Tarsh Bates working on 'Surface dynamics of adhesion' for our next exhibition

The artist's own blood is sued to make the blood agar

Tarsh Bates artistically explores what it means to be human when we recognise our bodies as composed of over one trillion cells, of which only around half are human. Her new work Surface dynamics of adhesion is a flocked wallpaper sampler. Encased in acrylic boxes, living Candida, with blood from Bates herself, form patterns from wallpaper popular in the parlours of Victorian Britain. The work offers aesthetic experiences from the contact zones between the two different organisms, and highlights the unconscious relation we have with Candida.

Here are some images of Tarsh working on making blood agar at the laboratory of the DHZB Center for Biofilms and Infection in Berlin.

Tarsh Bates working in the laboratory

The blood agar is poured into acrylic boxes

All images by Ben Warner for Art Laboratory Berlin

More information on our upcoming exhibition The Other Selves, On the Phenomenon of the Microbiome, opening on 26 February here: http://www.artlaboratory-berlin.org/html/eng-exh-archive.htm
 

Art Laboratory Berlin at London LASER - October 2015

Regine Rapp & Christian de Lutz talk on The Biological Sublime in 21st Century Art, focusing on the fluid boundaries between visual arts, biology and the humanities with specific examples of art/science collaborations and new hybrid forms.

The talk took place At Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design on 20 October, 2015 and was moderated by Heather Barnett. It was the 11th London LASER talk.

 

1000 Handshakes – Towards an Aesthetics of the Microbiome

A Conversation between François-Joseph Lapointe and Christian de Lutz.  

In the center of the talk was Lapointe’s performance 1000 Handshakes, which was carried out during transmediale’s opening night. The performance raises questions about physical and social engagement. They also reflected the piece as part of the upcoming group show at Art Laboratory Berlin The Other Selves. On the Phenomenon of the Microbiome at Art Laboratory Berlin. The exhibition is part of the series »Nonhuman Subjectivities«, consisting of theoretical reflection on nonhuman agents.
Podcast of the talk

François-Joseph Lapointe: 1000 Handshakes at transmediale/conversation piece 2016

For his most recent artistic project, Lapointe is sequencing his microbiome to produce metagenomic selfportraits, Microbiome Selfies, which illustrate the metamorphosis of his bacterial self. The performance 1000 handshakes is part of this project. During the performance Lapointe shook hands with people passing through the opening night of the transmediale festival, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. Periodically, assistants took a sample from his skin. The DNA of this microbiome will be analysed to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us, how it changes who we are. The performance raises awareness through physical and social engagement, through acts of participation and exchange on social, individual and microbial levels. The handshake, a basic and ancient act of networking forms the beginning of a social, scientific and artistic collaboration between the performer and the public. The data collected during this performance will be used to generate microbiome selfies, shown in the exhibition The Other Selves. On the Phenomenon of the Microbiome at Art Laboratory Berlin (opening 26 Feb, 2016).

Science Cafe: Programming Life - Good Code/ Bad Code?

In this science café we want to address the images and techniques in art and science that apply to the living organism at its source: the organism as bacteria, as gene, as a storage, as connecting element, as an imaginative. Which problems, challenges and questions drive the artists and scientists that are dealing with life in its smallest and most complex form?

Biotechnology aims at prolonging life and minimizing disease. At the same time they have to comply with strong security regulations. The assumption that biology equals technology, which in consequence leads to an engineer-like approach towards life, is opposed to living organisms being complex and contingent “systems”. Biotechnology not longer describes its objects. Under the lead of the industry it is more and more split into specialized fields such as microbiology, genetics and synthetic biology. This development is strongly connected with new hopes and imagination, figuring a new knowledge and science of life, that might lead to both a longer and healthier life and a new industrial revolution.

Since biotechnology became a source for capitalist and humanist dreams, artists have started to engage with the technologies and the epistemic objects they apply to. They use the smallest bricks of biological life for new speculations on life and death, redefine our understanding of where one organism begins and another ends, and reveal life to all our senses.

In four short presentations we want to engage with different perspectives ranging from synthetic biology, speculative science and art.

Moderation: Johann Bauerfeind
1. iGEM Berlin - Mariam Hammoud: Building with BioBricks
2. Dr. Caroline Mair : Research with pathogens - Biodefense or Bioweapons?
3. Margherita Pevere: SEMINA AETERNITATIS
4. AnneMarie Maes: Urban Bee Lab 

Johann Bauerfeind

iGEM Berlin - Mariam Hammoud: Building with BioBricks

Margherita Pevere: SEMINA AETERNITATIS

 

 

 

Dr. Caroline Mair : Research with pathogens - Biodefense or Bioweapons?

AnneMarie Maes: Urban Bee Lab

Book launch and presentation by Rüdiger Trojok: Biohacking – Gentechnologie für alle

In the last several years a global movement of citizen scientists has developed with modern biology as a particular focus: their work has become known as biohacking. This book serves all those interested in this topic as well as beginners by offering a basic understanding of the world from a molecular biological perspective: Starting with the beginnings of life, the course of evolution is explained in broad terms, according to present knowledge. Theroretical knowledge is applied through practical examples: life can be programmed. Using advanced software, Synthetic Biology rewrites the digital code of life.

Subsequently a public debate has opened on how to deal meaningfully with this knowledge and the resulting technical possibilities. The modern understanding of life and deeper possibilities of intervention will, in principle, change the relationship between man and nature. Laboratories will soon be miniaturised computer chips, which can be used locally anywhere. Genetic databases will then represent the most important resource - but what are the limits of this global synthetic biology? Citizen scientists now pose the question of who can use the generally available knowledge of modern biological sciences, and for what purposes.

