A Tour of the Zeche Zollverein in the Ruhr Area. ‘Zeche’ – the proper English translation would be the rather un-romantic, but more “Coal Mine Industrial Complex”. The site became a World Heritage Site, meaning that it will be preserved as it is, no major changes possible.
Wondering how long it takes for nature to reclaim the plant and return it to wilderness…

‘Wet Sounds’ is a an installation at – or better: inside – the work’s swimming pool at the Zeche. In true post-industrial style, the “swimming pool” consists of a couple of joint cargo container, with the additional under-water window.

Thank to our very curious tester, we can now confirm, that there really are under-water sounds.

* Someone really should be selling swimming trunks and towels on site at the swimming pool. The sight of the naked german FKK bodies of steelworkers-in-pension is not for everyone.

We are very happy to be a part of the Coded Cultures / Japan Media Art Festival “Exchanging Emergencies” as part of the ISEA2010.

There will be a session on Coded Cultures, the Japan Media Art Festival and Common Flowers on Tuesday, 24th August from 15h until 16.30. The session code is P23, the place is L102. We are having our “own” 20-minutes session, because we are not only part of Coded Cultures and the Japan Media Festival, but we also submitted a paper on the project, and that’s why we have our “own” time. Come, if you are around.

Here are some exhibition pictures taken before the opening.

Good news everyone. We are being invited to the Cellsbutton#04 Media Art Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Even better news – thanks to the Austrian Government and the BMUKK – the flight is paid for by Austrian Tax Euros. Thank you.

Nice to see many friends amongst the participants, including the omnipresent Hans Bernhard from Ubermorgen, Marc Dusseiller, Michiko Tsuda and Andreas Schlegel. Looking very much forward to meet the other participants too.

We will be doing a Common Flowers Workshop on Friday, July 30th. It’s called cellsKIT + intelligent bacteria and will be held in the Microbiology Lab & Tissue Culture Lab at the Bulaksumur Kampus of the Gadjah Mada University [UGM] :

30 July 2010 | Friday
cellsKIT + intelligent bacteria
Venue: Gadjah Mada University [UGM] Microbiology Lab & Tissue Culture Lab
Kampus UGM Bulaksumur
Time: 10.00 – 14.00 WIB
+ “biohack – biopiracy in developing countries” discussion led by Prof. Irfan D. Pridjambada [ID], Nur Akbar Arofatullah [ID], Agus Tri Budiarto [ID]
+ “cellsKIT – hackteria” workshop by Marc Dusseiller [CH] – dusjagr labs – hackteria
“DIY webcam for digital microscope and haemacytometer bacteria counter”: – extensive collaborative works, research & development
+ intelligent bacteria: “common flowers” by Georg Tremmel – BCL [AT | JP] DIY plant tissue culture workshop & “common flowers” presentation

So, the Marmite and the flowers are packed, next stop Singapore, next update Yogyakarta.

‘Common Flowers – Flower Commons’ will be shown at the Interferenze Seed Tokyo 2010 Festival at VACANT in Harajuku, Tokyo on June 25th & 26th. Yes, it’s a small festival, but a very nice one.

We are very happy to be amongst other artists and friends like Hajime Narukawa, Akihiro Kubota, Takahiro Yamaguchi, Kazuhiro Jo, Tomotaro Kaneko and Natalija Robovic+Toru Fujita.

Opening times are 12h – 21h, both Saturday and Sunday from 18h onwards are live music performance. Should be good.

We should be there most of the time presenting our tissue-cultured carnations and roses. (Let’s see what the heat does to the tissue-cultures).

Full report to follow.