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Technoculture Workshop: Marta de Menezes and Amy Pilling, “Unboxing CRISPR: A Hands-on Workshop Exploring the technological, ethical, and creative implications of DNA manipulation with CRISPR” [Part 1]
April 22, 2023 @ 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
This 2-day, hands-on workshop led by international artist Marta de Menezes (Portugal) and interdisciplinary artist and educator Amy Pilling (US) will provide an overview of the most talked about biotechnology in the world today — CRISPR.
What exactly is CRISPR, how does it work and what is its impact on the future?
CRISPR is a revolutionary tool that enables the editing of genetic sequences with extreme precision. With its simple, fast and inexpensive approach, scientists worldwide have adopted this new technology that facilitates making specific changes in the DNA of humans, other animals, and plants. CRISPR has not only changed the way basic research is conducted and how we think about treating diseases, for example the new COVID-19 vaccines — but how we can transform life.
What is possible and what is at stake in the future of genetic manipulation is a question for not only scientists but all of society. The workshop will focus on how CRISPR can be used creatively in artistic contexts to engage critical dialogue about these biotechnologies in the public sphere.
The workshop is FREE and can accommodate up to 16 participants. We request you attend BOTH DAYS of the workshop so you experience the entire DNA editing process. No experience necessary. Participants need to be at least 14 years old.
Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist and director of Cultivamos Cultura, the leading institution devoted to experimental art in Portugal and Ectopia, dedicated to facilitating collaborative work between artists and scientists. de Menezes has worked at the intersection of art and biology since the late 90s, in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Portugal, exploring the conceptual and aesthetic opportunities offered by biological sciences for visual representation in the arts. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at the University of New Mexico at the invitation of Professor Andrea Polli.
Her work has been widely exhibited in major venues internationally, presented in numerous anthologies devoted to bioart, discussed in doctoral dissertations, and considered an example of research in the visual arts. Among the most recent international exhibitions, de Menezes was invited for the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival: Out of the Box, and organized two 2020 Ars Electronica Gardens (Lisbon and São Luis). She was invited to be the official representation of Portugal at the London Design Biennale 2016 and exhibited at the Beijing Biennale of New Media Art 2016. DeMenezes was nominated in 2015 by Time and Fortune magazines for the Art and Technology Awards 2015.
Besides her work as artist, de Menezes curates major international exhibitions for institutions and organizations including the European Capital of Culture (Portugal), Kontejner Festival (Zagreb), Verbeke Foundation (Belgium) and this last three years the editions of FACTT –Transnational and Transdisciplinary Festival of Art and Science that took place in Lisbon, New York, Mexico City, Berlin and Toronto.
Scientific, artistic, and intuitive exploration of the environment guide Amy Pilling’s creative practice. Numerous natural forces and fields make our existence, and, in fact, life on earth possible, yet are not evident to us. Curiosity about these hidden forces and fields drives her choice of the physical materials, phenomena, fellow living beings, and forms her work explores. Amy focuses on perception and optics, making structures from invisible fields, plastics in the environment, and alternative intelligences in nature, especially in smaller, often overlooked life forms such as insects and microorganisms. As a permaculture designer having grown up in a multi-species environment, a deep fascination and respect for all species guides her creative process. She especially loves learning from collective organisms such bees and slime molds.
Pilling has worked as an educator and curriculum or program developer with University of New Mexico, SciArt Santa Fe, AmeriCorps VISTA, Santa Fe Community College, EcoVersity, New Mexico Bioneers, and Permaculture Drylands Institute over the years. She currently teaches the lab section of a BioArt and Design class at the University of New Mexico and develops STEAM education programs for New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and other organizations.
Sponsored by the UB Humanities Institute Technoculture Workshop in collaboration with the UB Department of Art and UB Coalesce Center for Biological Art and Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center.
