Saturday, April 16, 2011

Beauty is in the details~ 2011 NanoArt International Online Exhibition

2011 NanoArt International Online Exhibition is Open for Public Viewing

(This image was taken from the public gallery of Ursula Freer, used here for illustrative purposes.  http://nanoart21.org/nanoart-exhibitions/thumbnails.php?album=196)

The Show: 

149 artworks of NanoArt authored by 42 artists representing 12 countries are exhibited in the NanoArt 21 online gallery. All these artworks are participating in the 5th edition of the NanoArt International Online Competition. The winners will be announced after May 31st. Enjoy the show:


About NanoArt21:

"NanoArt21TM was founded by artist and scientist Cris Orfescu (www.crisorfescu.com). The purpose is to promote worldwide the NanoArt as a reflection of the technological movement. Orfescu considers NanoArt to be a more appealing and effective way to communicate with the general public and to inform people about the new technologies of the 21st Century. NanoArt is aimed to raise the public awareness of Nanotechnology and its impact  on our lives." (excerpt from http://nanoart21.org/)

For more information about NanoArt, please visit http://nanoart21.org

(This image was taken from the public gallery of Daniela Caceta, used here for illustrative purposes.  http://nanoart21.org/nanoart-exhibitions/thumbnails.php?album=152 )
 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Ryan Romie Littrell: DIYbio and the Reemergence of the Sci-Artist

The Science Technology and Society (STS) research cluster and the Communications and New Media Department at the National University of Singapore welcome visiting scholar Ryan Romie Littrell.  Romie will give a public talk about his research focus of DIYbio in the artistic and design context. 

Date/Time: Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 3:30 PM

Venue: National University of Singapore, Building AS4, Room 0116. Map: http://www.street-directory.com/nus/campus2.cgi?x=706&y=1516&level=2&heading=AS4&star=1

Title: DIYbio and the Reemergence of the Sci-Artist

Note: After the talk there will be a discussion of his talk, followed by a reading group discussion for which Romie recommended a chapter from Marcus Wohlsen’s “Biopunk: DIYscientists hack the software of life”

Speaker's Bio:
Romie's research is focused on the exchange of tools and methods between artists and scientists. In the present he is a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Dept. at UCLA. He received his BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley. Since then he has engaged in a wide array of biological research including maize genetics, cornea tissue engineering, microfluidic bioreactors, and cell-chip interfaces. His current research focuses on creating non-institutional laboratories and abstracting biological techniques to facilitate those in unrelated fields to perform advanced biology. Romie is also very interested in synthetic biology, is the founder of SoCal DIYBio, and was a grad advisor to the 2007 MIT iGEM team. He is currently a fellow in UCLA's Art|Sci Center, which promotes collaboration between the arts and sciences and their integration in education.

This announcement was sent on behalf of Assistant Professor Denisa Kera, NUS. http://ap3.fas.nus.edu.sg/fass/cnmdk/

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Talk by Denisa Kera: DIYbio in Asia April 8th~!

DIYbio in Asia:
The Ethics and Aesthetics of Global Flows of Data, Kits and Protocols

Dr. Denisa Kera
Assistant Professor
Communications and New Media Programme, National University of Singapore



8th April 2011
12.30pm- 1.30pm
Symposium Room 2 & 3
Level 1, Block MD 11, Clinical Research Centre, 10 Medical Drive, S (117597)
(http://cit.nus.edu.sg/nusfacilities/map/medicine_map.htm)
*Attendees can bring their own sandwich lunch.


ABSTRACT
Direct to consumer (DTC) genomics, Bioart, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and Do-It-With-Others (DIWO) biotech subcultures like DIYbio and DIYgenomics, garage biotechnology and novel forms of co-working spaces and labs present an alternative approach to innovation and research outside of the academia and industry walls. Various forms of grassroot and open source models and activities applied to emergent biosciences present a trend that is challenging the meaning of science dissemination, communication and popularization but also policy. These “popular” forms of science research related to Hackerspaces and science community labs around the world connect directly politics with design, community building with prototype testing, and offer an experimental approach for discussing issues of ethics, policy and innovation.  Communities of people monitoring, sharing and making sense of various “scientific” data and practices in their everyday lives are exploring new and unexpected global networks around low-tech biotechnologies and biomedicine. The low-tech strategies are making possible a global “pop” biotech movement that is spreading from the USA to Indonesia and Philippines. It paradoxically refers back to EU based squat cultures and art and science centers as much as to the American spirit of entrepreneurship. This global biotech underground is converging in the informal networks between ASIA, USA and EU that enable very different flows of knowledge and expertise from the official biotech industry. What are the various forms of citizen science projects, consumer genomics services and various DIYbio initiatives? What challenges these consumer and citizen oriented activities pose to bioethics? How they operate on the global level and what type of exchanges are we starting to witness between continents and cultures? How to describe these new models of research that involve various local communities in the R&D process? What perspectives does this offer to the developing world where low-tech can have a “high-impact”?

SPEAKER

Denisa Kera  is Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore where she teaches courses on interactive media design and new media theory.  Her current research brings together Science Technology Society (STS) studies and interactive media design. She focuses on DIYbio movements in USA and Asia, consumer genomics services on web 2.0 and various forms of emergent “pop” biotech a citizen science projects. She has extensive experience as a curator of exhibitions and projects related to art, technology and science: ENTER3 http://www.enter3.org, "Artists in Labs" and "TransGenesis: festival of biotechnology and art" http://www.transgenesis.cz in 2006 and 2007.

ALL ARE WELCOME

http://cbme.nus.edu.sg