Over the course of one week in November, 16 artists from across Europe, took part in a special intensive workshop held within the Biological Science Department of the University of Stavanger and hosted as part of Article|08 – Biennale for the Electronic and Unstable Arts, Stavanger/Norway.

Led by Oron Catts, Director of Symbiotica this was a hands-on induction into the some of the techniques of Bio-Art.
EXTRACT FROM MY NOTES:
Day 1
Lab Primer / D.I.Y. Laboratory Equipment / Bacteria in the Environment and Self
Oron Catts is interested in how artists are working with life and asked the question:
Is there something intrinsically different when working with life?
Reasons why artists might work with life:

-  warm fuzzy feeling
-  solving real problems in real world?
-  making strange, defamiliarisation (Victor Shlovski 1917)
-  Critique of life sciences, P.R., Promotion (of life sciences) Aesthetics
-  Research, Intervention, Activism

Strategies for artists:

-  Representation
-  Visualisation
-  Interpretation
-  Hands-on

In most human cultures there is tension when working with life.

Case Study:

Steve Kurtz, Criticle Art Ensemble

- Tactical Media Artist
- Sharing Biological Knowledge held by governments (for warfare) and corporations
- Charged with “Bioterrorism” under the PATRIOT Act – Grand Jury rejected the charge
- Judge threw out the case.

Authorities have strong agendas against democratisation of knowledge

What constitutes human manipulation of life?

Bacteria

Task: Take, and label, samples from four different sources in order to test for bacteria.

-  single cell organism
- no nucleus
-  DNA (circular) contained in cytoplasm
- multiply asexually
- replicate quickly, make colonies

Some highlights:

- extracting our own DNA using household products and ethanol

- making our own DIY laboratory equipment
- combining, at a genetic level, Jellyfish DNA and DNA taken from faeces
- transforming the genetic material of a found bacteria, causing it to glow under U.V. light

- harvesting bone marrow stem cells from a dead animal (which had been sold as meat)
- facilitating tissue culture cell division of (HeLa) cancer cell line, using a fetal calf serum

Jun Takita and his work – “Light, only light”.