Introduction to BioArt
Lecturer: Mindaugas Gapševičius
Credits: 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
Date: Hands on part: Tuesday 13:30 - 16:45 and/or
Wednesday 17:00 - 20:00
Theory part: Tuesday 15:15 - 16:00
Venue: Marienstraße 7b, biolab (Room 202)
First meeting: Tuesday, 20. October. 2015
NEWS
Please send a motivation letter before tuesday, 13 October 2015 to mindaugas.gapsevicius [@] uni-weimar.de
Description
This course is designed as an introduction to work with live tissues, bacteria, cellular organisms and other forms demonstrating life-like processes, including crystal growing and automata patterns. The weekly seminar is split into two parts: theoretical and practical. During the theoretical part, we will discuss artworks in relation to BioArt, and the practical part will involve work with organisms.
Work with organisms (bacteria, physarum, euglena, amoeba, algae, molds, plants, etc) in the biolab will focus on the analysis of living systems and their relations to habitat. Living and non-living systems will be considered while sensing and recording their shifts with the help of microscopes and cameras, analysing and interacting with them while bridging with electronics and computers, and sharing and documenting experiments online and on paper.
Grading
20 % Theory
50 % Work in lab
30 % Documentation including 10% of updates in Wiki
Eligible Participants
Undergraduates and graduates enrolled in the faculties of Media and Design.
Syllabus
- Week 1. (October 20) (non)living and the lemon battery
- Week 2. (October 27) bioelectronics and interspecies collaboration /with Azucena Sanchez
- Week 3. (November 3) Mycelium networks /with Sebastian Kaye
- Week 4. (November 8-13) mycelium II /workshop in Sauen with students from Weissensee
- Week 5. (November 17) crystals and cellular automata /with Leon Billerbeck, Liese Endler
- Week 6. (November 24) euglena games
- Week 7. (December 1) bacteria and symbiotic relationships
- Week 8. (December 8) physarum polycephalum and unconventional computing /with Theresa Schubert
- Week 9. (December 15) Transgenic Organism. Plant cloning /with Klaus Fritze
- Week X. (January 12) Microbial fuel cell /with Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits
Students
- Leon Billerbeck and Ioannis Oriwol
- Christian Doeller
- Liese Endler
- Yvonne Götzl
- Sebastian Kaye
- Clotilde Patin
- Azucena Sanchez
- Iremnur Tokac
- Trina Ukmata
- Tim Vischer
- Xianzhi Zhang
Exhibition planning
Related previous courses
Links
Texts
What is Bioart?
Bioart
- Robert Mitchell: Simondon, Bioart and the Milieus of Biotechnology
- Bruno Latour: Give me a laboratory and I will Raise the World
- Donna Harraway: When species meet (recommended:"chicken", p. 278)
- Vilèm Flusser: On Science
- George Gessert: A history of Art Involving DNA
- Joe Davis: Artistic Molecules
- Joe Davis: Romance, Supercodes, and the Milky Way DNA
- Bernadette Bensaude Vincent: Between the possible and the actual: Philosophical perspectives on the design of synthetic organisms
- Ursula Damm et al.: Are artists and engineers inventing the culture of tomorrow?
- Paul Vanouse: Counter Laboratories, Inverted Suspects and Latent Signs
- Jakob von Uexküll - Theoretical Biology, Biocybernetics and Biosemiotics (Journal article)
Books
Bioart
- Robert Mitchell: Bioart an the Vitality of Media ISBN 978-0295990088
- Ingeborg Reichle: Art in the Age of Technoscience: Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art ISBN 978-3211781609
- George Gessert: Green Light ISBN 978-0262014144
- Suzanne Anker: Visual Culture and Bioscience ISBN 978-1890761127
- Ine Gevers: Yes Naturally ISBN 978-9462080638
- Ginsberg, Calvert, Schyfter, Elfick, Endy: Synthetic Aesthetics ISBN 978-0262019996 recommended chapters: The Biogenetic Timestamp: Exploring the Rearrangement of Matter trought Synthetic Biology and Art by Catts and Iwasaki, Time as Critique by Jane Calvert, Evolution or Design by Jane Calvert,
- Eugene Thacker: Biomedia ISBN 978-0816643530
- Lynn Margulis & Dorion Sagan: Acquiring Genomes ISBN 978-0465043927
- Bureaud, Malina, Whiteley: Meta-Life: Biotechnologies, Synthetic Biology, ALife and the Arts [1] recommended chapters: Catts & Zurr: Countering the Engineering Mindset: The Conflict of Art and Synthetic Biology
- Landwehr, Kuni: Home Made Bio Electronic Arts: Do-it yourself: Microscopes, Sensors, Sonifications ISBN 978-3856165673 (Introduction)
Eco Art
- Himmelsbach, Volkart, Malina, Ohlenschläger: Ecomedia ISBN 978-3775720489
- Linda Weintraub: To Life!: Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet ISBN 978-0520273610
Biology, Technology and Culture
- Jakob von Uexkull: A Stroll Through the Worlds of Animals and Men
- Margulis, Asikainen, Krumbein: Chimeras and Consciousness - Evolution of the Sensory Self ISBN 978-0262515832
- Margulis, Sagan: Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality ISBN 978-0671792268
- Hugh Raffles: Insectopedia ISBN 978-1400096961 recommended chapters: Generosity (the Happy Times), Heads and How to Use Them, The Sound of Global Warming
- George Church & Ed Regis: Regenesis ISBN 978-0465021758
- Nick Lane: Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the meaning of life ISBN 978-0192804815
- Andrew Pickering: The Cybernetic Brain ISBN 978-0226667904
Diagrams
- Rosenberg, Grafton: Cartographies of Time ISBN 978-1616890582
- Leeb: Materialität der Diagramme ISBN 978-3942214018
Artists
additional artists:
- Edward Steichen
- Critical Art Ensemble
- Brandon Ballengée
- Agnes Meyer-Brandis
- Anna Dumitriu
- Hideo Iwasaki
- Verena Friedrich
- Joe Davis
- Eduardo Kac
- Paul Vanouse
- Tuur Van Balen & Revital Cohen
- Theresa Schubert
- Michiko Nitta
- Zibigniew Oksiuta Art & Science Bio inspired Architecture.
- Magnus Larsson Architecture and Synthetic Biology
- Jalia Essaidi
- Klaus Fritze