Brandon Ballengée – visiting artist

While at Ohio State, Brandon Ballengée will participate in several events:

Tuesday, April 3

Marine Species Eco-Action and Vertebrate Specimen Preservation Workshop
Globally marine fisheries are suffering from species decline with many populations verging on collapse. Choosing locally sourced sustainable seafood is a key to marine conservation, yet few of us know which species are ecologically safe to eat. Join artist/ biologist Brandon Ballengée on a seafood market survey of fishes, mollusks, arthropods and other species. Ballengée will discuss encountered species natural history, ecological status and collectively we will choose specimens for a dissection and preservation workshop following the tour. When back at the lab participants will learn how to dissect and preserve specimens at a Natural History Museum standard.

  • 12:00 pm – meet at The Fish Guys in the North Market, 59 Spruce St, Columbus, OH 43215
  • 2:30 pm – we will meet back at the Museum of Biological Diversity for the dissection and preservation part of the workshop
  • Bring a sketchbook and some money to purchase a fresh specimen at the market.
  • Limited participants: please email youngs.6@osu.edu for availability

Wednesday, April 4

Praeter Naturam: Beyond Nature Artist Talk, 4 pm, Wexner Center for the Arts, Film/Video Theatre

Thursday, April 5

Ohio Ecology on Tap & Crude Life Portable Museum Exhibition 6-8 pm, The Spacebar, 2590 N. High Street

Thursday, April 6

Art & Science Panel 12 pm – 2 pm, Research Commons, 18th Avenue Library

Adam Zaretsky – visiting artist

Please join us for two BioArt workshops – a hands-on, do-it-yourself DNA isolation, followed by a novel culinary experience: Radical Gastronomy Microsushi Injection Lab!

Both on Thursday, February 15th, in Hopkins Hall Lobby, at the Ohio State University.

• 5:30 – 6:30 pm: The Hybrid DNA Isolation Skill-Share Lab • Zaretsky will show us how to extract DNA from Anything Living. Our lab is all ages and animal and tree nut free. Our lab is a communal performance ritual that can easily be repeated at home. Participants are asked to bring non-animal, living samples for DNA Isolation.

• 6:30 – 7:30 pm: Methods of Transgenesis Bioart Inject Lab: Microinjection • Participants will learn about the history of microinjection and practice Do It Yourself (DIY) microinjection. A Microinjector is a thin glass micropipette. The tiny needle is so small that it can inject directly into the nucleus of living cells. It is often used to get novel genes into the genomes of living cells. DNA is mixed with liquids and injected into various living beings. This is known either as transgenesis transfection, trans-gene infection, transformation, genetic modification or transgenic production. We will talk about the history and symbolism of microinjection development and the ethics of genetic modification. Participants will have a chance to test a variety of DIY and commercially available microinjectors. We will work on making gourmet microsushi with sterile solutions of wasabi or soy sauce and perhaps microinject some zebrafish embryos with DNA from the Hybrid DNA Isolation Lab.

The goal of these labs is to create an open-ended interface between life and the arts. To keep all expressive options dilated, the focus is not on the logic of the biologic. Instead, our cultural relationships to the world of life are exposed in their contradictory and slippery illogics. The interfaces between human society and the ecosphere are identified, rethought and collaged together to form signs of definitional breakdown. Consider the categories for whom should be treated to artistic xenophilia: Food, Nature, the Laboratory, Our Bodies and other non-humans. By defining where and how we interface with all lifeforms and by mixing these logics into art media instead of fact production, we arrive at unusual conceptual re-evaluations… towards a kinship with biodiversity and general life as complex for appreciation.

For this experiment, we want as many varieties of non-animal samples as possible. Participants have been requested to bring one or more samples of living, growing, raw or recently alive materials for Isolation and Purification of an admixture of these samples. We will take a portion of everything that is provided.

These samples will be mixed together during the isolation. Through a series of simple protocols, using household items, the hybrid DNA is extracted and collected by the group. We then use artistic techniques to work with this New and Very Old Media to make monoprints, sculpture and conceptual art.

Adam Zaretsky is a Wet-Lab Art Practitioner mixing Ecology, Biotechnology, Non-human Relations, Body Performance and Gastronomy. Zaretsky stages lively, hands-on bioart production labs based on topics such as: foreign species invasion (pure/impure), radical food science (edible/inedible), jazz bioinformatics (code/flesh), tissue culture (undead/semi-alive), transgenic design issues (traits/desires), interactive ethology (person/machine/non-human) and physiology (performance/stress). A former researcher at the MIT department of biology, for the past decade Zaretsky has been teaching an experimental bioart class called VivoArts at: San Francisco State University (SFSU), SymbioticA (UWA), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), University of Leiden’s The Arts and Genomic Centre (TAGC) and with the Waag Society. He has also taught DIY-IGM (Do-It-Yourself Inherited Genetic Modification of the Human Genome) at New York University (NYU) and Carnegie Melon University (CMU). He also runs a public life arts school: VASTAL (The Vivoarts School for Transgenic Aesthetics Ltd.) His art practice focuses on an array of legal, ethical, social and libidinal implications of biotechnological materials and methods with a focus on transgenic humans. Adam is currently Media Arts Faculty in the School of Communication and the Arts at Marist College. Zaretsky received his BFA in Studio Art from the University of California at Davis, his MFA in Art and Technology from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

