Exiting talks and ideas!

Unfortunately this weekend my daughter came down with Covid and I didn’t think it was safe for me to go to Waag physically on Monday. I was glad to have been careful because on Tuesday I became sick as well. I followed the zoom sessions and watched Maarten and my classmates take apart several labtools to see what is inside. Luckily I have some experience in digital fabrication and electronics so it wasn’t the worst week to miss. And still online, a lot happened:

I learned a lot about Lab hardware and realised how little I know about the workings of DNA sequencing and the tools used in these processes, such as the thermocycler / PCR, sequencer and gel electrophoresis. I look forward to getting hands-on with that to understand more of it. In the afternoon we had a wonderful philosophical discussion on “What is a Lab?”, that touched on many of my interests, and on the reason for me joining the BioHack Academy. While a lab is a space with machines, it’s also people and practices. In the scientific cycle of statistical analysis there is little margin for error, and on top of that safety measures and protocols are rigorous. This is reflected in the machines and tools that are meant to control the environment and make sure that accidents are eliminated. In the arts, this is not a goal, in fact errors and accidents are often the basis for new ideas and new work. It will be very interesting to think about the biolab as a space and tools that promote artistic practices, and I would be very interested to explore those here. Interesting comments were made bout the “Education of Attention”, “Post Phenomenology” and the “heads down phenomenon” which could be interesting to look into. On Tuesday we met bioartist Jan Vanouse for an online lecture about his work.

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