CERTIFIED COPY

20.11.2010 – 10.04.2011
opening: 20.11.2010, 18.00
curators: Geert Verbeke, Simon Delobel

1989. The American artist Larry Miller, a member of the Fluxus movement, distributes certificates to allow anyone to decide on the use, or not, of their DNA. The action, which relates the art scene to contemporary biotechnological problems, would precede the birth of Dollie, the first cloned mammal in the world, by a decade.

In a world where numerous multinationals multiply data banks destined to the patented reproduction of genetical information, the Verbeke Foundation organises an exhibition on the notions of copying and cloning. Certified Copy, open to the public from November 20, 2010 to April 10, 2011 unites the works of over twenty international contempary artists who are concerned in the question of the reproduction of living and lifeless materials.

From delftware from the museum of Leiden over the masterpieces of Hirst, Murakami or Cattelan, to fluorescent transgenic fishes, all presented works give us the possibility to draw a parallel between both contemporary artistic and scientific practices. The letters of the Coco Chanel logo on the exhibition poster also evoke daily counterfeited products, and the expressions of Certified Copy, Carbon Copy and Creative Commons. In fact, the exhibition adopts a critical viewpoint on the motivations for reproducing works and living organisms, and on the stipulations of this reproduction in our globalised, industrial and capitalistic society.

ARTISTS:

Art Orienté objet (FR)

Cristian Bors & Marius Ritiu (RO)

Stijn Belle (NL)

Adam Brandejs (CA)

Ondrej Brody (CZ) & Kristofer Paetau (FI)

Leo Copers (BE)

Paul Cornelis (NL)

Dennis De Bel en JODI (NL)

Hugo Draulans (BE)

Constant Dullaart (NL)

Janieta Eyre (CA)

Andrea Fraser (US)

Bram Geers (NL)

Ni Haifeng (CN)

Mateusz Herczka (SE)

Theo Jansen (NL), Ad Lakerveld (NL) & Kurt Van Houtte (BE)

Natalie Jeremijenko (US)

Eduardo Kac (US)

Luc Lefebvre (BE)

Thomas Lommée (BE)

L.A. Raeven (NL)

Joachim Rotteveel (NL)

Louis Sassoye, Marie-Paule Wilbert, Filippe Langenbick & Cie (BE)

Ad Schouten (NL)

Lieven Standaert (BE)

Martin uit den Bogaard (NL)

Martien Van Beeck (BE)

Maarten Vanden Eynde (BE)

Jason van der Woude (NL)

Koen Vanmechelen (BE)

Jonas Vansteenkiste (BE)

Alexandra Verhaest (BE)

Adam Zaretsky (US)

ALL TEXT AND IMAGES FROM VERBEKE FOUNDATION.

ZEBRA DELUXE: Somewhere art collective: Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie – as part of Alter Nature: The Unnatural Animal

“Everything you need to know about genetics you can learn from your cat” 
(Associate professor Leslie Lyons PhD of the UC Davis Genetics Laboratory at the University of California)

19u00: introduction by Revital Cohen about Alter Nature: The Unnatural Animal

19u45: Nina Pope oof the London art collective Somewhere, presents their latest documentary work in-progress: Cat Fancy Club

Invited by Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen – critical designers of the exhibition project Alter Nature: The Unnatural Animal – Nina Pope of the London art collective Somewhere, presents their latest documentary work in-progress: Cat Fancy Club. The film follows a number of cat breeders into their complex, creative and often scientific world, in which breeding for the perfect look is central. A special spot is dedicated to Dr. Leslie Lyons, who ratified the world’s first cloned kitten and the first GFP (glow in the dark) transgenic kitten. Her laboratory – The Comparative Genetics Laboratory – focuses a.o. on the development of genetic tools for companion animals.

The presentation and film clips of Cat Fancy Club are preceded by an introduction by Revital Cohen. In Alter Nature: The Unnatural Animal, Cohen investigates the context and possibilities of designing a living organism without any reproduction organs; an irreproducible domestic animal.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Alter Nature: Designing Nature – Designing Human Life – Owning Life

PROGRAM:

09h00  Coffee and tea

09h30 – 09h50  Welcome

19h30 – …  Dinner for speakers

ALL SPEAKERS

Prof. Dr. Robert Zwijnenberg
Robert Zwijnenberg is a professor in Humanities, at the University of Leiden (NL). In his research he focuses on contemporary art and aesthetic theories. He is also the director of The Arts and Genomics Center, based at the Faculty of Science, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Gorlaeus Laboratories. The Center creates a platform for international artists, scientific researchers and professionals from business and government organizations aiming to stimulate, initiate and supervise meetings, discussions, collaborations and exchanges. The Arts & Genomics Centre aims to describe and analyze the unique role that the visual arts can have in the critical evaluation and dissemination of the results of genomics research.

Ignace Schops
Ignace Schops is a landscaping expert and herpetologist and the director of the Regional Landscape Kempen and Maasland. In  2009 he was appointed International Ambassador of Biodiversity and member of the International Advisory Board for Countdown 2010, an initiative of the International Union for Nature Conservation. Besides being the vice-president of Natuurpunt Vlaanderen and secretary of the board of Natuurpunt Limburg, he’s an author and frequent international keynote speaker on herpetology, nature conservation and landscaping. In 2008, Schops won the ‘Goldman Environmental Prize’, the Green Nobel Prize for Nature conservation.

Prof. Dr. Ann Cuypers
Ann Cuypers almost became a medical doctor but fell in love with biology and physics during the first year of university. She switched to a bachelor Education in Biology. Her interest in biological research triggered her to pursue a PhD degree at Hasselt University after her master program. At the moment she is a professor at the biology department of Hasselt University where she wants to take fundamental biology research to a higher level as well as to make it a useful tool in our modern society. She aims at realizing this within the “Centrum voor Milieukunde” (CMK), a research institute at Hasselt University. Her research domain is focused on disturbed molecular mechanisms within plants which are subject to stress caused by heavy metals.

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a British designer and artist who studied Design Interaction at the Royal College of Art. She is currently the Design Fellow for the ‘Synthetic Aesthetics’ project at Stanford and Edinburgh Universities, curating  artists, designers and synthetic biologists exploring existing and potential collaborations between biology and the creative arts. Her work, which can be located in the field of design and the biotech revolution, is inspired by the implications of innovative and emerging technologies for society.
www.daisyginsberg.com

Adam Zaretsky
Adam Zaretsky is an American artist who works with biology, performance and research. He is fascinated by living systems, the exploration of life’s mysteries, and life itself. He also focuses on the legal, ethical and social implications of biotechnological materials and methods. Zaretsky may be described as an artist provocateur, given his very explicit way of raising pertinent issues through his work.
www.emutagen.com

Huib de Vriend
Huib de Vriend is the founder of the one-man organization LIS Consult. De Vriend studied at the University of Agriculture in Wageningen (NL) and has been involved in the international public debate on biotechnology. LIS Consult supports and advices governments, companies, research institutes and public organizations about the developments in the Life sciences, their societal aspects and their role in the innovation processs. LIS stands for Life sciences, Innovation and Society.
Detailed CV (Dutch only):http://www.lisconsult.nl/images/stories/Downloads/cv.pdf
www.lisconsult.nl

Prof. Dr. Catherine Verfaillie
Catherine Verfaillie is trained as an MD, hematologist at the KULeuven, and went to the University of Minnesota in 1987 for a postdoctoral fellowship, where she became a full Professor of Medicine in 1998 and became the first Director of the University of Minnesota’s Stem Cell Institute in 1999. In 2006 she accepted to become the director of the Interdepartmental Stem Cell Institute at the KULeuven. She has a longstanding career in stem cell biology, initially focusing on normal hematopoietic stem cells and leukemic stem cells. Since 2000 she has also focused extensively on more pluripotent stem cells, when she described stem cells from postnatal origin with greater potency, named multipotent adult progenitor cells or MAPC. The interest of the Verfaillie lab in Leuven is currently focused on understanding what regulates selfrenewal and differentiation of hematopoietic and adult as well as embryonic pluripotent stem cell, and testing the possible use of stem cell based and stem cell derived therapies in animal models of hematopoietic, vascular, liver and metabolic (diabetes) disorders.

Koen Vanmechelen
Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen makes iconoclastic sculpture, paintings, glasswork and installations. His daring expeditions into contemporary science, philosophy and ethics have resulted into several internationally acclaimed projects. Most known is The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (TCCP), a vast attempt to create and manipulate scores of chicken breeds from whole over the world into a new species, a universal chicken or Superbastard. Four subprojects constitute the TCCP:Virtual crossing,Experimental crossing, The Walking Egg andThe Accident, Chronicles of The Cosmopolitan Chicken.

