Van Abbemuseum, Auditorium (Stratumsedijk 2, Eindhoven, back entrance)

20 March. Start: 16.00
Entrance: free

* We offer a unique 10 Euro discount during the Baltan sessions for the book “Bullet Proof Skin – Exploring Boundaries by Piercing Barriers” by Jalila Essaïdi for only 15 Euros. Buy  your signed copy on March 20!

(img: Jalila Essaïdi)

“A project that embraces both art and science and balances on the border of imagination and reality. Which is perhaps the most exciting place to be – as a scientist and as an artist!“ - Robbert Dijkgraaf

Book presentations

Baltan Laboratories explores the possibilities and boundaries of the merging of Art and Science with two compelling book presentations by Jalila Essaïdi and David Rothenberg. Both speakers reveal their fascination for the arts and the natural world through their unconventional research practices, which enable the ability to comprehend the unexplored behind nature’s genius.

Dutch artist Jalila Essaïdi will present her book “Bulletproof skin, Exploring Boundaries by Piercing Barriers” about the project 2.6g 329m/s. As one of the three winners of the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Awards, Jalila Essaïdi (1981) created a piece of ‘bulletproof’ skin. For this purpose spider silk, proportionately many times stronger than steel and made by transgenic goats and worms, was seeded with human skin cells and has grown into a ‘bulletproof’ human skin. By creating this ‘bulletproof’ human skin Essaïdi wants to explore the social, political, ethical and cultural issues surrounding safety. With this work she shows that safety in its broadest sense is a relative concept, and hence the term bulletproof.

Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg (USA) presents his a talk based on his book ‘Survival of the Beautiful: Art,Science and Evolution’. An exciting and almost hallucinating book about why nature is beautiful and how art has influenced science. Artists get inspiration from nature, but can we say that nature itself creates art? Survival of the beauty starts with a walk in an Australian forest. A bird has built a beautiful sculpture of twigs, blue feathers and blue cutlery. It’s made by the male to entice a female to mate. A biologist explains that the bird in case of shortage of material won’t hesitate to kill a blue bird just for its feathers. Even with humans killing for your art is rare. This bird, says Rothenberg, gives food to the thought that art in a pure form can be created by animals other than humans.

About Jalila Essaïdi

Jalila Essaïdi is a BioArtist who uses Biology and the Life Sciences as an artistic medium. Her artwork is about the recognition of the transience of matter and a human desire to keep and hold. Jalila Essaïdi studied Bioart at Universiteit Leiden and is the founder of BioArt Laboratories. The project received an honorary mention of Prix Ars Electronica 2012. This was truly a “bullet heard round the world”— Jalila’s story was immediately picked up by the Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, CNN, EuroNews and the BBC.

Watch Jalila at CNN: https://www.youtube.com/v/lcQbMMyJ6bI

About David Rothenberg: 

Rothenberg has written and performed on the relationship between humanity and nature for many years. Taking inspiration from Charles Darwin’s observations that animals have a natural aesthetic sense, philosopher and musician David Rothenberg dives into the mysteries of why we create art, and why animals, humans included, have innate appreciation for beauty. Rothenberg is the author of Why Birds Sing, on making music with birds, that was turned into a feature length BBC TV documentary. Rothenberg is professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Watch the BBC documentary “Why Birds Sing”, after a book by Rothenberg

Informal Academy Meeting #2, 2013
Fontys Eindhoven, Rachelsmolen 1, room R1-4.18
Wednesday 27 March 2013, 17.00-19.00

The next informal Academy meeting will be at Fontys. We will discuss augmenting our abilities through technology.

Informal Academy meetings are focused on sharing innovative ideas and offers students a platform to share the research and projects they are working on with fellow students from related programs in Eindhoven. Students and artists expand their network in an informal setting while gaining extra knowledge and feedback from like-minded participants from other schools: TU/e Industrial Design, Fontys Hogeschool ICT & Media Design, and Design Academy Eindhoven.

The content of the Informal Academy evenings will consequently be co-designed by the participants, depending on specialization and fields of interest. For Informal Academy updates, please join the Informal Academy  Facebook group.

Summer Sessions: Baltan Residency Open Call

Baltan Laboratories is taking part in the Summer Sessions network to sponsor a summer residency. The Summer Sessions are short-term residencies for young artists organized by a network of cultural organizations all over the world. The Summer Sessions offer a highly productive atmosphere with production support and expert feedback to jumpstart your professional art practice. The result is a pressure cooker in which you develop a project, from concept to presentable work, ready to show.

As an artists you can apply by submitting a video, in which you briefly explain your project, the support you need and why you should be a part of the Summer Sessions before the deadline. The idea behind this residency program is that local sponsors support young artists from their country to go abroad and develop a work at a host institute.

