behind biomodd [lba2]: notes from a cross-cultural new media art collaboration (2010)

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Behind BIOMODD [LBA2]:Notes from a cross-cultural new media art collaboration (2010)

RESEARCH COLLOQUIUMSCHOOL OF INTERACTIVE ARTS AND TECHNOLOGYSIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY24 MARCH 2010

DIEGO MARANAN [email protected]

With slides from Angelo VermeulenThis presentation is available online at http://is.gd/aX5ai


Cast of Characters (5 minutes)Angelo, Diego, Lai, Vanessa, The Team, The Philippines

BIOMODD Version 1: Ohio (5 minutes)Themes; the process; the outcome

BIOMODD [LBA2]: Intro (10 minutes)How we met; how we assembled a team; how we tried to get funding; what we built

BIOMODD [LBA2]: Stories (16 minutes)The stories behind some components/subsystems

Now what, so what? (4 minutes)

This presentation is available online at http://is.gd/aX5ai


CAST OF CHARACTERS


CORE MEMBERS: 2 – 12

TEAM MEMBERS 38+

MAILING LIST ONLY 70+

The team


Vanessa LiwanagTraditional Arts Liaison{NGO+, art+, new media art-,euro-american artists-}

Diego MarananProject Co-Lead, Producer

{north/south east/west relations+, facilitation+,

production-, visual art-}

Angelo VermeulenProject Co-Lead, Artistic Director{new media art++, facilitation-, developing south-}

Lai del RosarioProject Manager, Fundraiser/Agent

{social events+, putting together exhibits+, new media artists-, new media funding-}

Biomodd [LBA2]: A sampling of the team


Al-Francis "King" LibreroBiomodd [LBA2] Continuator


BIOMODD Version 1: Athens, Ohio(2007-2008)


Biomodd [ATH1]: Themes


Biomodd [ATH1]: Process


Biomodd [ATH1], 2007-2008BIOMODD [ATH1]: Details


BIOMODD [ATH1]: Details


BIOMODD [ATH1]: Details

HYBRID ART NOMINEE


BIOMODD [LBA2]: Introduction


How it started

The Open University

Pitching the idea

Faculty mulling over

Our new laboratory. Thanks, Open U!


Laguna: Los Banos and Paete


How we assembled a team

Radio interview Talks

Schmoozing and partying


Our website

Our mailing list


Book your seat in the Manila-Los

Banos shuttle now! Please?


2How we funded ourselves

Major art grant applications

Major rejections


Biomodd [LBA2], 2009

How we funded ourselves

Cash is hard to come by. Don't expect it.


Creative liquidation of in-kind donations

Flirting with corporations


NIDO™ Fortified Milk is a product of Nestlé ©

Flirtation with corporate sponsorship. It failed, and I'm glad it did.


Biomodd [LBA2], 2009


BIOMODD [LBA2]: STORIES


In the new culture you're working in, what is already automated?

How does this impact workflow/budgeting/logistics?

(Unavailability of automated systems = increased reliance on

human labour.)

The wooden case


RMX2 (2004)Belgium

Biomodd [ATH1] (2007-2008)USA

What is local, what is imported/appropriated, and why

those choices? (Why not use local algae?)

Ubiquity Reuse"Infect" the algae strainUniversal mix

The algae


We need Pentium IVs.

What counts as disposable in another culture? (Pentium IVs are not secondhand.)

What are the minimum requirements for the process? For the product?

What are your collaborators' assumptions? (Try to uncover as many of them. Be persistent!)

Uh-oh.

The networked computer system (1/3)


Hybridity in the Philippines (and other colonized cultures): Appropriating, mocking, enriching colonizers' cultures and technologies



Is everyone using words in the same way?

What are the higher-level themes so that concepts can be ported across contexts? (Greenhouses are not usually practical in tropical climates.)

`

How can digital technology be fused with biological systems?

fusion = symbiosis

What can we do with

excess heat?

Verm

eulen (2009) Corrupted C

#n#m#

FLU

Xspa

ce, P

hiladelphia

In NGO-speak, community refers to

indigent groups.



Should all ideas/symbols/beliefs be remixable? What about sacred symbols? What about symbols that are sacred not to you, but to someone else? Do you need permission to remix? From whom?

Mount Makiling

Mariang Makiling

Mount Banahaw(in another province)

Putting Banahaw as a character would be like

placing a Marvel character into a DC comic. If this were all a parody, why not? But it's not.

Is remixing parody?

The game


What aspects of the project should be bottom-up? What can be top-down?

What is the "basis of unity"? What's the conflict resolution strategy? Is there a clear structure of power?

What if the tradition needs changing?(But who am I to know and to say?)

A hybrid sci-fi/traditional Filipino carving would be cool!

Is what we're doing respectful of tradition?

We made a different design. We took ownership! That's a good thing, right?

But… but…

Uh-oh. Mediation time.

The wood carvings


Systems I won't talk about


Now what, so what?


Follow-up studies.


Now what, so what?

Thank you

for more info:WWW.BIOMODD.NET

behind biomodd [lba2]: notes from a cross-cultural new media art collaboration (2010)

Technology

belgium biomodd ath

outcome biomodd lba

philippines biomodd

new media art collaboration

team members

new media artists

new media funding

minutes themes