Workshop Statement

A primary aim of the workshop activities 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. Participants will become aware of the diversity of microorganisms in the urban environment and learn where to look for them and how to build apparatus for extracting them. After sourcing and isolating microorganisms we then develop open hardware and software environments with which these organisms can be both viewed and become the subjects for simple interactions. A central focus of the activities will be the hacking of webcams to build DIY video microscopes.

Hackteria is a collection of Open Source Biological Art Projects instigated by Andy Gracie, Marc Dusseiller and Yashas Shetty with the aim of developing a rich resource for people interested in developing projects that involve DIY bioart, open source software and electronic experimentation. Hackteria encourages 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.

• Andy Gracie (UK/ES), London -1967, is an artist working between various disciplines including installation, robotics, sound, video and biological practice. The work he produces is situated between the arts and the sciences, creating situations of exchange between natural and artificial systems which allow new emergent behaviours to develop. His work has been shown in many exhibitions across the UK and in France, Spain, USA, Japan, Mexico and Australia including special commissions for new works from the Arnolfini in Bristol, Organismos in Barcelona and AV06 in North East England. He has also exhibited at ISEA, Artbots, Radar, Ars Electronica and at the Capital of Culture robotic exhibitions as part of Lille2004. He has also presented at numerous conferences and seminars internationally including Transmediale (Berlin) , Dias de Bioarte (Barcelona), Rules of Engagement (York), Open Friday (Barcelona), AV06 (Middlesborough) and FLAIRS (Florida). His work has received honourable mentions from VIDA (2007) and Ars Electronica (2007). He has written and had published a number of articles and papers including Aminima magazine, the journal of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the catalogue for Break2.3 in Slovenia
• Marc Dusseiller (CH) is a transdisciplinary scholar, lecturer for Micro- and Nanotechnology and artist. He works in an integral way to combine science, art and education. He performs DIY-workshops in lo-fi electronics, music and robotics, has made various short movies and is currently developing means to perform biological science (mammalian cell culture, microfluidics, live-microscopy) in a DIY fashion in your kitchen or your atelier. He is also co-organizing dock18, Room for Mediacultures, and various other engagements like the diy* festival as the president of the Swiss Mechatronic Art Society, SGMK. He lectures in sculpting and fine arts at ETH Zurich as well as in Biomedical Microsystems at FHNW University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, and has led workshops in numerous countries throughout the world.
• Yasha Shatty (IN)

This Workshop is supported by Bundesamt für Kultur (Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft) and  Migros Kulturprozent