Network Partners: Baltan Lab (NL), Canadian Film Center (CA), Chronus Art Center, Shanghai (CN), Dundee Contemporary Arts (UK), HospitalField (UK), iMAL (BE), Laboral (SP), National Fine Arts Museum of Taiwan, PNEK (NO), TASML (CN), V2_ (NL), SAT (CA)

Visit the Summer Sessions website for application details.

e-Tapas Tasting
STRP BIENNALE, Eindhoven
Saturday 9 March 2013, 19:00 – 21:00

STRP Festival guests participated Baltan’s hugely successful e-Tapas event: a Temporary Photoelectric Digestopian work lab and tasting session at the intersection of food and textiles, photosynthesis and biomimicry. The Belgian artist Bartaku (Bart Vandeput) and French designer Carole Collet (Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design) presented strange, juicy, tasty ideas found in their study on the relationship between energy and food. They combine biology and nanotechnology and explore a future where designers become alchemists.

E-Tapas participants created and tasted their own e-Tapas, which included a buzz that made the tongue tingle. They also enjoyed Aronia berry wine, and a delicious dessert prepared and served to each participant personally by Eindhoven’s own top chef, Andre Amaro. And as a souvenir, each participant left with an edible photo of the e-Tapas they created.

Browse Boudewijn Bollman’s photos of the e-Tapas event.
See the Omroep Brabant video report.

Thank you – to everyone who helped to make this event a great success!

Tasting e-Tapas is part of the EU project Techno Ecologies and is organized in collaboration with Holst Centre and Ketelhuis.

Tasting E-tapas
Sat March 9, 19:00 – 21:00,
STRP Festival, Klokgebouw (light lounge/bar, 1st floor)
Admission free with valid STRP Festival ticket, register via carmin[at]baltanlaboratories[dot]org

Create and eat your own e-Tapas, made from edible solar cells, with a 0.6 volt buzz that makes your tongue tingle. Explore innovative applications of Aronia (berries) and flax, plants that have been around for centuries, in a surprising table landscape.

During STRP Festival Baltan presents E-Tapas: an open laboratory and tasting session at the intersection of food and textiles, photosynthesis and biomimicry. The Belgian artist Bartaku (Bart Vandeput) and French designer Carole Collet (Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design) show the most strange, juicy, tasty ideas found in their study on the relationship between energy and food. They combine biology and nanotechnology and explore a future where designers become alchemists. Prior to the tasting students, artists and scientists explore these techniques during a three day workshop. Eindhoven cook Andre Amaro (Ketelhuis) will prepare a special recipe based on flax. The result is a true tasting, which activates all senses. Come and enjoy the findings…

Three day workshop Edible Alchemy led by Bartaku & Carole Collet
Ketelhuis,  March 7,8,9, 11:00 – 18:00
Admission fee: 15 Euros including lunch & drinks
Submit before March 1, via carmin[AT]baltanlaboratories[DOT]org

In the first day participants will be developing resilient strategies for design, including concept ‘product’ development. In the second day students will apply resilience thinking to a plant system, exploring how far one can push the adaptation for different raw materials. In this case the making of controllable measurable energy using fruit berries (Aronia Melanocarpa). The workshop ends with a staging moment, where fellow friends, relatives, teachers and students are invited for testing and tasting in a specifically designed/staged setting, at STRP Festival.

Download the e-Tapas PDF (Dutch and English!)

Tasting e-Tapas is part of the EU project Techno Ecologies and is organized in collaboration with Holst Centre and Ketelhuis.

David Rothenberg performs Music From Nature.

“A sense of virtuosity traveling all over the world.” John Cage

Baltan Laboratories and Ketelhuis present an entertaining evening with music and food. Highlight of this evening is “Music From Nature” performed by David Rothenberg (USA).

He is a rarity who is both a high praised musician/composer and a famous eco-philosopher. He plays music like he writes, playful and curious. He wonders why nature is beautiful? If you can play a duet with a bird? Or how come the music of a whale has the same patterns as that of a nightingale?

David Rothenberg has long been interested in the musicality of sounds made by inhabitants of the animal world. He has jammed live with lyrebirds, broadcast his clarinet underwater for humpback whales, and covered himself in thirteen-year cicadas to wail away inside a wash of white noise. In this concert he presents a musical trajectory through several of his favorite species, revealing their distinct and evolved aesthetic senses in an attempt to show that music can reach across species lines, from human to animal, and back.

Rothenberg has written and performed on the relationship between humanity and nature for many years. He is the author of Why Birds Sing, on making music with birds, that was turned into a feature length BBC TV documentary. Rothenberg is professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

As part of the evening, Restaurant Ketelhuis presents pinchos and tapas including locally made biological cheeses, homemade sausages, self produced olive-oil and freshly baked bread from the bakery downstairs. For reservations email: reserveringen@ketelhuis.com of via +31 6 87 24 73 48 with subject “Music from Nature”.

Thursday, 31 January 2013
17:00 – 19:00
Bibliotheek Eindhoven
Emmasingel 22 Eindhoven
http://www.bibliotheekeindhoven.nl

Informal Academy evenings are focused on students sharing innovative ideas at the intersection of art, science, design and technology. The next Informal Academy will take place at the Bibliotheek Eindhoven, where Design Academy master student Ben Landau has been helping the library re-define itself for the future. We would love to hear your ideas about the ‘Library of the Future’ and about your own interests and projects.

