Monday, November 29, 2010

BioCurious? Interview with Joseph Jackson about DIY Biotech

Among other things, BioCurious is a "gym membership for your brain"

You may be familiar with the proliferation of hackerspaces around the world for computer and technology enthusiasts.  These groups gather and share knowledge about hacking technology, but this usually involves computers, electronics, software, etc, but a new type of hackerspace is beginning to emerge.  Dedicated entirely to biology, bio-tech hackerspaces involve enthusiasts hacking the materials of life, bringing the wet lab to the common people.   Joseph Jackson, co-founder and director of policy and strategy of BioCurious, was kind enough to answer some questions about the DIY bio movement and his group which is starting what could be the world's first bio-hackerspace.



Tim: There’s been a lot of buzz recently about your group, “BioCurious” from various sources (BioTechniques article, nature article 1, nature article 2). On the group’s website, it mentions the main objective is to build a bio-tech hackerspace.  We might have a general idea of what this might be, but we had the pleasure of asking Joseph Jackson of BioCurious directly about this new group and some ideas for the future of DIY biotechnology movement.

Can you explain for us what you mean by biotech hackerspace?
 
Joseph: BioCurious is one of the first examples of a hackerspace dedicated to biology.  Most are familiar with the idea of a hackerspace where groups of technology enthusiasts gather to work on software, hardware projects, or even art.  In adapting this model for biotech, we are providing a basic infrastructure for hobbyists to learn essential skills in molecular biology and conduct experiments in a group setting with access to mentors and assistance in troubleshooting if they get stuck.  Despite the mythical image of the lone garage biohacker, it is a lot easier to learn certain skills in a group setting instead of relying solely on protocol descriptions, text books, mailing lists or videos.  Our "hackerspace" is a hybrid entity combining many aspects of existing spaces where the public currently encounters science.  For example, we'll have some aspects of a museum, in that we'll hold demos and other hands on activities where the public can have a brief exposure to the ideas underlying modern biology.  I'm personally excited about having bioartists visit and eventually hosting exhibits that feature their work.  We'll also have an entrepreneurship component seeking to develop the skills and the attitude necessary for the new generation of biotech company founders coming of age in the era of ultra cheap sequencing and synthesis technologies.

Finally, there is also a training aspect, like a merit badge certification for completing certain skills like purifying a protein or cloning a gene.  We may be able to reach out to industry to create a unique bridging program for people looking to get a job in biotech who have completed their undergraduate degree but still lack sufficient post-classroom practical bench experience for companies to take a chance on them.  Another idea I'm considering is having a science journal club in which members meet to present an article each week.  Scientific journal literacy is not something the general public or even science students acquire until they've waded through enough publications by their third year of study maybe, so this is really an essential skill.   

So, we're part museum, community college, and idea "incubator" but since we don't have the the resources of those entities we don't expect to "beat them at their own game."  We don't claim to do things better than these existing institutions, but we will enable people to work on different sorts of problems in a different way.   

In sum, BioCurious aims to democratize, demystify, and domesticate biotechnology by bringing together academia, industry, and members of the public to collide and collaborate in novel ways in a non-institutional setting.  Our space fills the void in the niches left unexplored by University or Corporate labs.  By getting these different sectors to interact, we can beneficially disrupt the way life sciences research is done.  In the process, DIYers will become a bit more "professional" and professionals will rediscover that essential curiosity that brought them to science, especially if they are feeling a bit burned out in their day job.    



Tim: As with any new platform, there might be some “killer app” (maybe a bad word, we don’t want to scare anyone!).  In the DIY bio movement, do you have any ideas about the type of revolutionary invention or “amazing app” might come about?  Is the vision for desktop PCR part of this?


