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

 Rethinking the design of bio-bio symbiotic relationships
 Mie Norgaard and Tim Merritt (bios)

 DIY microbial fuel cell
 Eva Sjuve

 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)

 DIY bloodfeeding for bloodsucking insects
 Rod Dillon (bio)

 Sterile Working  David Molnar (blog)

 High-Low Tech, MIT Media Lab
 David A. Mellis (website)

 Centre for Life, Newcastle
 Nicola Stock

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.