Festival Key of Life is een nieuw jaarlijks art science festival voor onderzoek, ontdekking, debat, fascinatie en verwondering. Op 15, 16 en 17 oktober vindt de eerste editie van dit festival plaats op verschillende locaties in Leiden.

Het festival biedt een kunstzinnige, speelse, experimentele en kritische blik, informeert en zet aan tot dialoog.

Anna Dumitriu, the "self organising artist" will explain her approach to transdisciplinary art practice, what working collaboratively means to her, why she 'talks' to bacteria and why unnecessary research is so important. As Einstein said: "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Dumitriu is a visual artist making highly experimental transdisciplinary work. She has collaborated with many scientists over the past twelve years and often tends to go very deeply into her chosen area of research, taking on, or attempting to take on, the role of scientist in an almost performative sense, raising paradigmatic questions in her work. Her installations, interventions and performances use a range of digital, biological and traditional media including video projections, mobile phones and embroidery, working with diverse audiences often in non-traditional settings.

Her work has been exhibited internationally including USA, Brazil, France, Russia and Lithuania and is held in international public collections including the Science Museum, London. She is currently Artist in Residence at The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at Sussex University, participating in the e-MobiLArt project (European Mobile Lab for Interactive Artists) and researching her practice-based Fine Art PhD at The University of Brighton.

All are wellcome!

Bezoek onze blog op artsandgenomics.blogspot.com. De blog zal regelmatig aangevuld worden met vers nieuws over kunst, genomics en filosofie. De blog wordt bijgehouden door Olga Crapels, filosoof en ex - TAGC ArtScience curator/manager.

On April 7, 10.30 am in Cell Observatory Lecture room 1, Gorlaeus Laboratory, Einsteinweg 55 at Leiden, everybody is invited to meet and talk with Boo Chapple in a Coffee Break Conversation. Besides presenting this year's honours class, Boo Chapple will also cooperate with Leiden University Prof. dr. Ron de Kloet in an ArtScience project on stress. During the Coffee Break Conversation, Boo will introduce herself, her work, and what she's planning to do the next few months in Leiden.

We proudly present Australian BioArtist and researcher Boo Chapple, who gives this years Honours Class!

The course is an art and science crossover lab intended for students from various disciplines to foster interdisciplinary exploration of the intersections between art and life through hands-on laboratory protocols, and critical readings. Together we will explore the ethical debates, issues of access and accountability, and overspecialisation that arise from contemporary biotechnologies and BioArt practices. Lectures will address a range of topics including; students will be introduced to biological lab practices and will be expected to get their hands wet! The course will also include some excursions to, for instance, the Leiden University Hortus Botanicus.

Students are expected to complete weekly readings, participate in class discussion and lab workshops, and produce individual and collaborative assignments and critical written texts.

Guest lectures are given by among others Rob Zwijnenberg (art-philosopher and TAGC co-director), Ellen ter Gast (biologist and bio-philosopher), Jenny Boulboulle (arthistorian), Kathy High (artist),  Adam Zaretsky (artist), and Huub de Groot (scientist at the Leiden Insitute of Chemistry).

For more information on the content of the course, click on the button in the corner. For more information on Boo Chapple, visit her website residualsoup.org. 

The course already started, so you cannot enroll anymore, but if you are curious what happens in the course, follow the course blog on which the students post their weekly homework: conqueringlife.wordpress.com .