 

From Molecules to Ecosystems

Announcing a new special topics course for Fall 2017

This Art/Science studio course will explore connections between micro and macro, plants and humans, local and global, anthropocentric and ecocentric. Co-taught by Molecular Genetics professor Iris Meier and Art professor Amy Youngs, students will learn to apply both scientific and artistic methods to creative projects. Working individually and collaboratively, we will do experiments in the lab and art studios, creating works that explore  • climate stress & adaptation • biotech / bioart • constructed ecosystems • biomimicry • hypernature • symbiosis.

All forms of art making welcome in this class. While we will be discussing, reading, and experimenting with molecules, plants and eco-aesthetics, students can chose to work in media appropriate to their creative skill sets. Ideal for graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in studio-based or lab-based disciplines such as Art, Biology, Science, Design, Music and Architecture.

email Amy youngs.6@osu.edu or Iris meier.56@osu.edu for permission to enroll

BioArt Workshop and Lecture by Marta de Menezes

We are excited to be hosting visiting artist Marta de Menezes from Portugal. She will give a hands-on, DIY BioArt workshop involving CRISPR (gene editing techniques) on March 20 & 21. 10am – 2pm.

Additionally, she will present a public lecture on her artwork on March 21 at 4pm in Hopkins Hall room 246.

Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist with a degree in Fine Arts by the University in Lisbon, a MS in History of Art and Visual Culture by the University of Oxford, and a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden. She has been exploring the intersection between Art and Biology, working in research laboratories demonstrating that new biological technologies can be used as new art medium. In 1999 de Menezes created her first biological artwork (Nature?) by modifying the wing patterns of live butterflies. Since then, she has used diverse biological techniques including functional MRI of the brain to create portraits where the mind can be visualised (Functional Portraits, 2002); fluorescent DNA probes to create micro-sculptures in human cell nuclei (nucleArt, 2002); sculptures made of proteins (Proteic Portrait, 2002-2007), DNA (Innercloud, 2003; The Family, 2004) or incorporating live neurons (Tree of Knowledge, 2005) or bacteria (Decon, 2007). Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, articles and lectures. She is currently the artistic director of Ectopia, an experimental art laboratory within a biological research institute – the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência – in Lisbon, and Director of Cultivamos Cultura in the South of Portugal. Website: martademenezes.com

Contemporary Art and Life Sciences Workshop – CRISPR Cas9 technology
The intersection of Art, Biology and the Environment offers unique opportunities to visual artists. This innovative workshop will allow non-specialists to acquire theoretical and practical skills in biological sciences and genetic manipulation techniques in connection to the visual arts. We will:

  • learn about current artistic practices that engage the life sciences, and will become familiar with artists that combine the two disciplines.
  • explore CRISPR-Cas9 method to manipulate yeast and/or bacteria in pursuit of the larger question “What is natural?” / “What are the implications and outcomes of the manipulation of life?”
  • engage in and critically examine all elements of the creative process in art and science, including ideation, experimentation, and communication.
  • develop new methodologies, lines of inquiry or strategies to inform, build upon or challenge the participants’ creative research and practice in art and/or science.
  • collaborative works that combine elements of art and science, and successfully link concept, intent, and form.

Limited enrollment. Please contact Amy Youngs youngs.6@osu.edu to indicate your interest in attending.

Please note: you’ll need to commit to both days: Monday March 20 & Tuesday March 21 10am – 2pm

These events are part of the Humanities & Arts Discovery Theme focused on Science and Technology Studies.

Maker Faire Ottawa

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Selfie Moment, by Ethan Schaefer

Art and Tech students and faculty and alumni presented work at Maker Faire in Ottawa Canada in a special art exhibition titled Preternatural, co-curated by Ohio State University Professor Ken Rinaldo and Maker Faire curator Remco Volmer. They invited artists whose works address the perspectives of animals, media and technological representations, ecosystems, futures, coevolution, symbiosis and friction between human and non-humans. These included 3D rapid prototyped sculptures, 3D animations, robotic artworks, performance and moving image art installations.