Joseph: It is hard to predict what kinds of products or advances will emerge from the movement.  At our meetups, the ideas are sometimes wild, weird, and wacky.  We've had people who have vineyards and are interested in doing something related to their hobby by altering the grapes/wine. We had one guy who had problems with deer eating his garden and wants to make a better home brew deer repellent.  One idea that's been suggested several times is making glowing plants for the novelty/wow factor.  Its simple enough to do and could get people talking.  Food is a popular interest, so we've discussed holding a "molecular gastronomy" course sometime but we have to be careful to avoid any "Frankenfood" hysteria and otherwise be mindful of the paranoia that surrounds GMOs.  I think environmental sensing is a big area that citizen science can get involved with.   

iGEM (the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition at MIT) produces more impressive projects each year, and those ideas are a source for projects that could have further work done on them in a community lab.  

My work with LavaAmp is, of course, one step toward spreading the tools of biotechnology to an entirely new set of users just learning about this field.  My partner Guido and I initially started this to enable low cost diagnostics in places like Venezuela, where he's from, but we're excited about the DIY potential as well as our goals to improve public health.  Lots of hardware projects will spring up in the coming years.  Within a decade, I expect one of the most disruptive advances, desktop synthesis machines affordable enough for hobbyists.  When that happens, things will get really interesting.    

The low-cost PCR machine designed by LavaAmp brings the possibility of duplicating strands of DNA to DIY-Bio enthusiasts.


Tim: What are the biggest misconceptions about the DIY biotech movement?

Joseph: The single biggest misconception is the immediate jump to the idea that doing biology in a non traditional setting (eg not in a "pristine" institutional lab) is some kind of safety threat.  As one member of the New York City DIY group put it to me in a conversation, "its not that hard to get safety right."  The bar is pretty low for complying with correct safety procedures.  Gloves, eye wash station, fire extinguisher, proper disposal of reagents, its not rocket science folks (in fact rocket science involves substantially greater risk of blowing yourself up and amateur rocket hobbyists are doing just fine).  Standard safety materials can be adapted from existing training used for orientation in university courses, community colleges and even high schools.  Furthermore, we will even go above and beyond this standard since we're often subjected to additional concern.   The activities we're conducting don't involve any pathogens or anything that isn't done everyday in educational classes around the world.  Finally, I'll remind everyone that Penicillin, one of the greatest advances of the 20th century, was discovered by accident when Alexander Flemming returned from holiday to find his cultures contaminated by mold.  A lapse in basic 101 sanitation procedure turned out ok after all!   The same goes for the early days of cell culture technique, when the immortal Hela line was mailed to researchers all over the world so they could get proficient with the new technique (and as discovered later, contaminating huge numbers of other cell lines which invalidated lots of work and ruined careers!)  I point this out not to belittle the need for safety, but to provide some historical context as to how science advances and what the real risks are.

Much more difficult than simply not harming ourselves and others, is actually doing something scientifically noteworthy.  Its almost ridiculous the amount of attention we've received merely for doing some basic science in a garage (where BioCurious initially met...note we've moved to a more formal setup precisely to be able to serve the public in a facility that moves away from the garage image). 

I competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting for many years, initially training at a home gym I built for a couple thousand dollars.  Nobody called me up to interview me about my backyard weightlifting equipment.  Yet it is important to realize that weightlifting was a fringe activity for decades and only during the mid 1980's did a version of the bodybuilding lifestyle enter the mainstream public consciousness in the form of the first franchised commercial "fitness clubs" (Gold's, then Bally's, etc).  Today gyms are everywhere.  Think of BioCurious as gym membership for your brain.  For a fit population, you need a commitment to "physical culture" (a term not used much these days) and access to exercise equipment for everyone.  The same goes for a scientifically literate population.  An important corollary, however, is that we have more gyms per capita in the US than at any time before, at precisely the same time the obesity epidemic rages out of control.  Just having large numbers of commercial gyms, does nothing to ensure the most vulnerable populations are served, since these users often can't afford the membership fees.  Indeed, many fitness club chains now cater to the upper middle class professional, who is often more concerned with socializing while looking cool on the latest cardio machine than pumping serious iron!!  Community engagement is the key, whether in science or in health.  Hackerspaces may face a similar fork in the road in the future, as this activity becomes more mainstream and franchised, generic, commercial, pay to play technology spaces proliferate.  There is a role for both, of course, but a community of enthusiasts supporting one another's projects is very different from a collection of customers.  In a way, we will have won once "biohacking" is no longer newsworthy and science spaces are common.  After all, humans gather together in all sorts of clubs an entities to do activities ranging from scuba diving to hang-gliding, both of which involve more significant risk of death than "molecular biology gone wrong."