Order here

Art Science Swap - Two Heads Are Better than One with Nenad Popov

 

…The states of mind involved in that sort of science and that sort of art are fundamentally the same. Both are seeking universal, objective truth. - David Deutsch

As a scientist you always think you know what you’re doing, so you tend to distrust the artist who says, “It’s great,” or “It’s no good,” and then is not able to explain to you why, as Jerry did with those drawings I took him. But here I was, sunk: I could do it too - Richard Feynman

Participants of the workshop are divided in the pairs of one artist and one scientist. Each pair will receive a problem to think about, each using their own method. That is the easy part. Then they are asked to switch roles - artists are supposed to think about the problem as scientists and scientists as artists. They monitor each others progress continuously and help each other. Then the process is repeated. Over a few iterations, both should have a glimpse into the methods of both art and science. 

 

Sarah Hermanutz: Mind Blind: Therapeutic Interventions for Human/Nonhuman Communications

In her performance-lecture Sarah Hermanutz draws upon methods and aesthetics of academic lectures and psychological testing/treatment to engage with the gaps and pains of cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer. What does it mean to be a ‘mind-blind’ human, and how does this impact one's ability to function in a ‘normal’ social environment? Can we engage via creative analogy with this conceptual framework to better understand the difficulties faced by humans to interact with the non-human community? What new insights can an artistic exploration of autism research and ‘Mind Blindness’ provide for our understandings of (mis)communicate across difference?

Nonhuman Subjectivities:
The Other Selves. On the Phenomenon of the Microbiome
Opening 26 February, 2016


François-Joseph Lapointe, 1000 Handshakes, Performance, 2014

Pre-programme:
In the run up to our next series Nonhuman Subjectivities, opening 26 February 2016 with the exhibition The Other Selves. On the Phenomenon of the Microbiome, we are glad to announce a series of events together with the Vorspiel programme of the transmediale and CTM.

23 January, 2016, 8PM - Sarah Hermanutz: Mind Blind: Therapeutic Interventions for Human/Nonhuman Communications | Entrance with donation
In her performance-lecture Sarah Hermanutz draws upon methods and aesthetics of academic lectures and psychological testing/treatment to engage with the gaps and pains of cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer. What does it mean to be a ‘mind-blind’ human, and how does this impact one's ability to function in a ‘normal’ social environment? Can we engage via creative analogy with this conceptual framework to better understand the difficulties faced by humans to interact with the non-human community? What new insights can an artistic exploration of autism research and ‘Mind Blindness’ provide for our understandings of (mis)communicate across difference? .

24 January, 2016 - Nenad Popov Art Science Swap - Two Heads Are Better than One | Entrance with donation
Workshop: starts at 2PM, followed by public presentation of results at 5PM.

…The states of mind involved in that sort of science and that sort of art are fundamentally the same. Both are seeking universal, objective truth. - David Deutsch

As a scientist you always think you know what you’re doing, so you tend to distrust the artist who says, “It’s great,” or “It’s no good,” and then is not able to explain to you why, as Jerry did with those drawings I took him. But here I was, sunk: I could do it too - Richard Feynman

Participants of the workshop are divided in the pairs of one artist and one scientist. Each pair will receive a problem to think about, each using their own method. That is the easy part. Then they are asked to switch roles - artists are supposed to think about the problem as scientists and scientists as artists. They monitor each others progress continuously and help each other. Then the process is repeated. Over a few iterations, both should have a glimpse into the methods of both art and science.
Please register: workshop@artlaboratory-berlin.org

30 January 2016, 7PM - Reading and presentation by Rüdiger Trojok from his forthcoming book
Biohacking - Gentechnologie für alle, Franzis Publishing House (in German) http://www.amazon.de/Biohacking-Gentechnologie-Alle-R%C3%BCdiger-Trojok/dp/3645604200 | Entrance with donation
In the last several years a global movement of citizen scientists has developed with biology as a particular focus: their work has become known as biohacking. This book serves all those interested in this topic as well as beginners by offering a basic understanding of the world from a molecular biological perspective, teaches how to read and write DNA and discusses the future technological and social implication of our newly gained ability to program life.

31 January, 2016, 3-6PM - Science Café with Berlin iGEM team | Entrance with donation
The iGEM Berlin team (http://igem.berlin/) will recap their project for the 2015 International Genetically Engineered Machines Competition (iGEM) in Boston, as well as present ideas for 2016. Art Laboratory Berlin and iGem Berlin invite you to discuss ideas, projects and implications of current trends in the life sciences in an open cafe environment.


3 February, 2016 - Opening Night of transmediale/conversation piece
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures, John-Foster-Dulles Allee 10, 10557 Berlin)

As part of the opening of the 2016 transmediale festival of art & digital culture at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Art Laboratory Berlin will present the performance 1000 Handshakes by François-Joseph Lapointe, curated by Regine Rapp und Christian de Lutz.

During this performative experiment Lapointe will shake hands with people, gradually changing the invisible microbial community in the palm of his hand. The DNA of this microbiome, whose samples were taken from his skin during the performance, will then be analysed to reveal how our contact with others shapes the microbes between us, how it changes who we are. The performance raises awareness through physical and social engagement, through acts of participation and exchange on social, individual and microbial levels. The handshake is a basic and ancient act of networking, forms the beginning of a social, scientific and artistic collaboration between the performer and the public. The results will form part of the exhibition The Other Selves. On the Phenomenon of the Microbiome opening later that month at Art Laboratory Berlin.

During the transmediale there will also be a talk with François-Joseph Lapointe and curators Regine Rapp and Christian de Lutz (Fri. 05.02.2016, 17-18.30, More information).

In cooperation with transmediale art&digitalculture


With the generous support of: