Session 1: hackteria | open source biological art

Hackteria is a collection of Open Source Biological Art Projects instigated in February 2009 by Andy Gracie (UK), Marc Dusseiller (CH) and Yashas Shetty (IN). The aim of the project is to develop a rich web resource for people interested in or developing projects that involve DIY bioart, open source software and electronic experimentation. In this session, co-founder Dr. Marc Dusseiller will introduce the field of bioart in a simple language by explaining the works of hackteria. Audience will get to understand how hackteria. as a community platform, encourages the collaboration of scientists, hackers and artists to combine their expertise, write critical and theoretical reflections, share simple instructions to work with lifescience technologies and cooperate on the organization of workshops, festival and meetings.

Session 2: Transdisciplinary Approaches on Education at the Art & Science Interface

In his work, Dr. Marc Dusseiller has been developing various new approaches in working with science and technology by bridging with creative and artistic methods. The overview of his work shows how new educational tools have been investigated both in education of non-scientists, such as children, artists or a general gallery audience, or in university education of scientist to include critical and creative thinking by integrating artistic approaches. Hands-on Workshop: Audio/visual experiments with DIY microscopes/hacked webcams.

Hands-on Workshop/
Audio/visual experiments with DIY microscopes/hacked webcams

Session 1
Brief: Participants will learn how to view the microcosmos, webcam hacking and build a microscope.

Session 2
Brief: Participants will take part in an urban micro walk and collect microorganisms, improve the microscope, and learn Pure Data for Microscopy.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

Let’s hack into the world of LIVE microorganisms!

In this workshop, participants will learn how to hack webcams to be used as microscopes, observe the behavior and motion of the water bears and other microorganisms, hack into electronic devices to integrate into bioelectronics culture devices and build habitats for the animals.

The workshop is an experimental hands-on workshop with multilayered outcome for people interested in BioArt, DIYbiology, microscopy, audio/visual experimentation and simple technological interaction with living microorganisms. Participants will become involved in sourcing and isolating microorganisms such as tardigrades or nematodes. They will learn how to hack webcams for live video microscopy and then develop free libre open hardware and software environments. This will let these organisms be both viewed and become the subjects for simple interactions. A primary aim of the activity is to demonstrate that scientific/artistic experimentation can take place within the DIY and open source domains, and that biology and custom electronics can be friends.

The experiments will take place in a close-up view of living microorganisms (e.g. water bears aka tardigrades, amoebae, nematodes and collected organisms from urban environments), which appears to be a world by itself maybe due to the scaling and the amplification of a microscope, but maybe also due to all parameters of imagination that the microcosmos provokes. With the image and the movement of the organisms, the participants are encouraged to collect inspiration and bridge video and sound to what they experience with these small “animalcules”, as termed by their first observer Leeuwenhoek in 1677 The software will be based around the use of Pd (and some of its libraries) and Arduino. The DIY video microscopes will allow various forms of video tracking via PiDiP and its possibilities for generation of sound and visual environments through Pd. Participants will also be free to use processing / wiring or any other open source tools they prefer.

Session 1: hackteria | open source biological art
Time: 2:00-2:30pm

Session 2: Transdisciplinary Approaches on Education at the Art & Science Interface
Time: 2:40-3:10pm

Hands-on Workshop/
Audio/visual experiments with DIY microscopes/hacked webcams

Date: 14 & 15 November 2009 (Sat & Sun)

Session 1
Brief: Participants will learn how to view the microcosmos, webcam hacking and build a microscope.
Date: 14 November (Sat)
Time: 3:30 -7:30pm (4 hrs)

Session 2
Brief: Participants will take part in an urban micro walk and collect microorganisms, improve the microscope,
and learn Pure Data for Microscopy.
Date: 15 November (Sun)
Time: 2:00-6:00pm (4 hrs)