Tim: For readers out there who are interested, of course we’re including contact information, etc, but do you have any suggestions or advice you’d like to give?

Joseph: It is my hope that labs for citizen scientists spring up all over the world.  We're concentrating on making our effort succeed in the Bay Area first, but I expect similar initiatives to spread.  Initially, everywhere there is a critical mass of life sciences (eg Seattle, LA, Boston, Baltimore/DC) is a place where community labs could thrive.  BioCurious will eventually document all the essential steps needed for setting up a lab.  I'm available to share our experiences and, when things are sustainable here, I could even come in person to visit and assist.

Tim: Thank you Joseph for your time and insights, we’re looking forward to following your group and the exciting projects that come from it!  


***Go to the BioCurious Website to join their mailing list! 
http://www.biocurious.org


Links:
BioTechniques article

Nature article 1

Nature article 2

BioCurious


Saturday, November 27, 2010

OzCHI 2010 in Brisbane: plants that giggle and dairy cows that tweet~!

 The captivating keynote speaker and renowned scientist Elizabeth Churchill tried her hand at the MeetEater plant-computer interface. (sorry for the low quality image)


At the OzCHI2010 conference in Brisbane, Australia, attendees were intrigued by a human-plant interface known as the "MeetEater."  This installation by artist Bashkim Isai, brings the relationship we have with plants into the forefront.  The plant is watered when it makes friends on facebook, when people write on its wall, and when touched in person.  When the leaves are stroked it sets off the most contagious and surprising giggles you can imagine.  Visit the facebook page for more information and to reach out and water that plant!  http://www.facebook.com/meeteater

Artist: Bashkim Isai
www.bashkim.com.au

Then there were dairy cows that tweet!  Connor Graham presented a paper he co-authored with Denisa Kera about the future communities made possible with the diversity and pervasive "sensor networks."  Among the many interesting examples, Connor shared the udderly fabulous site that connects the dairy cows to the Internet to tweet about their teats!!!

 Connor Graham explaining the TeatTweet website and how these sensor networks are changing our sense of community. (sorry for the low quality image)

Take a look for yourself at the website and we'll post a link to the paper soon (Collective Sensor Networks and Future Communities: Designing Interactions across Multiple Scales)

http://criticalmedia.uwaterloo.ca/teattweet/

Friday, November 19, 2010

blinkBL-NK #9 in Singapore was all about Bio





BlinkBL-NK #9 featured 4 speakers focusing on Bio--the last talk was social, so let's call it bio ;)

Take a look at the line up from Wednesday and stay tuned to the blinkBL-NK website for the next installment.

The below is shamelessly crossposted from the blinkBL-NK website:

Talk 1: Facebook for Your Genes and other Biosocial Interfaces
by Denisa Kera
Description: What do eugenic style dating over DNA profiles with “GenePartner”, large matriarchal families created by sharing information on donor sperms with “Donor Sibling Registry” , and genealogical “tribes” and biotech enthusiasts discussing their DNA makeup on “23andMe” all have in common? They all represent examples of the emerging trend of social networking via biosocial interfaces. While traditional social networking websites support profiles created by users themselves representing their personal history, cultural, and geographical context, the new type of bionetworking services use biological profiles produced in the science laboratories. DNA sequences, so called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which define variations between members of a same species, databases of donors’ sperms defined by numbers and other biological data are becoming means of interaction that is serendipitous rather than conscious and relies on expert knowledge and laboratory results rather than on the free choice of the individual.