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Makezine wrote a story about the Preternatural exhibition
Ada Fruit story on Simon
AdaFruit wrote about Jeremy Viny and Andrew Frueh’s project in the exhibition

Invited artists: Madeleine Rico, Jeremy Viny, Trademark Gunderson, Jordan Reynolds, Ethan Schaefer, Catherine Lee, Danner Seyffer-Sprague, Danielle Popp, Yoni Mizrachi, Sarah Goetz, Amy Youngs, Grant Parish, Casey Hamilton, Daniel Popp, Christine Rucker, Katherine Beigel, Drew Grigsby, Christina Howard, Kyler Holland, Maggie Barrie, Riley Patrick, Makayla Combs, Nick Cunningham, Hui Yang, Jayne Kennedy, Brandon Messner, Jacob Markusic, Brandon Ball, Michael Anderson, Leah Lafarciola, Gaopeng Chen, Jay Young and Ken Rinaldo.

Special Thanks to the United States Department of State for the generous grant allowing travel funds for these artists and to Maker Faire Ottawa for this generous opportunity as well as the Department of Art at the Ohio State University in supporting this international opportunity.

BioPresence Exhibition documentation

Visit the online catalog and video that documents the work of the artists who presented work in the BioPresence exhibition December 2015. This non-human animal themed exhibition, included Art and Tech faculty, graduates and undergraduates as well as other invited artists and international sound artists.

Biopresence exhibition website and catalog

Where Rocks are Fed to Trees

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The faculty and students of the Underground Symbiosis class are ready to show you something you’ve never seen before.

We invite you to experience Where Rocks are Fed to Trees, an art installation inspired by the subterranean, fungal communication networks that enable the sharing and transport of nutrients between different species.

This multi-channel video projection environment was collaboratively created within the context of an Art/Science course at the Ohio State University, Art 5001: Underground Symbiosis: the art and science of mycorrhizal networks. This co-taught course built on synergies between Professor Iris Meier’s research in Arbuscular Mycorrhizae and Professor Amy Youngs’ ecosystem installation artworks. Together, with 16 undergraduate students, we performed scientific experiments such as microscopy, staining, chemical analysis and plant growth trials, to better understand mycorrhizae. Artistic methods, such as observation, speculation, synthesis, manipulation, construction and presentation, were also employed throughout our investigations, which have culminated in this co-created, immersive, art/science installation.

It will be presented as part of the Art and Technology exhibition, Loving the Obligate Symbiont, in Hopkins Hall, at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. We invite the public to join us for the reception on Monday, April 25th, 5 – 8pm. Or visit during open hours on April 21, 22 or 25th. More info.

Artists: 

Trent Bailey, Brandon Ball, Katherine Beigel, Gaopeng Chen, Tyler Collins, Sarah Hockman, Shatae Johnson, Eric Lo, Jacob Markusic, Iris Meier, Yoni Mizrachi, Julianne Panzo, Edwin Rice, Ethan Schaefer, Aaron Theesfeld, Robert Ward, and Amy Youngs.

Special thanks to our supporters:

  • The Department of Molecular Genetics
  • The Department of Art
  • College of Arts and Sciences Small Grant Program
  • Biological Sciences Greenhouse
  • Chadwick Arboretum

And thanks to the following individuals, for inspiring our class with presentations and technical assistance: Eduardo Acosta, Dr. Ana Alonso, Jean-Christophe Cocuron, Dr. Dobritsa, Anna Griffis, Norman Groves, Kim Landsbergen, Joan Leonard, Galen Rask, and Emily Yoders-Horn.

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More class photos here.

 

BioPresence Exhibition Fall 2015

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This themed, new media art exhibition will include animations, robotic art, internet art, tactical media, sound artworks, maps, digital art, installation, video and algorithmic approaches to sensing and representing non-human beings. It will be held at the Ohio State University main campus and the Mote Galleries on High Street, in Columbus, Ohio.

The exhibition will begin at the Mote Galleries on November 16, 2015 with selected, invited artists. From December 9th through the 16th, BioPresence will expand into a large-scale exhibition in the Hopkins Hall Gallery and throughout the building. It will include a listening room for audio artworks selected for the juried show: BioPresence – Bioacoustic Urbanscapes. Opening celebration 5pm – 8pm, Wednesday December 9th  in the lobby of Hopkins Hall.

Participating artists include: Jessica Ann, Katherine BennettAllison Semele Blair, Matt Lewis, William RandallKen Rinaldo, TrademarkDoo-Sung YooAmy Youngs and many more.

Students, staff and faculty are invited to submit artwork to this new media art exhibition that reveals and considers the presence of biological beings in the unique urban habitat of the Ohio State University. Apply to the Audio Art portion of the show here by December 3. Jurying of the new media art show will take place in Hopkins Hall on December 8th, 2015.

Learn more about the BioPresence #AnimalOSU project and the people involved.

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Map Detailing Locations of the Works

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