Dr. Ir. Rinie van Est
Rinie van Est joined the Rathenau Institute in August 1997. He is responsible for identifying new developments at the convergence of science, technology, politics and society, with a particular focus on the emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. The combination of these disciplines, known as the ‘NBIC convergence’, is likely to bring about a new technological ‘wave’, reshaping our future with major developments such as synthetic biology, Ambient Intelligence and virtual worlds. Rinie van Est was involved in many Rathenau publications, one of the most recent ones being ‘Making Perfect Life. Bio-engineering in the 21^st Century.’
www.rathenau.nl/en/publications/making-perfect-life-bio-engineering-in-the-21st-century-1.html
www.rathenau.nl/en/employees/rinie-van-est.html

Prof. Dr. Frank Luyten
Frank P. Luyten, MD, PhD and director (non-executive) of Tigenix is amongst other things board certified Rheumatologist, tenured full Professor and Head of the Division of Rheumatology at the University Hospital in Leuven, and director of the Laboratory for Skeletal Development and Joint Disorders at the K.U. Leuven. He obtained his MD, PhD degree and Board Certification in Rfranheumatology at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Afterwards, he performed a postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Dental Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. He became subsequently group leader of the Developmental Biology Unit at the Bone Research Branch, NIDR, NIH, Bethesda, USA. Two important contributions to his scientific achievements are the discovery of Osteogenin and Cartilage Derived Morphogenetic Proteins. His expertise in regenerative medicine is further supported by contributions in the field of cellular therapeutics, cartilage/joint surface repair and the discovery of adult stem cells in synovial tissue. He serves as advisor and board member of other biotech companies in the field of Regenerative Medicine.

J. Paul Neeley
J. Paul Neeley is a multidisciplinary designer/researcher currently working as a Senior Creative/Design Consultant at Gaia Corporation in London. At Gaia Corporation J. Paul leads the organization’s Global Products Practice, helping companies understand, design, and realize new product opportunities through synthetic biology. He has a background in design research, brand & design strategy, business design, and service & experience design. Before coming to Gaia Corporation, J. Paul worked professionally at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation//SPARC as a designer/researcher focusing on the healthcare experience and delivery, at Teton Radiology/Medical Imaging Associates as service design manager realizing innovative medical imaging solutions, and at Unilever in Consumer & Market Insights on leading CPG brands. His past design work has explored the human implications of emerging technologies, designing futures that help us understand and engage with possibilities. He is a graduate of Northwestern University where he studied Communications Studies, Economics, and Cello Performance, and holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art.

Dr. Philippe Jacobs
Dr. Philippe Jacobs is the in-house European Patent Attorney of Tech Transfer UGent since May 2010. In addition, he lectures at the University of Antwerp (UA). Prior to joining UGent he was director within the IP firm ‘De Clercq & Partners’ and was a patent attorney within the tech transfer team of the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). Prior to joining VIB, he was a patent counsel in the intellectual property department of Innogenetics, a Belgian biotech company active in healthcare. Dr. Jacobs holds a PhD in Immunology from McGill University, Canada. In addition, Dr. Jacobs has 4 years teaching experience in Rwanda and also holds a diploma in Tropical Medical Biology from the Institute for Tropical Medicine of Antwerp, a Masters of Science degree in biological control from McGill University and a licentiate degree in botany from UGent.

Dr. Berthold Rutz
Berthold Rutz is a patent examiner at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich entrusted with search, examination and opposition in the field of biotechnology. He holds a PhD in biochemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Wauthier Robyns
Wauthier Robyns started law studies in 1979 at the University of Brussels. Between 2006 and 2010 he was a member of the European Economic and Social Committee and served as a reporter on collective redress in case of competition law infringements, solvency requirements of insurance companies, VAT on banking and insurance services, the powers of EU financial supervision agencies, and the relationships between insurance companies and car repair shops. At the moment he is a manager at Assuralia, a well known and manifested insurance company. The consequences of genetic manipulation and subsequent role of assurance policies are his domains of interest.