“As part of my thesis topic, Design in Crisis, I assisted the Eindhoven Public Library to develop strategies of change in response to their severe budget cuts. The focus was on what would be lost with the proposed reductions, the library as a platform, and the library as a social space. I see potential in assembling the library members, re-contextualising the library’s services within the city, connecting people and developing web 2.0 strategies to remain in a state of flux. With these changes, I see the library becoming a vibrant, exciting and popular indoor public space.”

About Informal Academy
Each meeting takes place at a different location in Eindhoven.  Students and artists expand their network in an informal setting while gaining extra knowledge and feedback from like-minded participants from other schools: TU/e Industrial Design, Fontys Hogeschool ICT & Media Design, and Design Academy Eindhoven. The content of the Informal Academy evenings will consequently be co-designed by the participants, depending on specialization and fields of interest. Please join us on our Facebook page:  Informal Academy Facebook page

An Introduction to Processing and Generative Art.

Workshop led by Marius Watz.

Friday 25 & Saturday 26 January 2013
11:00 – 17:00
TAC Vonderweg 1, Eindhoven .
workshop fee: 15 euro for two days, includes lunch/coffee/tea. (students 12,50)

In this two day workshop participants will be introduced to the principles of Generative Art using the open source Processing programming tool. The focus of the workshop is the use of parametric processes to generate visuals for print and animation. Watz will introduce the basics of Processing, followed by how to design a generative system from the ground up. Participants will learn how systems can be tweaked and remixed to generate a range of visual outputs. Topics will include basic composition and animation, how to generate good pseudo-random colors and how to apply GUI control to a generative form. The examples provided will also demonstrate how to generate professional output for print and video.

Suitable for: Beginners to intermediate. Some Processing experience is recommended, but the workshop will include a quick introduction to the language. Beginners or those experienced with other languages than Processing should be able to pick it up from the code examples. Attendees should come equipped with their own laptop.

Places are limited. Send an email before 20 January to carmin[at]baltanlaboratories[.]org with your name, full address and your background to ensure your placement! The workshop takes place in TAC Temporary Art Centre, Vonderweg 1, 5611 BK Eindhoven. 

Computational Aeshtetics - Processuality as material.

A lecture by Marius Watz

Friday 25 January 2013
TAC, Vonderweg 1, 5611 BK Eindhoven.
Start: 17.30 hrs.
Entrance free

During the lecture Watz will explain the state of computational aesthetics, from early pioneers to the recent boom in creatives working with code. From infoporn to data sculpture and generative landscape painting, what new ideas are coming out of this new movement? And how do you deal with algorithmic clichés anyway?

Marius Watz is an artist working with visual abstraction through generative systems. He is known for his bold use of colors and hard-edged geometric compositions. Watz is a lecturer at the Oslo School of Architecture and at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Department of design. He has given many workshops and lectures on topics like as computational aesthetics, live cinema and digital fabrication.

About Marius Watz

Marius Watz (NO) is an autodidact, he dropped out of Computer Science studies to pursue visual work based on parametric processes. Watz has exhibited internationally at venues including Victoria & Albert Museum (London), Todaysart (The Hague), ITAU Cultural (Sao Paulo), Museumsquartier (Vienna), and ROM for Kunst og Arkitektur (Oslo). In 2010 he was commissioned to create “Prime”, a permanent public artwork for the Bybanen light rail system in Bergen.

In 2005 Marius Watz founded Generator.x, a curatorial platform that has resulted in a series of events related to generative art and design. Generator.x 1.0 was a conference at Atelier Nord in Oslo, accompanied by a travelling exhibition organized by the Norwegian National Museum that lasted until the end of 2007. A Generator.x concert tour of audiovisual performances was initiated in March 2006 and continues to this day. He is currently based in New York and Oslo.

http://workshop.evolutionzone.com/

http://www.unlekker.net/

Since the launch in June 2012, The Paintshop.biz spawned over 3,000 unique paintings by more than 1,500 different authors. The Paintshop.biz is an online real-time drawing tool, every painting is the result of a collaborative effort. Once the painting is signed and saved, it’s ranked accordingly. The person who signed it, becomes its official author and owner, while the shared canvas resets to white.

The rank of each painting is determined by using the PaintRank algorithm. The algorithm determines the reputation of the author and the popularity of the work itself by analyzing a set of factors such as the Artfacts ranking of the author, the amount of Facebook Likes and retweets the painting receives, the Google PageRank of the title, and the painting’s provenance including age, sales record and exhibition history. The painting’s rank sets the price; making the highest ranked painting the most expensive.

All paintings are available for sale throughout the exhibition-period. Once sold, the painting is immediately taken down and handed to its new owner, thereby changing the exhibition and increasing the ranking of the painting.

Kindly Supported by Baltan Laboratories, Eyebeam, Van Abbemuseum and Piet Zwart Institute.