Transnatural Art & Design

___Policing Genes speculates that amateurs and criminals also can use genetically modified plants. For example innocent looking plants can produce drugs and medicine. In Policing Genes the bees could act in this problem as animal cops. Artist/ Designer: Thomas Thwaites

___Stel je voor dat je met potlood een instrument tekent en je dat vervolgens kunt bespelen. Toekomstmuziek? Niet met de Drawdio, een potlood waarmee je geluid uit alledaagse voorwerpen kunt halen. Bijna alles uit je omgeving kun je bespelen als een simpele synthesizer. Je tekening op papier, maar ook door met het potlood te tekenen op kleren, deuren en ramen, andere mensen, en zelfs bomen of het water uit de kraan! Eén Drawdio wordt weggegeven! maandag 21 t/m vrijdag 25 maart 2011, duur: ±1 uur

In een set ingericht als een kleurige, magische ‘tuin’ met levende organismen als vissen, maden, wormen en vogels zullen kinderen live gegenereerd beeld en geluid mixen tot een eigen VJ/DJset! maandag 21 t/m vrijdag 25 maart 2011, duur: ±1 uur

___Stadlbauer is a scientist, artist and urban bee keeper, developing new mutually beneficial combinations of culture, technology and nature. She is part of the Herbologies / Foraging Network that combines the cultural traditions and knowledge around edible and medicinal plants with the possibilities of online networks and open-source methods. Her talk is an exploration on behaviour and strategies of bees and men driven by the quest for urban edibles. ~ In the workshop Bee-o-Logical Housing participants investigate hands-on *out of the box* bee-hive-design. apiary.be www.herbologies-foraging.net  

___The Incredible Shrinking Man project suggests to downsize the human species to better fit the earth. It brings together evolutionary insights, Space colonisation research, fossil findings, speculative design, literature and film. Hendriks presents his research and its bio-historical, scientific and conceptual components. ~ In his hands-on workshop participants map out the spatial and cultural effects of shrinking by redesigning space, food, and objects. www.the-incredible-shrinking-man.net

___Mansy is leading a laboratory for synthetic and biology at the University of Trento. He researches the making, growth and multiplication of protocells: life-like systems without DNA that may emerge spontaneously under the right chemical circumstances. He works with Sascha Pohflepp in the Synthetic Aesthetics project. www.smansy.org

___Sascha is an artist and designer who is interested in past and future technologies, notions of art, business and idealism, and how they inform which worlds come true and which worlds are discarded. He participates in the Synthetic Aesthetics project that brings together synthetic biologists, designers, artists and social scientists to explore collaborations between synthetic biology, art and design. ~ In his workshop participants will do long-term narrative exploration on how the human future continues the past through new technologies. www.pohflepp.com

___James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau are artists and critical designers that develop objects and processes by which they question current and upcoming relations between society and technology. Their Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots putexisting notions on the role of robots and their relations with living creatures in a radically different context. ~ In their workshop participants work towards design proposals for alternative ways in which robots may enter the household. www.auger-loizeau.com

___The Andrea Air Purifier places the air purification trait of plants in a technological esthetic that changes the perception of a plant into one of a delicate instrumental machine. Artist: /designer Mathieu Lehanneur (FRA)

___The Institute for Digital Biology researches the next step in the evolution of the internet, when websites and services further develop themselves in the direction of becoming living creatures. Visitors may take care of a colony of microscopically Pop-Up creatures or may save duped Chinese site from a page view shortage. Artist: Walewijn den Boer (NL)

___QuArt.z#1 is an installation about the growth of crystals especially made for Transnatural. Elements from sculpture and painting hereby grow organically into a spatial whole with a special liquid. Artist: Frederik de Wilde (BE)

___Acoustic Botany is a controlled ecosystem of entertainment, a fantastical acoustical garden that aims to explore our cultural and aesthetic relationship to nature, and to question its future in the age of Synthetic Biology. Artist: David Benqué (UK)

___The Ultimaker is a 3D printer and a spawn of the RepRap project. This project aims to build a machine that can replicate all its own parts. During TransNatural the Ultimaker is used to print components with biodegradable materials. Artist: Erik de Bruijn (NL)

___ The OpenStructures project explores the possibilities for a modular construction model where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid. It initiates a kind of collaborative Meccano to which everybody can contribute parts, components and structures. Artist:  Thomas Lommee (BE)

___The Botanic Code is a visualization of subjective data. It remediates a classic image of natural beauty. Voigt walked through botanical gardens in various cities over the world. She translated the color, density and pattern of flowers through an algorithm into painted aluminum rods. Artist: Jorinde Voigt (GER)

___ A windowfarm is a small vertical garden that consists of mostly recycled materials and advanced gardening techniques. This do-it-yourself installation makes it possible to grow vegetables in your own house. Company: Windowfarms (USA)

___Sonja Baumel transforms invisible bacteria on the surface of the skin into visible and functional fashion. In this mix of fashion and science a new organic skin is created. Artist: Sonja Bäumel (AUT)

___The Incredible Shrinking Man explores the possibilities and consequences of human beings shrinking to only 50 cm. The average length of human beings is growing more and more, along comes the increasing use of energy, food and space. What happens when we wouldn’t grow but shrink? Artist: Arne Hendriks (NL)  

Growth Assembly constructs a future with genetically modified plants in which parts and products can be grown for mass production. Transportation becomes redundant as seeds can be send and grown where they will be sold. Artists: Sascha Pohflepp (UK / GER) & Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (UK)

___The Latro is based on a recently proven technology where tiny amounts of electricity were tapped from living algae. As a speculative design product the Latro could function as hanging lamp. The Latro is a living product that uses sunlight, CO2 (through breath) and water. Artist: Mike Thompson (UK/ NL)

___The E-Chromi is a genetically modified bacterium that can form a colony in the human bowels. In a healthy metabolism, it will give feces a blue color. In reaction

___Policing Genes speculates that amateurs and criminals also can use genetically modified plants. For example innocent looking plants can produce drugs and medicine. In Policing Genes the bees could act in this problem as animal cops. Artist: Thomas Thwaites (UK)

___ The Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots own the esthetics of sophisticated electronics and act like a carnivorous pet. Auger & Loizeau explore alternative design concepts of robots being a part of the domestic environment. artists: James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau