News
iGEM 2009 Crash Course in Synthetic Biology, Cambridge University
JULY 2009
I spent two weeks thrown into the lions mouth... Jim Haseloff of Cambridge University invited me to join Cambridge's iGEM crash course in Synthetic Biology, led by plant scientist Haseloff, pathologist Dr Jim Ajioka and computer scientist Dr Gos Micklem
iGEM, now in its sixth year, is a summer-long synthetic biology competition for undergraduates around the world, supported by leading university faculty. Teams design new standard interchangeable biological DNA parts - BioBricks - for the Registry of Standard Biological Parts and devise new biological systems to be inserted into living cells. 2009 will see over one hundred and twenty teams converging on MIT for the three-day Championship Jamboree. Unusually, projects devised by undergraduates feed back into scientific development, resulting in papers published in prominent journals and significant further research.
For the inter-disciplinary undergraduate team where physicists, engineers and mathematicians outnumber the biologists, two weeks is sufficient time to learn the principles of biology. This reflects one of the ultimate ambitions of synthetic biology: to separate the microscopic intricacies of molecular biology from the macroscopic process of designing new applications. It seems the future is here, before most of us have heard of it.
The iGEM team's next step is to begin the three-month challenge of designing life. The first question, is of course, ‘What shall we design?’
The intensive exposure I received on the Cambridge iGEM course - from micro-fluidics to biological modeling to entrepreneurship, brainstorming potential projects and practical laboratory work - brought a far deeper insight into synthetic biology’s potentials. Now to apply it!
Huge thanks to Jim Haseloff, Jim Ajioka, Gos Micklem, Duncan Rowe and James Brown.
Day 1
Duncan Rowe's 'Microbiology for beginners - handling and culture of bacteria.'
Day 14
Photo via Jim Haseloff
SymbioticA Residency
SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2009
In September I will start a residency at SymbioticA, a unique laboratory for artists at the University of Western Australia, as an Australian Bicentennial Fellow from Kings College London.
RCA Show 2009
JUNE-JULY 2009
Flyer
Design Interactions show website
Design Interactions website
RCA show website
Design Evolution:
Microbes and the Everyday
FEBRUARY 2009
I received a distinction for my dissertation! abstract
BOOM! Work in Progress Show
FEBRUARY 2009
Please come and see our Work in Progress!
Royal College of Art
Exhibition open 5 – 11 February 2009, 11am – 6pm daily
SymbioticA
Biotech Art Workshop
NOVEMBER 2008
I'm attending the week-long Biotech Art Workshop in Stavanger, Norway organised by i/o/lab and Oron Catts of SymbioticA as part of the Biennale for the Electronic and Unstable Arts. Hands-on lab experience.
Designing Debate:
Biomedical Futures
NOVEMBER 2008
I'm participating in the Institute for Ideas' Battle of Ideas 2008. Tony Dunne has curated an exhibition: Designing Debate: Biomedical Futures as part of the Biomedicine strand of the two day event including work by Susana Soares, Elio Caccavale, Revital Cohen, Michael Burton, Tuur Van Balen and Daisy Ginsberg.
Human Futures:
Art in an Age of Uncertainty
NOVEMBER 2008
Microbe Controllers is appearing in a new book - Human Futures - published by FACT, the Foundation of Art and Creative Technology in Liverpool and the Liverpool University Press, and edited by Andy Miah.
Technologies of the Self
SEPTEMBER 2008
Microbe Controllers won the competition to be the cover image of Technologies of the Self, coedited by Yasmine Abbas and Fred Dervin, to be published in 2009.
Design Evolution
SEPTEMBER 2008
I'm researching my dissertation at the moment, exploring the potential role of design in the biotechnology revolution. I'm beginning with microbes, so if you know any microbiologists, molecular biologists or molecular microbiologists, please let me know!
Early Exit + the Future of Money
SEPTEMBER 2008
I'll be presenting at the Every Digital Money workshop at University of California at Irvine in September, with Wendy March from Intel. We'll be talking about the RCA Design Interactions Future of Money brief that our department worked on for Intel's People and Practices research group. The project recently appeared on BoingBoing, on Core77 and in Icon Magazine too.
Touching the City
JULY 2008
I'm organising a Walk Workshop with Oliver Froome-Lewis to explore benchspace. It's part of the London Festival of Architecture, on July 12 2008. details here...
Nano Ecologies
APRIL 2008
Exhibited in The Revolution Is Set - Bring It To The Table at Spring Gallery, Brooklyn during New York Design Week 2008. "BRING IT TO THE TABLE is an assignment that will be introduced during ICFF. Anna Cosentino and Steve Butcher of spring in collaboration with co-curators Natasha Chetiyawardana and Michael McDevitt has reserved the table for a group of designers, artists, art directors and thinkers, who have been invited to bring something to the table to provoke thought/discussion/action."
Designboom post.
Some Trajectories post.
Touching the City
JUNE - JULY 2007
Exhibition at the Westbourne Grove Church Art Space, Notting Hill, London, UK.
More info at touchingthecity.com.