Ga tijdens het ReShape special weekend op vrijdag 8 en zaterdag 9 maart zelf aan de slag met kunstenaars en ontdek hoe zij werken. Tijdens het uitgebreide programma met lezingen, workshops en een filmvertoning presenteren kunstenaars en wetenschappers, ontwerpers en denkers verschillende vraagstukken op het gebied van bio art en design en biowetenschappelijk onderzoek.

Voertaal Engels
Tickets € 7,50 / studenten € 5,- per dag verkrijgbaar via Eventbrite. Let op: voor de workshops is een beperkt aantal plaatsen beschikbaar, je kunt je hiervoor op de dag zelf inschrijven bij de balie.

Tickets voor de filmvertoning Donna Haraway Story Telling for Earthly Survival zijn los verkrijgbaar via deze link.

PROGRAM FRIDAY 8 MARCH

14.00 - 18.00 | Ongoing Performance Pleun van Dijk – REPLIKA

14.00 - 15.00 | Keynote William Myers - Are we part of the problem?
William Myers, chair of the BAD Award international jury, co-curator of ReShape and writer of the influential books Bio Art and Bio Design questions his practice on a regular basis. Questions he would like to share with others too, artists but also audience and MU gladly sees this as the perfect kickoff for two days of sharing and practicing. What are biodesign and bioart practices for? How do we know whether they are successful? If biodesign only accelerates processes of production and consumption, maybe it is only amplifying the destructive aspects of capitalism. If bioart is chasing novelty and readily accepting of the value systems and power structures embedded in science, it loses its social value as a possible vehicle for critique and analysis. How do biodesigners and bioartists talk about the value they create, if any?

15.00 – 18.00 | Workshops (register at front desk)

Workshop 1 | Anna Dumitriu & Alex May – Spindles
Spindles: An Exploration of Linen and Microbiology is a workshop in which artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May will explore the interwoven relationship of microbiology and linen with a focus on the work of pioneering microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky. Linen is the original bio-textile, produced through the interaction of plants, spindle-shaped bacteria and engineering. Participants will learn how linen is produced through a bacteriological process known as retting, how it was historically considered to cleanse the body of infectious diseases, and how these bacteria relate to contemporary superbug infections. We will work with raw flax and bacteria impregnated cloth to create our own artworks using some of the techniques that Anna Dumitriu used to make her work "Pastorianum" on show in "ReShape", and make colourful bacterial ecosystems known as Winogradsky columns that have the potential to live for many years.

Workshop 2 | Rose Leahy & Amanda Baum - Microbiocene
Designers and BAD award winners Rose Leahy and Amanda Baum will take participants in their workshop along into the realm of the Microbiocene they envision. Ideally situated around a real sediment core for people to experience the ooze in real life, they will share their process and develop a myth-writing and micro glyph-making practice to dig deeper into the thinking and kinmaking process they went through creating their award winning installation.

Workshop 3 | Basse Stittgen - Creating with biomaterials
In his workshop designer Basse Stittgen will take participants along in his working process. He will talk about and demonstrate the way he created Blood Related by transforming blood from the meat industry into powder that he can than heat and mold into form. Participants to the workshop will also be encouraged and helped to heat press biomaterials like blood, eggs and natural fibers.



PROGRAM SATURDAY 9 MARCH 

14.00 - 15.00 | Lecture Ruben Jacobs - Artonauten
According to sociologist and writer Ruben Jacobs we are hardwired for adventure and need to reframe our perspective on the pressing issues of our time, like confronting our dysfunctional relationship with tech and our alienated relationship with nature, accordingly. These issues are not only problems, they’re also adventures. To illustrate this perspective he developed the concept of Artonauts, artists who work as a new form of ‘-naut’, voyaging into the unknown creative plane in search of discoveries for our world. At MU he will talk about the allure of adventures that artists and designers can undertake and the embodiment needed for new types of knowledge.

15.00 – 18.00 | Workshops (register at front desk)

Workshop 1 | Yiyun Chen - Lie With Me
We lie down to relax, assuming the posture that offers the body the least resistance and demands the least energy. On the question 'how does your dreamy life looks like? on Chinese Quora one of the most often given answers shows a multi-functional bed surrounded by screens, a play station, snacks and pets in which a person can lie down to chill and entertain. Humans now are able to live a functional life without going out of the house. But this also turns the bed into a site of action. In the 24/7 society, the line between rest and work is blurred. If this is a future trend, how will we change our everyday behaviors from upright to horizontal? In this workshop, participants are required to lie down, think, write, draw, eat, move, talk, interact, and share their experiences with the artist. Please bring a Yoga mat if you have one.

Workshop 2 | Center for Genomic Gastronomy - How to Harvest Ourselves
To Flavour Our Tears is a project that attempts to place humans back into the food chain by getting them see their own body as a restaurant or food source for other organisms. This workshop will be anchored by harvesting the plants from the AnthroAquaponics installation of ReShape and perform a ritual for preparing ourselves for being harvested in the future. Participants will collectively cut, dress and consume greens from the AnthroAquaponics installation, discuss questions about harvesting ourselves with a philosopher/scientist and prepare their tears to be harvested while watch the new video that has been shot of the installation.

Workshop 3 | Kuang-Yi Ku - Tarot of Pulse
Tarot of Pulse by Taiwanese designer/dentist Kuang-Yi Ku aims to create a pseudoscientific fortune-telling system by combining concepts of Western medicine for feeling and visualizing pulse with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Tarot fortunetelling and Occultism. By engaging in Kuang-Yi Ku's fictional system participants in the workshop will learn how to feel and visualize their own pulse with their fingers and predict their future as a new method of understanding the body beyond 'objective' medicine.

19.30 - 22.00 | Film screening Donna Haraway Story Telling for Earthly Survival
Please note: you need a separate film ticket (available via this link).

Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival, provides an insightful glimpse into the life and thought of a major contemporary figure in the fields of feminism, science and technology. Donna Haraway became known in the 80s through her work on gender, identity, and technology, which broke with the prevailing trends and opened the door to a frank and cheerful trans species feminism. With her work, the prominent scholar, feminist, and science-fiction enthusiast works at building a bridge between science and fiction. Filmmaker Fabrizio Terranova visited Donna Haraway at her home in California, living with her – almost literally, for a few weeks, and there produced a quirky film portrait. Terranova allowed Haraway to speak in her own environment, using attractive staging that emphasized the playful, cerebral sensitivity of the scientist. The result is a rare, candid, intellectual portrait of a highly original thinker.

The film starts at 20.00 sharp, lasts 82 minutes and is English spoken (no subtitles).