Viewing and Artist Talk
Nasim Manouchehrabadi: The Power of Form, the Form of Power
25 - 27 October 2013

The Tehran-born and Berlin-based artist and designer Nasim Manouchehrabadi presented her work The Power of Form, The Form of Power at Art Laboratory Berlin from 25-27 October 2013. The work The Power of Form, The Form of Power brings together, in the sublimated form of a carpet, cultural, social and political aspects of life in Iran and shows the contrast between tradition and modernity in Iranian society. The examination of ornamental geometric forms, the political protests against the Islamic regime in 2009, and social conflicts in modern society all serve as the starting points for artistic engagement.

Curated by Olga Shmakova

Artist Talk with Pinar Yoldas- 3 October, 2013

Pinar Yoldas is a cross-disciplinary artist and researcher with a background in architecture, interface design, computing and neuroscience. Her work investigates social and cultural systems in regards to biological and ecological systems. She is the 2013/14 resident at the Vilém Flusser Residency Programme for Artistic Research, run by transmediale and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).

Pinar has a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California Los Angeles. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Visual and Media Studies program at Duke University, where she's pursuing a certificate in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She has been awarded fellowships in art and science venues including the MacDowell Colony, UCross Foundation, VCCA and National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

Her current project An Ecosystem of Excess is an attempt to create a post-human eco-system, a living community of speculative organisms and their environment. The project takes the idea that we are surrounded by "man-made extreme environments" as its starting point. A man-made extreme environment is a site of excess, where leftovers of our capitalistic desires and consumerist actions are accumulated. Hence junkyards, landfills, wastelands are all examples of "man-made extreme environments'. An Ecosystem of Excess starts in the Pacific Trash Vortex. Discovered in 1985 by Captain Roger Marshall, this site is a floating nexus of plastic waste covering roughly 5000 km² area of the Pacific. Pacific Trash Vortex is a monument of plastic waste at a global scale.

http://www.transmediale.de/content/project-description-an-ecosystem-of-excess
http://pinaryoldas.info/speculativeBiologies/
http://www.endangeredspecies.be

in cooperation with transmediale

Speculative Biology Workshop with Pinar Yoldas on 28 September 2013

Photographs from Speculative Biology Workshop: The Design of Biological Systems and Neo-organs with Pinar Yoldas

In her workshop the artist gave a quick overview into general biological systems such as the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the nervous system, the reproductive system etc., and how these systems might evolve under the influence of global environmental transformations.

Somewhere between bio-mimicry and critical design, the workshop will gave particpants the time and assets to discuss and design speculative models for life forms for a post-human era.

Two Events with Pinar Yoldas - 28 September and 3 October, 2013

Speculative Biology Workshop:
The Design of Biological Systems and Neo-organs
with Pinar Yoldas
28 September, 2013 from 1 - 6PM

“...from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” (Charles Darwin)

Unlike man, nature expresses efficiency through complexity, where each organism seeks new ways to exploit resources, and to defend against being 'exploited' in turn. And now man, a creature who would become the supreme exploiter, has in the last few centuries radically changed the equation. Pumping hydrocarbons out of the earth to run manifold industries, and produce energy for profit and leisure, we are not only changing the face of the earth, but also the atmosphere, and with it the climate - which in turn has set off an almost endless set of reactions throughout the biological systems of the planet.

As artist Pinar Yoldas writes: "Our capitalistic biomass manufactures mountains of e-waste, beaches of tar, rivers of zinc, oceans of plastic. We are an army of plastic surgeons giving the planet a new face. A face that opens its eyes to new life forms, new beginnings, new extremities. What kind of fish will swim in the plastic ocean? Who will be sunbathing on the beaches of tar? What plants will thrive in a forest of concrete and steel? Which insects will lay eggs on the valleys of asphalt? What birds will fly in the hazy mornings of a smog stained sky?"

In her workshop the artist will give a quick overview into general biological systems such as the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the nervous system, the reproductive system etc., and how these systems (or more specifically organs) might evolve under the influence of global environmental transformations.

Somewhere between bio-mimicry and critical design, the workshop will give you the time and assets to design your own lungs, grow that extra organ you always wished for or think about that ultimate meat supplier with zero methane impact you have been craving for.

Participants will then discuss and design speculative models for life forms for a post-human era.

Registration required! Register under: presse@artlaboratory-berlin.org

 
  

Artist Talk with Pinar Yoldas
3 October, 2013 at 7 PM

Pinar Yoldas is a cross-disciplinary artist and researcher with a background in architecture, interface design, computing and neuroscience. Her work investigates social and cultural systems in regards to biological and ecological systems. She is the 2013/14 resident at the Vilém Flusser Residency Programme for Artistic Research, run by transmediale and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).

Pinar has a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of California Los Angeles. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Visual and Media Studies program at Duke University, where she's pursuing a certificate in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She has been awarded fellowships in art and science venues including the MacDowell Colony, UCross Foundation, VCCA and National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

Her current project An Ecosystem of Excess is an attempt to create a post-human eco-system, a living community of speculative organisms and their environment. The project takes the idea that we are surrounded by "man-made extreme environments" as its starting point. A man-made extreme environment is a site of excess, where leftovers of our capitalistic desires and consumerist actions are accumulated. Hence junkyards, landfills, wastelands are all examples of "man-made extreme environments'. An Ecosystem of Excess starts in the Pacific Trash Vortex. Discovered in 1985 by Captain Roger Marshall, this site is a floating nexus of plastic waste covering roughly 5000 km² area of the Pacific. Pacific Trash Vortex is a monument of plastic waste at a global scale.