Speaker: Denisa Kera is an Assistant Professor at NUS where she teaches Interactive Media Design and topics in Science, Technology & Society studies. Her current academic research is on consumer genomics, citizen science projects and interaction over biological data. (She would like to build a social networking service for sharing of brain patterns, a “dream hunters network” that connects people over their dreams by updating their brain activity online and looking for similar patterns). She has a PhD in Information Science from Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), an MA in Philosophy, and extensive experience as a curator of exhibitions related to art, technology and science.

Talk 2: Bio-Gifts: How Will We Accept and Respond to the Materials of Synthetic Biology?
by Tim Merritt
Description: We are in the midst of a biotechnology revolution with amazing new materials and objects being created such as glowing bunnies, petroleum-producing algae, and recently, scientists have even created synthetic life using chemicals and a computer!  Surely, there will be amazing biotech solutions for many of the world’s problems, such as global warming, the search for alternative fuels, and medical problems. Meanwhile, artists and designers have proposed that people will also engage with biology in new ways and will exchange hybrid objects as gifts to enhance intimacy and closeness with one another. In this talk, Tim will discuss some examples of new biological objects that we might exchange as gifts, the advances in science that make them possible, and results from a user study aiming to understand how we might respond to the prospect of bio-gifts.

Speaker: Tim was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA and worked for 12 years as a consultant for Siemens helping companies manage their IT infrastructure until he decided to get back to school. While pursuing a PhD at NUS focused on improving the design of AI team-mates, Tim also finds time for kiteboarding, scuba diving, and hawker center fanaticism. He also maintains a blog about biological art.

Talk 3: The Bio.Display Project
by Ákos Maróy
Description: The original concept of the bio.display project was to create a dynamic display made of genetically modified fluorescent bacteria. The installation, though consisting of millions of living organisms, would act as a display, a screen – something we’re used to see from machines. The first step in this project is less ambitious: a mechanism that enables a user to create an image using genetically modified fluorescent bacteria. The installation allows the participant to enter an image, for which he will receieve a plate of bacteria, that develops this image overnight. A replica of the chemical process of photography done by millions of living creatures in a small plate.

Speaker
: Akos is a member and founder of several non-profit and commercial initiatives, spread between commercial-grade and open source software engineering, artificial life and emergent systems research, media- and bio-art projects, and community radios. His projects and affiliations include Nextlab, Tilos Radio, EU Edge LLC, Scarab Research, double Negatives Architecture group, Budapest New Technology Meetup, and Open Standards Alliance.

Talk 4: Social Deprogramming or How to Talk to Strangers
by Benjamin Joffe
Description: Why is it so difficult to talk to strangers? Our culture and education are part of our social programming but might be getting in the way of new experiences and encounters. Even places branded as social might fall short of expectations. In this talk, Benjamin Joffe will explore attempts at using technology and re-engineering of offline behavior to enable social deprogramming.

Speaker: Benjamin has repeatedly failed at talking to strangers for several decades and decided to try to understand why, and do something about it. While researching how online and offline behaviors relate, he developed some sense on how spaces and social programming frame interactions and will share here his current understanding.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Bio:Fiction Science, Art and Filmfestival: Call for entries

Bio:Fiction Science, Art and Filmfestival: Call for entries

***This is reposted on behalf of the Bio:Fiction team***

...Bio:Fiction announces over 9000 € in prize-money for Synthetic Biology film projects

- - - Final Deadline for film entries: 1st of December 2010 - - -

Synthetic biology aims at creating new forms of life for practical purposes. Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological systems not found in nature. By applying engineering principles to biology scientists will be able to design life forms much different from breeding or traditional genetic engineering.

We want to encourage filmmakers to produce and share their cinematic visions of a present or future society shaped by synthetic biology. What is your view on a world living with synthetic life forms? Your approach is up to you - the filmmaker, scientists or artist - the entries can be on science, fiction, or science fiction. We welcome live-action short film, animation, experimental or documentary film. Synthetic biology has to be reflected somehow in the work, but how you do it is up to you.

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

Bio:Fiction Award - Short Fiction 2500 €
Bio:Fiction Award - Documentary Film 2500 €
Bio:Fiction Award - Animation 2500 €
Online-Audience Award 1000 €
Special Award of the Jury 500 €

The Bio:Fiction- Science, Art & Filmfestival aims at attracting public awareness to synthetic biology and its ramifications for our daily life in the future.

On http://www.bio-fiction.com you will find more useful and inspiring information on synthetic biology, the entry form, teasers and the regulations of the filmfestival.
The nominated films will be presented in public at the Museum of Natural History, the festival event in Vienna, Austria from the 13th-14th of May 2011. The Bio:Fiction Award ceremony will build the highlight of the festival.

There is no entry fee for submitting films.

http://www.bio-fiction.com

Best wishes,
the Bio:Fiction team

Markus Schmidt
Albert Beckmann
Camillo Meinhart

Synthetic Biology and Space Travel

J. Craig Venter, the pioneering scientist who sequenced the human genome 15 years ago and more recently booted up a synthetic genome, gave a talk about how synthetic biology can help space travel.

One particularly interesting aspect of his talk was about the "Synthetic Metabiome", which is the concept that involves manipulating the microbial community of the human body to better sustain the astronaut during space travel. Here are some interesting bullet points from the talk thanks to the Parabolic Arc website:

Synthetic Metabiome

* replace the thousands of microbes on and in humans preparing for long-term space flight or habitation with a defined microbial community
* microbial community could eliminate disease organisms, methanogens, sulfur producers
* microbial community could add cells to produce certain vitamins and proteins needed for long-term space missions.
* eliminate future infections, tooth decay

Take a look at some notes from the Parabolic Arc website for this and many more interesting stories: Full Article from Parabolic Arc

Friday, July 2, 2010

Biotech Hackerspace

Here's another great project that needs some support. Once this get's going in the Bay area, it will likely spread to a city near you. Imagine being able to tinker with experimental new life forms and, who knows, maybe with all the new minds, somebody can come up with a bacteria that can get rid of the BP Oil Spill!?!?!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

DIY Biotech needs your support!

They have made waves with their hacker approach to biotech and have won awards for their electrophoresis box, which is available here: Pearl Biotech. Now, this group is working to bring PCR to the desktop of biotech enthusiasts. Consider supporting these pioneers and soon you may be brewing up your own batch of DNA!!!

Seedbomb Vending Machine

Consider supporting the green guerrilla gardening of Greenaid!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Nano Supermarket - Call for Products

If you haven't taken a look at the Next Nature blog, now is the time to go~  They have a call for products with proposals due by May 31st for the upcoming Nano Supermarket which will showcase forward looking ideas about the nanotech products we might have in our future.  The prize for the best submission wins €2500, inclusion in the Nano Supermarket which will showcase select designs, and inclusion in the publication.

This image was snagged from the Nextnature.net site and is from the work of Koert Van Mensvoort 

They have an interesting list of items that might be typically found in the Nano Supermarket including spider silk condoms, blood bots, chameleon clothing, twitter implants, edible software, food printer, etc. I'm looking forward to the ideas that come out of this project and if their predictions are right, in 2020 PharmaSushi starts hitting the shelves and we can all get healthy with some fatty tuna rolls!

What kind of technology can enable the designs of the Nano Supermarket?

In case you are living under a log, the J. Craig Venter Institute has announced their creation of artificial life!  This goes a long way towards opening up the possibilities for  living materials to do amazing things such as algae producing petroleum, or even medicine that can adjust to the mutation cycle of viruses!  As a scientist friend of mine Mika said, "the revolution has begun!"

http://www.jcvi.org/cms/research/projects/first-self-replicating-synthetic-bacterial-cell/overview/

