Lectures / Performances / Exhibition
In the age of the Anthropocene, our understanding of media and materials is in a state of flux. The examination of living materials is not only a subject of the natural sciences. Biotechnological methods are spilling over into DIY culture and into fields of BioHacking. In the humanities, a post-human worldview is increasingly being addressed. Artists take up these discussions and test the relationship between humans and other life forms in their works. In doing so, they go beyond using organisms as mere tools and instead enter into collaboration with animate things. Inoculum addresses these cross-disciplinary shifts. Experts in art, science, and philosophy discuss their respective approaches to the living.
The interdisciplinary conference Inocolum concludes the “PhyChip” project. Over a period of three years, an international network of researchers studied the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, a well-known model organism in biology. As the largest single-celled organism in the world, its basic behavioral principles are of interest not only to the life sciences, but also to computer scientists and engineers. New studies are transferring the giant cell’s decision-making processes to hybrid computer architectures that integrate the living organism into computer chips.
Inocolum situates this endeavor in a historical, social, and philosophical context and presents current scientific research and artistic practices. On the breeding ground of the conference, participants are invited to two days of lectures, discussions and performances. Inspired by the method of inoculation, the conference aims to inject and cultivate controversial debate.
With contributions by Suzanne Anker, Laura Benitez Valero, Ursula Damm, Michael Dirnberger, Hans-Günther Döbereiner, Martin Grube, Agi Haines, William Myers, Maja Smrekar.
Curated by Theresa Schubert.
Inoculum is an event of the Bauhaus University Weimar. It is funded by the European Commission project “Physarum Chip – Growing Computers from Slime Mould” within the FP7 “Future and Emerging Technologies” program.
Kindly supported by the CLB Berlin.
Free admission.
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