Thursday, May 31, 2012

ASCI Call for "ScienceInspiresArt 2012: Vital Signs"





Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)
announces International Open Call...


ScienceInspiresArt 2012: VITAL SIGNS


ASCI's annual, art-science, juried competition exhibition will be held at the New York Hall of Science from September 1, 2012 - February 3, 2013.


This year we are seeking original art inspired by our biological world with a special interest in what lies beneath its surface, and/or reflects upon scientific research questions, processes, ethics, and the stunning discoveries being made in biology and the biosciences today. [Read full Intro + Guidelines online]


Art Co-Juror:
Patricia Kernan, curator of the New York State Museum's illustration collection; and curator of the museum's international, biennial, "Focus on Nature" exhibits.


Science Co-Juror:
Dr. Dana Boyd, microbiologist and Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School; long-time collaborator of Joe Davis, the "father" of bio-art.


Details: http://www.asci.org/artikel1219.html


Deadline: June 17, 2012

Monday, May 21, 2012

Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture

There was a very interesting talk today at the Aarhus School of Architecture by Michael Pawlyn, in which he stressed 3 key goals that need to be achieved for sustainable architecture.

1) There should be radical increases in resource efficiency (doing more with less, for example the bone material structure of a bird's skull, ETFE for greenhouse windows, etc...)

2) Linear to closed loop (example of a group which took cardboard waste from a restaurant, shredded it, sold it as horse bedding, was paid to collect it after it was soiled, used that waste to grow worms, fed the worms to sturgeon, harvested caviar from the fish, and then sold the caviar in the restaurant.  In some ways it reminded me of the Biodynamic way of farming...)

3) Fossil fuel economy to solar economy (various examples of large scale solar farms including an ambitious system that could turn the Sahara desert into a lush forest again)

The talk touched on many of the same points covered in his TED talk.  Enjoy!


 

Saturday, May 19, 2012

DIS'12 Workshop: (DIY)biology: Designing for Open Source Science

The DIS'12 Workshop: (DIY)biology: Designing for Open Source Science is just around the corner!  The range of topics incudes contributions focused on textiles, symbiosis, fuel, food, social practices, toys, recipes, origami, bloodsucking insects, and much more!  Below are links provided by the workshop site and a blurb from the main page.  We look forward to an interesting workshop!


Position papers:

 Infective Textiles
 Anna Dumitriu and Alex May
 Center for Genomic Gastronomy
 Zack Denfeld and Cat Kramer (bios)
 The (Social) Practices of DIYbio
 Graham Dean, Gordon Blair, Monika Buscher (bio)
 DNA from Kiwi
 Bioplastic Toys 
 Brian Degger (bio)
 The Recipe Exchange
 Helen Pritchard
 DIYbio Manchester
 Hwa Young Jung (website)
 Inflatable Origami
 Ben Dalton (bio)
 Super-Natural
 Sneha Solanki (bio)
 Patchworks
 Jen Southern and Rod Dillon (bios)
 Bednets not Bombs
 Viv Dillon (bio)
 Sterile Working  David Molnar (blog)



The below is a repost from the workshop website:


DIYbio DIS'12 Workshop: DIYbio (Do It Yourself Biology) is a growing community of biologists, artists, engineers and hobbyists who pursue biology projects outside of professional laboratories. (DIY)bio projects range from gardening and experiments with food, to creating biosensors, genetically modifying organisms or building biology equipment from off the shelf parts. As these developments continue to expand science practice beyond professional settings and into hackspaces, art studios and private homes, human computer interaction (HCI) research is presented with a host of new opportunities and concerns.


Our one-day DIS'12 workshop will bring together a diverse group of designers and HCI researchers, as well as biologists, bioartists, and members of the DIYbio community to critically re-envision the role HCI might play at the intersection of biology, computation and DIY. We will engage directly with DIYbio initiatives to explore the materials, practices and challenges of garage biology. Drawing on presentations from participants who work with organic materials, hands-on biology activities (such as extracting DNA), and structured discussions, we hope to address themes such as: opportunities and implications for integrating organic materials into interactive systems; technologies that support and hinder public engagement with science; and HCI's role in the public discourse around bioethics and biosafety.

Evening of SymbioticA, May 19 — DEAF

I wish I could attend!  The below is a repost from the event site:

Evening of SymbioticA, May 19 — DEAF: EVENING OF SYMBIOTICA, MAY 19

ArtMeatfFlesh: tissue engineering for art and nutrition meat is a peculiar thing; lab grown meat is even stranger; artistic lab grown meat is the weirdest of them all ... The evening will get fleshy on meat and will map the meat landscape of in vitro spam. SymbioticA director Oron Catts, the first person to co-grow and co-eat in vitro meat, will host some of the more eccentric figures in the eat-lab-meat debate and might even serve a portion of a meat-like substance.

SymbioticA
SymbioticA is the first research laboratory of its kind, enabling artists and researchers to engage in wet biology practices in a biological science department. The center at the University of Western Australia in Perth offers a new means of artistic inquiry, in which artists actively use the tools and technologies of science not just to comment about them but also to explore their possibilities.

SPEAKERS:
Oron Catts
Monika Bakke
Zackery Denfeld
John O'Shea
Mark Post