Dr. Peter Raeymaekers
Peter Raeymaekers obtained a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Antwerp. During 15 years he had the privilege to perform research in the molecular domains of biomedical sciences. Currently, he has taken some distance from the research area and has become a freelance writer and journalist in science. In this way he can chase the newest evolutions in a broader field and explain this to our current society. His passion and fascination for the biochemistry of life plays an important role in all this. The passion for life sciences started during his college years, when he studied biochemistry. One of his famous lines is: “Once you are infected with the virus of science, you ‘ll stay infected the rest of your life, so be warned!”

ALL TEXT AND IMAGES FROM: ALTER NATURE

First Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award was presented for a bullet proof skin, an ecological bioreactor and an opera performed by mutated worms.

Wednesday, 8 December, Robbert Dijkgraaf presented the first Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award (DA4GA) to three winning projects in Naturalis, Leiden. DA4GA is an initiative of Waag Society, Netherlands Genomics Initiative and Centre for Society and Genomics. The jury feels that the three winning designs are sensational both artistically as well as scientifically and furthermore of social relevance, because of the linking of scientists to designers. The winners received €25.000, to be spent on the realization of their proposal that will be on show from mid-June until the end of December 2011.

The 3 winners:

Jalila Essaidi and the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands will make in their project 2.6g 329m/s, a bullet proof skin by providing transgenic human skin with cast-iron spiders’ web. The project expressly asks the question if this technological innovation is socially desirable.

For their project System Synthetics, Maurizio Montalti and the Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation propose, as an alternative fuel, to make a publicly accessible transparent bioreactor in which one fungus breaks down plastic and the other fungus makes bio-ethanol out of it. In this manner, the audience can become acquainted with the research for alternatives to fossil fuels.

Microscopic Opera by Matthijs Munnik and the Netherlands Consortium for Systems Biology is an audiovisual installation in which mutated C. Elegans lab worms produce elegant and less elegant sounds and images, as if it were an opera.

The Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award (DA4GA) is the first Dutch competition in which art, design and life sciences are brought together. The goal of DA4GA is to stimulate Bio Art and to make the diversity of Genomics more visible. Bio Art is art in which living material and organisms are used as a medium. Genomics is the research into the genes of people, animals, plants and micro-organisms.

DA4GA is made possible by NGI (Netherlands Genomics Initiative), CSG (Centre for Society and Genomics) and Waag Society.

About the jury of the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award

In collaboration with different Genomics Centres, designers and artists have developed project proposals and presented them to a prominent jury from the arts and sciences. Nine proposals are evaluated by a jury consisting of Robbert Dijkgraaf (president KNAW), Francine Houben (founder and architect/director of Mecanoo architects), Paul Voogt (Director Public Programs Naturalis), Geert Verbeke (Director Verbeke Foundation) and Hub Zwart (Scientific director Centre for Society and Genomics).

On the quest for another world, Carsten Höller follows in the Hamburger Bahnhof the origin of Soma, a mythical libation of the Indo-Germanic Vedas from the 2nd millennium BC. Soma brought the Vedas enlightenment and access to the divine sphere and was highly praised in their hymns. The herbal ingredient of this libation has not been passed on without a doubt, but from a botanic, ethnologic and etymologic view there is evidence that it could have been the fly agarics.

Based on these circumstances Carsten Höller develops a scenario between laboratory and vision, alleged objectivity and increased subjectivity.

Before the eyes of the observers unfolds an expansive “living picture”, a symmetrical experimental field, which is divided in two parts along its center line and which compares the ordinary world with the realm of Soma in a double-image experiment. This is an experiment, that find its completion in the imagination of the observer and whose evaluation is subject to your power of observation. On a mushroom like platform in midst of the arrangement resides a bed, where guests will have the opportunity to spend a night at the museum and to dive into the world of Soma.

Carsten Höller was born 1961 in Brussels and is counted among the most prominent contemporary artists. The artist, who lives in Stockholm, has presented significant work at the Documenta X (1997), the Expo in Hannover (2000) and at the Venice Biennial (2005). 2006 he installed an expansive piece in the “Turbine Hall” of the Tate Modern, which attracted worldwide attention.

But Carsten Höller has not always been an artist. To begin with he studied agricultural science in Kiel, Germany and habilitated 1993 in Phytopathology. Parallel to his work as a scientist he began his artistic career and integrated the experiment as a method into his artistic work.

All text and images from Somainberlin.com
More info here.

