Cultures and Colonies

Workshop with Mindaugas Gapševičius, and Mirela Alistar

Thursday 7th March 2019. 15-18h and 19h30-21h
Friday 8th March 2019. 10-13h
at ruine hq, Ihmeplatz7e, Hanover

The workshop with Mirela Alistar and Mindagaus Gapševičius invites the audience to explore their own symbiotic relationship with organisms inside and outside themselves. By using SCOBI – a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast – and other samples from the surroundings of ruine hq as metaphors for the complex organization of microorganisms in the environment, the workshop reflects on the role of a single organism in relation to its habitat. What does symbiosis really mean? How can we understand the complex interaction between microorganisms, plants and animals? How is self-organization related to being alive? Continue reading “Cultures and Colonies”

SCOBY, Shit and Humus @ transmediale Vorspiel

Participative installation. 2019

In collaboration with Julian Chollet, Juan Pablo Díaz

At the Transmediale and CTM Vorspiel 2019, 18.01.2019, 17:30 open end. Kunsthaus ACUD. Veteranenstrasse 21, 10119, Berlin

Members of the TOP Association in collaboration with members of the mikroBIOMIK Society and guests teamed up for the investigation of SCOBI, shit, and humus. The hands-on tinkering and curiosity-driven research in the premises of the association earlier this year raised more questions than answers. What does symbiosis really mean? How can we understand the complex interaction between microorganisms, plants and animals? How is self-organization related to being alive? Continue reading “SCOBY, Shit and Humus @ transmediale Vorspiel”

Radio Mycelium & How I Hack Plant Conversations @ Piksel

Installation, tutorial, toolkit, experiments. 2018

In collaboration with Martin Howse

At the 16th PIKSEL festival for electronic art and free technologies. November 22-24 2018
Workshop Nov 23, 2018 @ 10:00 Piksel Studio 207, Strandgaten 207 BERGEN

The project invites us to experience interspecies communication and feedback loops between mycelium networks and their habitats, including other organisms and beings. It also proposes the examination of a new networked imaginary between electrochemical signals, digital data, and electromagnetic waves. The project invites the user to experience plant to plant or plant to fungi interaction by connecting an electronic interface and converting data from electrochemical to digital and back to electrochemical signal. Using allelopathy as a metaphor for plant interaction, the project questions the mechanism of translation of signals, which, through the number of generations are influenced by the information from outside, including its own transmitted information. Continue reading “Radio Mycelium & How I Hack Plant Conversations @ Piksel”

How I prepare myself to be cloned. Lactose-intolerance DNA test

Installation and workshop in collaboration with Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team

28th to 29th of September 2018, at Sodų 4 project space in Vilnius

The installation and workshop invite participants to self-detect mutated sequences of the human genome. The theme is conceptually wrapped and speculated about in the toolkit “How I prepare myself to be cloned.” The toolkit provides a manual, a tutorial, and the do it yourself tools to execute three experiments: an extraction and amplification of a DNA sample, gel electrophoresis, and DNA fingerprinting.

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Mycorrhizal networks or how I hack plant conversations at Kuldīga

Workshop
3- 8 August 2018, International Summer school of contemporary art, Kuldīga (LV)

Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art is organising the Summer School in cooperation with Kuldīga artist residency and Latvian Academy of Art. It is aimed at providing the emerging professionals with lectures by acknowledged lecturers and moderators of workshops in a free and interdisciplinary form. The lectures are focused on the most up-to-date contexts of contemporary culture, development of critical thinking and collective research and creative practices.

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Mycorrhizal networks or how I hack plant conversations @ TOP

Workshop with Mindaugas Gapševičius and Alessandro Volpato
Sa, 17.03.2018. (15:00 – 18:00), TOP, Schillerpromenade 4, 12049 Berlin

Fungi are able to biodegrade organic and inorganic elements, including slowly degradable elements such as cellulose, toxins, and heavy metals. Fungi are also known for being able to transport chemical elements within their networks and their ability to exchange chemical elements with plants.

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“Shared Habitats” – Media Art and Design students exhibit in Taiwan

20 – 30 November 2017
Location: Jhongdou Wetlands Park and 116 Art Center, NKNU
Curators: Prof. Ursula Damm and Mali Wu

The Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art, National Kaohsiung Normal University, has invited 11 artists and 9 pieces from the Media Art and Design degree course at the Faculty of Art and Design of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar to feature an exhibition and interactive workshops in the Jhongdou Wetlands Park and 116 Art Center, NKNU, carrying out interdisciplinary collaboration under the theme of »Art, Technology and Ecology«. The exhibition will run from 20 to 30 November 2017.

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How I prepare myself to be cloned

Toolkit

Cloning is a complex issue involving scientific knowledge, civil law, and ethical questions yet to be solved by humanity. On the other hand, the methodology used for cloning animals is not that complex and could be easily imagined with the use of simple tools. Referring to mythological hybrids like centaurs, mermaids, and minotaurs, the toolkit, the tutorial, the paper, and a number of experiments associated with the manipulation of a genome, the project aims at envisioning possible shapes, functions, and needs of non-human humans. Continue reading “How I prepare myself to be cloned”

Mycorrhizal networks or how I hack plant conversations

Toolkit

One of the scientific terms defining plant interaction is allelopathy, a phenomenon wherein compounds produced by one plant affect the growth of surrounding plants. The compounds produced are released into the soils or taken in by symbiotic fungi and further transported over mycorrhizal networks to the target plants within the same community in order to resist invasive species. Why would fungi and plants interact with each other? How would that happen? And what further picture could be drawn from this interaction?

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