Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is a designer, artist and writer exploring the social, ethical and cultural implications of emerging technologies, especially synthetic biology, and new roles for design. Daisy is Design Fellow on the international research project, Synthetic Aesthetics (Stanford University/ University of Edinburgh), investigating the shared territory between synthetic biology, art and design. more...
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Synthetic Aesthetics
Investigating Synthetic Biology's Designs on Nature
MIT Press
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Jane Calvert, Pablo Schyfter,
Alistair Elfick & Drew Endy
January 2014
Researcher/Curator, Grow Your Own...
Science Gallery Dublin
October 24 2013 - January 19 2014
Grow Your Own... is a curated, open call exhibition tackling provocative questions raised by synthetic biology, and is supported by a Society Award from the Wellcome Trust. Curated by Professor Paul Freemont (Imperial College), Professor Anthony Dunne (Royal College of Art), Cathal Garvey, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, and Professor Michael John Gorman (Science Gallery), Grow Your Own... offers audiences a participative experience to explore the possibilities and potential implications of synthetic biology, through an exhibition, events and workshops.
Seasons of the Void
Espace Fondation EDF, Paris
April - August 2013
Improbable Africa - Workshop
Afrofuture Milan
La Rinescente April 2013
"The Prefuture of Synthetic Biology"
Article in Volume #35
Archis Foundation, Amsterdam April 2013
The World at One
BBC Radio 4
March 11 2013
Yesterday's Today at Abstrakte Welten Realisieren
LEAP, Transmediale & CTM Festival
Berlin, Germany
January 27 - February 03, 2013
The Supertask is a paradoxical goal that we have set ourselves: creating a model of the whole world. Named after British philosopher James F. Thomson's term for a quantifiably impossible endeavour, our work is an artistic exploration of the nature of models, and their role in a contemporary view of the world within both science and society.
As part of our ongoing effort, Yesterday's Today focuses on one of the most common examples of modelling: the weather forecast. Complex computational models result in a reductionist slice of reality; a number that represents the world on the scale of degrees Celsius.
At LEAP, the visitor experiences any fluctuation between 'yesterday's today' - yesterday's forecast, an artificial alternate present - and today's reality. Constantly monitored, the temperature of the air in the isolation chamber at times diverges from the gallery temperature, embodying the dynamic space between the model and reality.
With thanks to Professor George Attard, Dr Ali Tavassoli and Complexity Science at the University of Southampton
Guest Editor of special issue on "Aesthetics"
Current Opinion in Chemical Biology
Volume 16, Issues 5–6, December 2012
Includes:
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Editorial overview: Sensation: in search of aesthetic experience in chemical biology
Kenneth S Suslick Synesthesia in science and technology: more than making the unseen visible
Emily Candela Assembling an aesthetic
Christina M Agapakis and Sissel Tolaas Smelling in multiple dimensions
Glenn Parsons The aesthetics of chemical biology
Steven A Benner Aesthetics in synthesis and synthetic biology
Michele Forlin, Roberta Lentini and Sheref S Mansy Cellular imitations
London Design Medal 2012
Emerging Talent
I'm really happy to have been awarded the London Design Medal for Emerging Talent by the London Design Festival, in the first year that it has been awarded. The London Design Medal went to El Ultimo Grito, and the Design Entrepreneur medal was awarded to Sugru's Jane ni Dhulchaointigh. Sir Terence Conran received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
London Design Medal Winners Talk
V&A Museum
London, 1pm, September 20 2012
Intel: The Tomorrow Project
Conversations about Synthetic Biology with Brian David Johnson, Christina Agapakis and Patrick Boyle (4 episodes)
USA, June 2012
Micro Impact
Group Exhibition, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Rotterdam,
June 2012
Growth Assembly
The Synthetic Kingdom is on the front of the first synthetic biology textbook, published by Imperial College Press.
PopTech 2011 - "The World Rebalancing"
Speaker: "The Changing Nature of Things"
USA, October 19-22 2011
Curious Minds: New Approaches in Design
Group Exhibition, The Israel Museum
Jerusalem, December 16, 2011-April 30, 2012
World Technology Award (Design)
United Nations, New York
I won the World Technology Award for Design at a ceremony at the United Nations in New York last week!The nominations are based on those "doing the innovative work of 'the greatest likely long-term significance' in their fields. More info.
October 2011
Index Awards
E. chromi is a finalist in the Index: Design to Improve Life awards!
Copenhagen, September 2011
Exhibition to 2013
TEDGlobal 2011 "The Stuff of Life"
Speaker
Edinburgh, July 2011
What If?
Beijing International Design Triennal
National Museum of China, Beijing
September 28 - October 17 2011
Photo: Dunne & Raby
Growth Assembly, The Synthetic Kingdom, E. chromi
Variable Future
Exhibition, Bòlit, Contemporary Art Centre of Girona, Spain
June 30–September 18 2011
Growth Assembly
20 Designers who will Influence Design in the Next Decade
by Alice Rawsthorn & Paola Antonelli
Rolling Stone Italia Design Special Issue, April 5 2011
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011 Nomination
Design Museum, London
Exhibition: February 16- August 2011
E. chromi
E. chromi wins Best Documentary at Bio:Fiction
Bio:Fiction Science, Art & Film Festival
Natural History Museum, May 14 2011, Vienna
E.chromi
Guerilla Science at Secret Garden Party 2010
James King and I presented E.chromi in yoghurt form as an interactive synthetic biology session called PINK MY POOP. Guerilla Science let us loose to tell fictions as part of their fantastic programme at the Secret Garden Party music festival. Gastro-intestinal t-shirts and technicolour poop jokes were suprisingly effective to get people questioning the potential impact of synbio on their everyday lives. More photos...
Synthetic Kingdom Iterations
July 2010
New iterations of the Tree of Life based on discussions about the Synthetic Kingdom during the past year.
They Go Round and Round
Exhibition, 0047 Gallery, Oslo, Norway
April 23 - May 23 2010
Growth Assembly
Photo: Dunne & Raby
Wellcome Trust Windows
The Synthetic Kingdom, Growth Assembly and E.chromi are exhibited on London's Euston Road, curated by Dunne & Raby until July 2010.
Science and DesignFeature by Mun-Keat Looi, Wellcome Trust Blog, March 2010
E. chromi wins iGEM 2009!
November 2009
A design project with James King in collaboration with the winning iGEM 2009 Cambridge University team.
Project details at www.echromi.com.
My article about our experiences at iGEM for Wired UK.
SymbioticA Residency
September - December 2009
A three-month a residency at SymbioticA, the art and science collaborative research laboratory at the University of Western Australia, designing a Synthetic Biology Protocol. Funded by Australian Bicentennial Fellowship, Kings College London.
I'll be writing up my research here: Designing Evolution.