http://www.transmediale.de/content/project-description-an-ecosystem-of-excess
http://pinaryoldas.info/speculativeBiologies/

in cooperation with transmediale  

Photos of artist talk with C-LAB and Rüdiger Trojok - 24 August, 2012

C-LAB is a London based artist collective, founded by the two artists and scientists Laura Cinti and Howard Boland, that is dealing critically with contemporary intersections and cross-fertilisation of art, science, and technology. The work of Cinti and Boland focuses on the examination and exploration of the implications, properties and peculiarities of all which is or regards organic and synthetic life. This being their incentive, they want to create a platform that is open for both artistic and scientific reflection and discourse. In their most recent experimental art projects, C-LAB developed a variety of genetic constructs that led to new kinds of behavior of e.coli bacteria; the scientists thereby explored the possibilities of synthetic biology and techniques of genetic engineering in an art context (e.g. in artworks such as kate, katEred, Stressostat or Banana Bacteria). 

Laura Cinti from C-LAB (front left)

Howard Boland from C-LAB presenting

Also the DIY scene has started to experiment with biology on a molecular level in private homes. The technologies and chemicals that they use are usually being acquired through the internet, just like the theoretical background knowledge and the working instructions. This growing community meets in online forums or festivals, and is connected worldwide. The movement is creating both fascination and discomfort, the potential misuse of modern biotechnologies is creating fears in times of repeated warnings of pandemics through viruses such as SARS or H5N1. At the same time this democratization of technologies and knowledge can lead to new impulses for the sciences as well as enhance public debate and consciousness.
   
Rüdiger Trojok gave  a presentation of the do-it-yourself biohacking scene and the possibilities and limits of bringing biotechnologies into private spaces.

various DIY bio-labs

Rüdiger Trojok presenting

The talk was organized and presented by presented by Desiree Förster and Daniela Silvestrin in collaboration with Art Laboratory Berlin

Discussion after the presentations

'shimmering' bacteria, effected by a magnetic field

'shimmering' bacteria, effected by a magnetic field

C-LAB: http://c-lab.co.uk/home.html
Rüdiger Trojok: http://www.openbioprojects.net/1801.html

Art and Biotechnology: Artist Talk with C-LAB and Rüdiger Trojok

Art and Science talk with C-LAB and Rüdiger Trojok
24 August,3 PM


CLAB, The Living Mirror, 2013


Art Laboratory Berlin would like to invite you to an artist talk with the artist collective C-LAB (UK) and the biohacker Rüdiger Trojok (Berlin) presented by Desiree Förster and Daniela Silvestrin on 24 August from 3 PM.

C-LAB is a London based artist collective, founded by the two artists and scientists Laura Cinti and Howard Boland, that is dealing critically with contemporary intersections and cross-fertilisation of art, science, and technology. The work of Cinti and Boland focuses on the examination and exploration of the implications, properties and peculiarities of all which is or regards organic and synthetic life. This being their incentive, they want to create a platform that is open for both artistic and scientific reflection and discourse. In their most recent experimental art projects, C-LAB developed a variety of genetic constructs that led to new kinds of behavior of e.coli bacteria; the scientists thereby explored the possibilities of synthetic biology and techniques of genetic engineering in an art context (e.g. in artworks such as kate, katEred, Stressostat or Banana Bacteria).


C-LAB, katEred, 2012

Also the DIY scene has started to experiment with biology on a molecular level in private homes. The technologies and chemicals that they use are usually being acquired through the internet, just like the theoretical background knowledge and the working instructions. This growing community meets in online forums or festivals, and is connected worldwide. The movement is creating both fascination and discomfort, the potential misuse of modern biotechnologies is creating fears in times of repeated warnings of pandemics through viruses such as SARS or H5N1. At the same time this democratization of technologies and knowledge can lead to new impulses for the sciences as well as enhance public debate and consciousness.

After the peek into C-LAB's art practice the Berlin-based biohacker Rüdiger Trojok will give a presentation of the do-it-yourself biohacking scene and the possibilities and limits of bringing biotechnologies into private spaces.

In a following discussion round these different perspectives and areas of knowledge will be combined and confronted, which will give the possibility for exchange, discussion and imagination with regard to the ethical and aesthetic examination of art on the intersection with science and research.
(more at http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-events-archive.htm)

C-LAB: http://c-lab.co.uk/home.html
Rüdiger Trojok: http://www.openbioprojects.net/1801.html

Works from Eva-Maria Bolz, Andy Holtin and Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen in Synaesthesia/4: Translating, Correcting, Archiving

Eva-Maria Bolz, Der Innere Monitor
Colour Plates
(c) Photography: Kirsten Kofahl, 2013

Eva-Maria Bolz, Der Innere Monitor
Colour Plates
(c) Photography: Kirsten Kofahl, 2013

Eva-Maria Bolz, Der Innere Monitor
Colour Plates
(c) Photography: Eva-Marie Bolz, 2013

Eva-Maria Bolz, Der Innere Monitor
Artist Book
(c) Photography: Eva-Marie Bolz, 2013

Andy Holtin, Corrections and Connections
Video Installations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustrations and Video Installations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustrations and Video Installations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Video Installations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustrations and Video Installations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustrations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustration
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustrations and Video Installation
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Illustrations and Video Installations
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Video Installations and Artist Book
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word?
Artist Book
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013

Ditte Lyngkær Pedersen, Why Is Green a Red Word? and Andy Holtin, Corrections and Connections
Video Installations and Artist Book
(c) Photography: Tim Deussen, 2013