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!?!?!

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!

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!"

Press Release

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

Science Article

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

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/

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!

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

http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/

Welcome Joel!!!