After our Residency at the National Unversity of Singapore for ISEA 2008, this is our second appearance at the International Symposium for Electonic Arts. As with all conferences, the core events of ISEA are the paper presentation, as with all conferences, they are massive-parallel. It’s advisable to make a Fahrplan for the road ahead.

This is a selection of presentation I am trying to visit, in the case of parallel presentations I’ll make my choice based on my mood, the Dortmund weather and the state of the daily Curry Wurst mit Pom Fritz.

Saturday, 21st

10:00–12:00h
P1 Enunciations of Nonhuman Performativity
Amongst others, with Jens Hauser
 

Monday, 23rd

10:00–15:00h
Hackteria Workshop, VHS G 132a
DIY Open Bio with Andy Gracie, Yasha Shatty & Marc Dusseiller Also on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00-16:30h

10:00-12:00h
P4 Heavy Matter, OZ (not really related to the same-titled ‘Heavy Matter’ Exhibition)
Panel with Monika Wagner, Martha de Menezes and Christian Slater

11:15h
P3 Appropriating Social Media, domicil
Sabine Himmelsbach: Art and Politics. The Edith Russ Site for Media Art. A Space for Presentation and Production of Media Art

13:00-14:30h
P9 Future of the Lab, VHS L 102b
“Please note: this session is aimed at people who work in, for or with labs.” With Kitchen Budapest, fo.am, BALTAN.

Tuesday, 24th

10:00-12:00h
P14 The Digital Aesthetics of Climate Crisis, VHS L 103
With The People Speak at 10.50h

13:00–14:30h
P16 Artistsinlabs: Networking in the Margins of Eco-Activism, OZ

15:00–16:30h

P23 Coded Cultures and Japan Media Arts Festival Panel Session, VHS L 102
With Georg Russeger, Asami Hosokawa, Matthias Tarasiewicz, Michal Wlodkowski and yours truly.

17:00h-19:00h
Keynote Peter Weibel Introduction by Jens Hauser, OZ
The Tongue That Sees. Neuroaesthetics, Molecular Aesthetics and Media Aesthetics

Wednesday, 25th

Returning to Japan for Friday Morning’s Panel Session at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) with Watanabe Maiko, Akihiro Kubota, Emiko Inoue and Oron Catts.

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.

The Japan Times ran a story on Common Flowers on Saturday, July 31st 2010. Here are some excerpts.

Shiho Fukuhara of BCL explains, Suntory Flowers and the Moondust carnation represent the first commercially available genetically engineered consumer product that is intended purely for aesthetic consumption: ‘‘The media outcry wasn’t that huge since it was neither food nor developed from animals.’’
Fukuhara found it strange how relaxed the Japanese are about genetic engineering, the business behind it and the lack of a public dialogue about the topic.
‘‘Creating genetically manipulated plants for merely aesthetic purposes is a nice marketing strategy from somebody who wants to introduce the genetic engineering industry without being regarded as irresponsible,’’ Fukuhara says. ‘‘A product like flowers can slowly change our perception of genetically altered products. If it’s nice and beautiful with ‘Dream come true’ as a tag line, who cares how it’s made?’’
…
BCL’s process of cloning Suntory’s blue flower doesn’t sound that difficult. They buy the modified flowers and then bring them back to life using plant tissue culture techniques, a way of propagating plants in sterile conditions.
‘‘Basically, once a flower is cut, it is slowly dying. With plant tissue culture, plants are grown on a growth medium with the necessary nutrition. If the flower is reasonably fresh it will start growing again. This is what we mean by ‘reverse-engineering’ the plant,’’ says Fukuhara.

Online version of the full article, it’s also available as PDF