Piksel in collaboration with S.Net Conference, UIB and KHIB Bergen presents a
Do-It-Yourself biolab for artistic and scientific research.
12-14 October 2016
At the Student Center, UIB | BERGEN
Sign-up by emailing: piksel16 (@) piksel.no
Explore plastic pollutants in the marine environment using DIY science
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Artists and scientists Kat and Gjino invite us to examine the unseen and hard to detect impact of our increasing use of “hidden” plastic – plastic that we can’t see, like micro beads, or that we don’t (yet) have a narrative of as polluting, such as 3D printed materials. At the workshop, we’ll be refining DIY chemical tests for micro-plastics, looking at fish samples from the local fishmongers.
Over 4 days of activities, starting with sample collection on a field trip to the fish market, participants will go through a process of exploration of these newly developed DIY techniques, to better understand the presence of plastics in the marine environment around Bergen.
The workshop will culminate with a Sushi Roulette afterparty, where through the encounter with real and dummy sushi the participants are challenged to test their reactions to the thought of consuming plastics as
food.
Schedule:
Day 1: Tuesday 11 Oct. | Meet-up at 1st floor Mesanine, Student Center
3pm – 5pm: Field trip. Visit and finding fish at the Fish Market and other fish shops.
Day 2: Wednesday 12 Oct. | 1st floor Mesanine, Student Center
1pm to 6 pm: Workshop part 1: Establishing an open source and open hardware lab for DIY biology, chemistry and marine fauna research.
6pm-7pm: Cleaning the lab.
Day 3: Thursday 13th Oct. | 1st floor Mesanine, Student Center
1pm to 5 pm: Workshop part 2.
5pm – 6pm: Debate: Public discussions with local scientist, environmental scientist, fisherman’s, artists and
interested parties.
6pm-7pm: Cleaning the lab.
Day 4: Friday 14 Oct. | 1st floor Mesanine, Student Center
12:30pm – 2pm: Setting up the exhibition and visual materials with the artists.
2 pm- 3pm: Sushi Roulette Closing Event: Public presentation of the outcome using all the data and tools
developed and recorded during the workshop days, and sushi served.
Artists’ bios
Kat Austen
http://worldflows.net http://opendroplet.org
Kat F Austen is a succession of experiences and an assemblage of aspirations. In the temporal melting-pot of her life so far she has produced work as an artist, an environmental scientist, a journalist, a writer and much in between. As an artist Kat deals with themes of environment, social justice, communities and human relations to digital culture. She creates experiences, stories and playful installations, mixing fact and fiction closely, so troublesome. She wants to touch your heart, mind, soul, body.
Kat is Artist in Residence at the Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences, University College London. She has exhibited widely, including at Museo Diego Rivera, Mexico City, Kulurbraueri, Berlin, Kreuzberg Pavillion, Berlin, The Crystal, London, Schwartz Gallery, London, Regenerate Gallery, London and Williams Art, Cambridge. She is Head of Research and Design at social enterprise iilab, leading the Open Droplet water sensor project, which was recently included on the Serpentine Gallery’s extinct.ly platform. With this project,
she is focussing on co-design, physically evocative representations of data and community stewardship of water.
Kat holds a PhD in chemistry from UCL and worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge. Her writing has appeared in Nature, The Ecologist and The Guardian, and she consults widely on the intersection of science, art and technology, including as a Futureshaper for Forum for the Future, for the European Commission and UK water regulator Ofwat.
The environment is Kat’s passion, and her interest is largely held by finding intellectual, experiential and sensorial ways of understanding existence in all its complexity. Her work explores the interplay between acts at different levels – individual, collective, communal, municipal, state, national, international – in the context of a global, digitally-enabled society. The aesthetics in her artworks treads the line between naive and polished, messy and sleek, humorous and disjointed. For instance, she drowned a lot of tiny people in a bath to make
a point about social media. Kat has a PADI open water diving license and also licence to be crew on the yacht.
Gjino Šutić
http://ur-institute.org/
Researcher, innovator, artist, educator, founder and CEO & CSO at UR Institute & Gen0 Industries
Gjino Šutić conducts research in several fields of science, such as biotechnology & biomedicine, electronics, robotics, computer science & IT, engineering, nanotechnology etc. with a focus on bioelectronics and
biorobotics. His work combines complex electronics and biotechnology, and he often uses artistic representation for the demystification of science and for bringing it closer to ordinary citizens.
Using a DIY approach to biotechnology (biohacking), he designs and DIY manufactures necessary instruments and materials. He invented the concept of “Biotweaking” (improvement of living organisms or their components to exhibit and use their full potential) which fully defines his philosophy and work.
Since 2012, Gjino started publicly displaying his inventions and innovations such as; SRCE, B.O.C.A., MeBUMZ etc., in a variety of scientific and art exhibitions and cultural events in Croatia and abroad. Also, he started teaching as an informal educator in biotweaking. In 2013 he founded and started working as CEO & CSO of the non-profit citizen’s Universal Research Institute UR, where he also holds workshops, teaches and experiments. In 2015 founded and started working as CEO & CSO of Gen0 Industries – for production and development of innovations.
PIKSEL
Piksel is an annual event for artists and developers working with free and open source software, hardware and art. Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops,
performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free and open source software. Piksel’s upcoming edition will be devoted to DIY (Do It Yourself) biotechnology applied to art.
In collaboration with S.Net Conference, UIB and KHIB Bergen
More info and full program: