glow brighter to attract attention.

SUN-D’s look like LED screens, but they’re anything but that. They’re powered by daylight or distinct light sources. They interact with their immediate environment. It’s an aesthetic fusion of information and lighting design. SUN_D depicts information via sunlight and extant natural light sources. To counteract the general sensory overload due to digital media that frequently put a real strain on users, we intentionally work with a way of depicting graphics whose naturally engendered glow is quite pleasant for the human eye to behold.

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.

Will technomorphization – the reorganization of the organic based on the intelligent machine model – become the dominant process of our age? Has evolution entered a technological scientific phase in which humans no longer develop in natural ways, in which the human body instead adapts itself to the parameters of a technological era? In this book, fourteen internationally acclaimed authors give their views on this blurring of borders and the fusion of the biological with the technological. It offers ideas on angels and robots, viruses and mad cows, a world where machines are anthromorphized and humans technomorphized. If the glare of our monitors is all that illuminates us, is it time to build a museum for the sun?

Cost is still a major limiting factor for low-carbon energy technologies. The Energy Pilots research program has been established to challenge the conventional energy business model in an effort to make low-carbon energy technologies cost-competitive. The program develops hypothetical business models by borrowing proven techniques from other sectors, and adapts them to fit the financial difficulties of specific low-carbon technologies. Representative devices are then demonstrated in public spaces to discuss the viability and social implications of these hypothetical strategies.

Magnum Opus, or The Great Work, is an Alchemical process that describes a personal, spiritual and chemical method for creating the Philosopher’s Stone, a mysterious red colored substance that was capable of transmuting base matter into the noble metal of gold. Efforts made to discover the principals of the Philosopher’s Stone was one of the defining and at the same time seemingly unobtainable objectives of Western Alchemy. The Great Work of the Metal Lover is an artwork that sits at the intersection of art, science and alchemy, re-examining the problem of transmutation through the use of modern microbiological practice and thus solving the ancient riddle.