Studiolab Utopian Practices: Richard Pell and Allison Kudla

What do living organisms and biology offer as matter for art and what does bio art offer society and public awareness?

Monday 22 November 2010, Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam, Netherlands starting 8.00 pm, free entrance

Biotechnology guarantees to erase problems humanity and its ecology has ahead: it promises no less than to solve the future energy and food crisis and to cure modern diseases. Bio Art is hot, not only within the art world itself but also for its potential creativity teaming up with scientists and technologist to find what real innovations next generations will benefit from.

Allison Kudla and Rich Pell present their works and activities this evening, followed by a talk about their respective positions within bio-arts.

Richard Pell works at the intersections of science, engineering and culture. He is the founder of the Center for PostNatural History, an outreach center dedicated to the collection and exposition of genetically engineered life-forms. The Center has been awarded a Rockefeller New Media fellowship, a Creative Capital fellowship, a Smithsonian research fellowship and is currently in residence at the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon.

Allison Kudla, an artist-in-residence at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore, India and PhD Candidate at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media at the University of Washington, Seattle, will be discussing her work at the intersections of art, technology and biology.  She will describe three major works she has made over the past 5 years on the subject of patterns and plant biology.  She will also describe her work’s relationship to contemporary art practices and ideas of re-materialization and emulation.  Finally, she will discuss the practical logistics of developing, making and exhibiting work across disciplines which she has encountered in pursuit of these areas of engagement.

More Information

Studiolab Utopian Pratices, Monday 22 November 2010, Theatrum Anatomicum, Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, starting 8.00 pm, free entrance

Studiolab Utopian Practices is a collaboration of Waag Society and The Arts & Genomics Centre and is made possible by the Innovatieregeling Cultuuruitingen of the Ministry of OCW.

http://events.waag.org/genomics-award/studiolab/

“Imagine if we could grow clothing…
BioCouture aims to address ecological and sustainability issues around fashion.
The BioCouture research project is harnessing nature to propose a radical future fashion vision.
We are investigating the use of bacterial-cellulose, grown in a laboratory, to produce clothing.
Our ultimate goal is to literally grow a dress in a vat of liquid…”

See the Bio-Couture website here for more information.
All text and images from Bio-Couture.

“AMKK is a company developing the experimental creation by Makoto Azuma, a flower artsit, whose subject is flowers and plants. The activities of AMKK aim to increase the existential value of plants by finding out the most mysterious figure only owned by flowers and plants and converting it to the artistic expression.”

To be truly convinced, see the rest of his work here.
Azuma Makoto

GO TO THE SUPERORGANISM BLOG

“Superorganism” comes as a pragmatic exhibition exploring the point of connection between people, their environment, and their objects.

Together we create a society; a tightly interconnected society which can be compared to an organism in which every unit is like a cell in the body.

Human society is one fundamentally built on a cultural basis. Whether urban or rural, manmade or organic, the common line attaching what we are and how we perceive, is the artifact, intended as a mean of cultural expression.

How we exhibit ourselves is defined by the artifacts and objects we surround ourselves with, which identify our desired place in the world, our hopes and future dreams. No matter the origin of the artifact, no matter how “natural” or contrived it is, it has a life of its own adapting to a world of constantly changing contexts.

Our intervention comes as a collective collaboration for reciprocal understanding; a platform for objects that can change the way we act and consider life in small ways.

“Exploring the congruity of humans and animals is a dimension bearing considerable implications since it forces us to review our self-perception and our relative stance in society. Though it is acknowledged that animals and humans share striking similarities physiologically, parallels between the human psyche and animal behavior are frequently overlooked. A feeling of superiority accompanies the self-aware human, as does the neglect of recognizing primitive behavioral likenesses between humans and other animals. However, the specific emotional resemblances are arguable.
The concept of ‘natural selection’ describes the evolution of animals within their current environment due to genetic advantages; however in humans, this topic is equally important regarding social capacity within social situations. Various human behavior is governed by emotions innate within us; however these actions are also to some extent mirrored within the animal kingdom as they can root from a primal instinct. Through studying humans and animals anatomically and creating hybrid creatures on a skeletal, muscular and cutaneous level, biological affinities are explored. Furthermore, through considering various social scenarios and relating them to those animalistic, I have begun a moralistic study of the human condition.”

Text and images by Jala Wahid.