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/science.1190719

Monday, May 17, 2010

about teeth















image from artist's website


a current resident at SymbioticA is (Dr) David Khang - a professional artist who practises dentistry as a hobby. His website has a list of very interesting projects that he has been doing since 1999, and there are very graphic images that are at times a little gruesome (think suturing your tongue to a pair of butterfly wings), but very engaging and worth taking a visit to. He's currently in Perth growing an enamel sculpture with the people who brought you the Tissue Culture and Art Project.
http://davidkhang.com

and about Bioart...
the definition of bioart is very fluid, so much so that one has to ask - what isn't bioart? While it may superficially comprise any artistic endeavours with the hint of an arm, an organ, or a blade of grass, the motivation of bioart involves more a sustained exploration of inter-disciplinary collaborations, marking out and articulating new lines of connections.
though, there are always problems, especially when it involves science : by appropriating science into the realm of art, we have to contend with issues of representation surrounding scientific (informational/statistical) presentations of biology, and most problematically, the body. The politics of representation is the topic of focus for current SymbioticA resident Danish art historian Pernille Leth-Espensen.



while we're on the topic i might just add a little blurb about the projects that im invested in.












Screaming Bones, Vibrating Mass (2009). SymbioticA, Perth
was a project involving the physical manipulation of cow femurs and resonating them in a feedback loop made up of a small speaker and a contact microphone placed at either ends of the bone, allowing it to function metaphorically as a conduit for the ossification of information.


















Our Sound is Our Wound (2010). PICA, Perth

During his residency at PICA, Singaporean artist Joel Ong will develop a piece exploring the use of the stethoscope as a device for encountering intimate spaces. By presenting an installation composed of infrasound and the amplication of minute vibrations, he explores the issues surrounding representations of the body both in science and in art, exploiting the acoustical premise of mediate auscultation in a way that defines the body as a resonating chamber.





Some links that are worth checking out.



Another interesting website to do with a new way of experiencing food by breathing it









http://www.lewhif.com/

and dont forget the brain child of artscience author david edwards with Le Laboratoire in Paris
http://www.lelaboratoire.org/

Michael John Gorman and the Science Gallery in Dublin, that is having a "Biorhythms" exhibition featuring many exciting sound artists and musicians working with music and the body
http://www.sciencegallery.com/

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Art made from human teeth

 Picture of some of Polly van der Glas's teeth jewelry (image taken from artist's website)

Teeth is the topic for this post.  No, not the dark horror comedy film by Mitchell Lichtenstein, but rather actual teeth used as a material object in works of art.  Let's take a look at a few interesting examples.  As always, if you find any interesting related information, let me know and I will be happy to edit the post or include it in some way.

First, take a look at this blog post.  It covers 3 artists who use teeth as their medium of choice and there are excellent images of the work.  Then, come back to this blog entry and look at some other cool teeth! http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2010/01/three-artists-sink-their-teeth-and.html

Polly van der Glas, Australian jewelry artist makes rings, pendants, and various other fine pieces.
http://vanderglas.com.au/
http://www.ecouterre.com/6358/human-teeth-jewelry-creepy-or-coo/

Recycled milk teeth charms by artist Kim Kovel.  Have your baby's teeth covered in gold or silver.  Why not?  These pieces are truly beautiful!
http://www.inhabitots.com/2010/01/05/kim-kovels-recycled-gold-milk-teeth-charms/

Great Wall of Teeth!!! Take a look at this sculpture from a Chinese dentist, who takes the extracted teeth from his patients to build a work of art that hopefully encourages the rest of us to brush the pearly whites. 
http://iheartchaos.com/content/chinese-dentist-makes-tower-28000-diseased-teeth-his-office-wtf


Tie pin made from a human tooth.  (picture taken from the Loved to Death website)

Now some examples from artists who position their work as dark, macabre, or gothic.

Loved to Death - tooth jewelry, Mori, mementos, etc.
http://lovedtodeath.net/

http://churchyard.biz/index.html
Hilda Marshall, AKA Columbine from Sunspot Designs makes jewelry from bones and teeth.  I purchased a pendant from the artist and used it in clinical interviews recently with people hoping to understand the perceptions and reactions to bodily materials in gifts.  More details will be posted later pending acceptance of the publication.  Watch the Ripley's Believe It Or Not! video describing the work: http://www.sunspotdesigns.com/ssd/SunspotRBION.mov

Dreadful Things by Raven - tooth jewelry that's worth a look.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31991195

Although there aren't teeth as a material, we can't leave out grills...  Take a look at some fine jewelry for the choppers by DJ Paul Wall.

