Author Archives: jharrower

SEUNG-HWAN OH

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Impermanence, 2012
Oh creates altered photographs by adding microbes to the water used to develop his film. The microbes “consume light-sensitive chemicals over the course of months or years” and alter the photographic images.

See Oh’s website.

GILBERTO ESPARZA

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Nomadic Plant, 2008-11
“The work consists of a small automaton robot (nomadic plant) that moves towards water when its bacteria require nourishment. It contains vegetation and microorganisms living symbiotically inside the body of the machine.” 1

1 Fan Di’an and Zhang Ga, eds., Translife: International Triennial of New Media Art, (Liverpool, U.K.: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 201.

CHRIS CHAFE and GREG NIEMEYER

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Tomato Quintet 3.0, 2010
Tomatoes ripening in a tent affect the installation’s sound, lighting, and music. “Visitors enter the tent through one of the five tunnels and can dance and observe the ripening tomatoes in the central cone-shaped section of the tent. The visitors’ respirations accelerate the ripening process, which in turn, accelerates the dance music and lights.”1

1 Fan Di’an and Zhang Ga, eds., Translife: International Triennial of New Media Art, (Liverpool, U.K.: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 259.

SYMBIOTICA

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SymbioticA combines art with the life sciences. The lab is known for its Tissue Culture and Art Project created by Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts. For that project, Zurr and Catts developed small sculptural forms made from live tissue.

See SymbioticA’s lab website.

When Pigs Fly, 2000
Catts and Zurr grew pig marrow cells on a 3D scaffold to create small wing-like sculptures.

Disembodied Cuisine, 2003
The lab created “steaks” using frog cells.

Victimless Leather, 2004
The lab crafted a tissue coat using “immortalised cell lines.”

See Tissue Culture and Art Project.

NATALIE JERIMIJENKO

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Jerimijenko combines art, science, and engineering to explore social and environmental issues.

OOZ
Tangible media projects that engage with non-human animals.

Feral Robots
Toy robot dogs modified with sensors to detect toxins in the environment.

No Park
Mini gardens planted in the illegal parking spaces directly in front of fire hydrants. When it rains, the gardens help filter water that runs from city streets to the ocean.

One Trees
One thousand cloned trees planted in different parts of the Bay Area. The project explores the influences of nature and nurture.

Cross[X]Species Adventure Club
The club invents new culinary recipes with sustainable agriculture in mind. The recipes include ingredients that both "reduce the environmental costs" and "promote, augment and remediate ecosystems."

EDUARDO KAC

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Eduina — Natural History of Enigma, 2003-2008
Kac creates a “plantimal” by combining his DNA with that of a Petunia. The result is an Eduina. “The Edunia expresses Kac’s DNA exclusively in its red veins.”1

See Kac’s website.

1 Fan Di’an and Zhang Ga, eds., Translife: International Triennial of New Media Art, (Liverpool, U.K.: Liverpool University Press, 2013), 195.