LTTA 7 – Biohacking Academy: Biohacking to outreach
The Learning Teaching, Training Activity 7 / Biohacking Academy: Biohacking to outreach will be a collaborative journey for artists, scientists and enthusiasts. The Hybrid Lab Network will visit the Waag Society of Art, Science and Technology, in Amsterdam during a week of the BioHack Academy.
There, we will learn about cell biology, synthetic biology and micro-biology. We explore the world of bio-engineering, gene-editing and CRISPR-cas9 in particular. With an interdisciplinary group of artists, scientist and ethicists, we can think about how creative practices can help expand our collective thinking and legislation about these topics.
This LTTA will focus on reaching a different audience by working together in teams of different expertise on speculative stories in a design fiction exercise in order to explore possible futures in a world where genetic engineering is the norm.
There will be lectures by Howard Bolland on synthetic biology as an artistic practice, Kas Houthuijs will give an introduction on genetic modification practices and Lucas Evers talks about how creative uses of GMO’s can push legislation. Furthermore, we will go into the lab to use the open-source DIY hardware tools of the Waag’s biolab to do genetic modification of E. coli bacteria with Green Fluorescent Proteins ourselves and extract the product of our experiments from these bacteria for future uses.
The BioHack Academy is a 10-week biotechnology course for this course bio-designers, engineers, scientists, artists, homebrewers and hackers who want to grow their own sustainable biotech materials. The BHA promotes wider access to knowledge and tools outside institutional science and allows for a wider distribution of biotechnological skills. In the BioHack Academy the focus is on learning the basics of biotechnology, working with biomaterials and collaborate on building your own lab equipment. In addition to gathering new knowledge, the BioHack Academy is also about sharing knowledge. All lab equipment manufactured within the BioHack Academy and the recipes are open-source. This means that everyone is completely free to improve the design or recipe, adapt it according to their own preferences and continue experimenting.
PROGRAMME
28 MARCH 2022
10:00 Introduction of the week
10:30 Lecture: Creative GMOs, Lucas Evers
13:30 Lecture: Genetic Modification Basics, Kas Houthuijs
15:00 Workshop: growing GMO’s Pt1, Kas Houthuijs
29 MARCH 2022
10:00 Team Selection + assignment Frank Vloet
11:00 Design Fiction Assignment, Frank Vloet
13:30 Design Fiction Assignment, Frank Vloet
15:30 Workshop: growing GMO’s Pt2, Kas Houthuijs
30 MARCH 2022
10:00 Prototype Presentations Participant, groups
13:30 Guest Lecture: Synthetic Biology as an Artistic Practice, Howard Boland
15:30 Workshop: Protein Isolation Pt 1, Kas Houthuijs
31 MARCH 2022
10:00 Workshop: Protein Isolation Pt 2, Kas Houthuijs
1 ABRIL 2022
10:00 Workshop: Protein Isolation Pt 3, Kas Houthuijs