(picture taken from the Grills by Paul Wall website)

Don't forget to brush your teeth!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Joel Ong: guest blogger coming soon!

Joel Ong will be a guest blogger here very soon. Keep an eye out for his posts; in the meantime, here's a little bit of information about what he's been up to these days:

Undertaking the Masters of Science (Biological Art) at SymbioticA in the University of Western Australia, Joel Ong is interested in the acoustic culture of medical and biological fields as well as the architectural design of the body and its components. With an artistic practice spanning the audiovisual domains in the wave of new media art, he is particularly optimistic about using human processes (conscious or unconscious) as raw material, even as interactive systems, for the development of emotive sound works that expose the mechanisms of the body in a way that synapse the heart and the mind. Joel has a background in the life sciences from the National University of Singapore and is currently an avid participant in discourses around acoustic ecology, interactive musical systems, biological data sonification and sound art. He is particularly interested in the amplification of microscopic cellular activity and cell vibration.

http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/educate/courses/postgraduate/joel




Welcome Joel!!!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Hair Art: Part I

Hair work embellishments to a wood pendant utilizing a new technique of applying finely cut hair in a tattoo motif. (Elfriede and Christina Witz)


HAIR! We spend so much time and money styling and caring for our hair and then we get a trim and it gets swept away and forgotten. Not everyone feels the same way though. Throughout history, there have been many examples of hair used as an artistic medium. In this posting, we'll look at some examples from contemporary artists who make jewelry and images out of human hair.

As a token of affection in the Victorian era, it was not uncommon for people to exchange lockets of their hair in decorative pieces of jewelry and other accoutrements. Hair works were also used to mourn the loss of a loved one. There is a good description of some of the techniques at the Victorian Hair Jewelry website (http://www.victorianhairjewelry.com/victorianhairwork.html).

There are a small number of artists who have kept the tradition alive and continue to innovate in the genre of hair art. For example, German artists Elfriede and Christina Witz (http://www.myperceptionart.com/images/nutshell/art_in_a_nut_shell.htm) have been making beautiful contemporary pieces of hair art including jewelry made from tree nut shells, egg shells, hair, glass, and wood. Elfriede and Christina were so kind to share photos and samples of their work, which includes palette work and hair paintings.


Hair work pendant from Elfriede and Christina Witz made from tree nut shell, hair, and Tiffany glass with a one Euro cent coin to show the scale of the piece.

Hair work pendant from Elfriede and Christina Witz made from tree nut shell, hair, and Tiffany glass with a one Euro cent coin to show the scale of the piece.


Hair work embellishments to egg shells (Elfriede and Christina Witz)

Hair work embellishments to a wood pendant utilizing a new technique of finely cut hair. (Elfriede and Christina Witz)

In the next posting (Hair Art II), we'll look at other examples of contemporary hair art including horse hair pottery, embroidered hair drawings, and even a purse made of hair.

A special thank you to Elfriede and Christina Witz for sending amazing samples of their work and for sharing their photos. Please visit their website for more photos of their work and to inquire about a piece that suits you.

http://www.myperceptionart.com/images/nutshell/art_in_a_nut_shell.htm


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

"CURB" your enthusiasm


DiscoFungi from the CURB Media company uses bio-florescent bacteria for making visual images. (photo snagged from their website)


CURB (the natural media company) is an interesting organization. My friend Denisa sent me an article about the recent florescent bacteria media campaign and in looking at the company website, they have been responsible for some really amazing works of biological media. They have sculpted sand, snow, dust, grass, you name it -- making eye catching and ecologically safe advertising campaigns and beautiful works of art.

glowfungi - http://www.curbmedia.com/what-we-do-glowfungi.asp

Browse their website for burned grass and even Obama art -- http://www.curbmedia.com