[spectre] Call for Participants: SymbioticA Biotech for Artists Workshop at Aalto BiofiliA

Fri Oct 26 14:20:14 CEST 2012

BiofiliA -Base for Biological Arts
at Future Art Base, Aalto University, Finland

Call for Participants: SymbioticA Biotech for Artists Workshop
28th January-1st February, 2013
Saturday 2nd February, official inauguration of Aalto BiofiliA wet biology laboratory

Deadline for applications- Friday 26th November 2012

BiofiliA, Base for Biological Arts, Aalto University, Finland, in collaboration with SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia is organizing an intensive five day workshop for artists and other interested people. After the workshop the opening of the new laboratory and biological arts programme will be celebrated.

The workshop will be led by SymbioticA's Director//Aalto visiting Professor Oron Catts and BiofiliA’s scientific collaborator Marika Hellman.

This is a hands-on workshop where the tools of modern biology are demonstrated through artistic engagement, which in turn gives voice to the broader philosophical and ethical exploration into the extent of human intervention with other living things. It involves exploration of biological technologies and issues stemming from their use; it serves as a theoretical and practical introduction to the creation of biological art and is aimed at mentoring artists in issues of biotechnology and the life sciences.

The workshop will cover hands-on engagement with some of the fundamental tool of modern biology in order to be able to carry out and critique manipulation of living systems from an informed practical perspective. The practical components include DNA extraction and fingerprinting, genetic engineering, animal tissue culture and basic tissue engineering techniques.

Attendance and Conditions:

Attendance at the workshop will be by selection through open submission or by invitation. The selection will be made by BiofiliA, SymbioticA and an external assessor. Participants must be available and present for the entire week-long workshop, as this is an intensive process of learning and social interaction. The application is open internationally for interested people in all level of their professional practice, no previous experience is needed.

There is no cost to selected participants to participate the workshop; however, travel, accommodation and living expenses will not be covered. Please send a CV, a short statement (no longer than one A4 page) as for why would you like to participate in this workshop and (if available) some examples of relevant work.

Please send an expression of interest in attending as an email by Friday 26th November 2012 to ulla.taipale at aalto.fi.

The Workshop was held at:
·       SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia - (May 2012)

·       Royal College of Art/ Imperial College – workshop for Design Interaction Students (April 2011)

·       RMIT, Melbourne Australia (November 2009)

·       Article|08- Biennale for the Electronic and Unstable Arts, Stavanger, Norway, (November 2008)

·       Shristi & National Center for biotechnological Science, Bangalore India (March 2008)

·       University of California Irvine (October 2005).

·       Wollongong University (June 2005)

·       Arts Catalyst/Kings Collage in London (March, April 2005)

·       Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2004 (September 2004),

·       The Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, as a part of the Art of the Biotech Era Exhibition during the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts (February 2004).   

Workshop leaders:

Oron Catts is an artist, researcher and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a leading biological art project. In 2000 he founded SymbioticA, an artistic research centre housed within the School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. Under Oron’s leadership SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008.

In 2009 Oron was recognised by Thames & Hudson’s “60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future” book in the category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of the top 20 Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”.

Catts’ interest is life, more specifically the shifting relations and perceptions of life in the light of new knowledge and it application. Often working in collaboration with other artists (mainly Ionat Zurr) and scientists, Catts have developed a body of work that speak volumes about the need to for new cultural articulation of evolving concepts of life.

Oron was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School and a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University. He is currently the Director of SymbioticA, a Visiting Professor of Design Interaction, Royal College of Arts, London, and a Visiting Professor at Aalto University’s Future Art Base, Helsinki.

Catts’ ideas and projects reach beyond the confines of art; his work is often cited as inspiration to diverse areas such as new materials, textiles, design, architecture, ethics, fiction, and food.

More information: Oron Catts, oron.catts at uwa.edu.au, tel: + 358 50 4002973

Marika Hellman is currently working in BiofiliA as research assistant. She graduated from Aalto University of Chemical Technology in the field of Applied Microbiology and she has been working mainly in research groups but also in industry.

More information: Marika Hellman, marika.hellman at aalto.fi, tel: +358 50 5661359

Future Art Base: BiofiliA – Base for Biological Arts

Aalto BiofiliA program consists of trans-disciplinary studies that aim at creating cultural discussion around the topics related to the manipulation of life and biological processes at a practical and theoretical level, including philosophical and ethical dimensions. The program includes series of lectures and hands-on workshops in the laboratory and natural environments exploring the interfaces between biosciences and art.  The new laboratory BiofiliA in Otaniemi Campus will be opened in autumn 2012 and will offer a place for biological-artistic research, education and production. More information: http://arts.aalto.fi/en/research/future_art_base/

Contact: Ulla Taipale, Aalto BioflilA

ulla.taipale at aalto.fi, +358 50 595 77242

Best wishes
______________________
Ulla Taipale

Future Art Base / BiofiliA
Base for Biological Arts

Aalto University, 
School of Arts, Design and Architecture
Aalto Arts House
Lämpömiehenkuja 3, Espoo
FI-00076 AALTO
FINLAND

ulla.taipale at aalto.fi
tel. +358 50595 77 24

________________________________
Ulla Taipale

Capsula (art-science-nature)

www.capsula.org.es
http://capsulaexpeditions.com

ulla at capsula.org.es
tel 1. +358 40 5110 214
tel 2. +34 653 795 456

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