Events: Lecture, Workshops, Open Houses

A Discussion with artists Emma Akmakdjian, Daniela Brill Estrada, and Walker Tufts who are Spring 2024 artists in residence at the Coalesce Center for Biological Art. Are presenting at Hallwalls as part of the Leonardo LASER talks series. Each of these artists presented their residency artworks in progress, which include artistic explorations into genetics and creativity, collaborations with particle physicists and bio-concrete.

Make sure to RSVP at fsantoss@buffalo.edu to recieve information on the Zoom Meeting.

Art and Science in a global pandemic. Join us for this series of online talks by artists in residence and the staff at Coalesce: Center for Biological Arts. On Friday April 24th we will hear from Paul Vanouse & Solon Morse, Darya Warner, and Cesar & Lois Collective. Friday May 1st will be Felipe Shibuya, Laura Splan, and Rian Hammond. And on Friday May 8th we will hear from Stephanie Rothenburg, Zeelie Brown, as well as Sun Young Kang and Jack Tseng. This event is presented in partnership with Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center as part of the Leonardo LASER talks series.

A Discussion with Bioartists Josh Archer, Chris Copeland, Iman Person & virocode (Peter D'auria and Andrea Mancuso). With Special Coalesce guest and discussant, bioartist and theoriest: Polana Tratnik. Presented at Hallwalls as part of the Leonardo LASER talks series. Each of these artists presented their residency artworks-in-progress and visions, which included scavenged-automotive-machines propelled by petroleum eating microbes, artistic explorations into chemical and microbial membranes and engineered skins, and yogurt cultures designed to devour their own containers.

A Discussion with Bioartists Rian Hammond, Günes-Hélène Isitan and Moira Williams, who were Spring 2018 artists in residence at the Coalesce Center for Biological Art. Presented at Hallwalls as part of the Leonardo LASER talks series. Each of these artists presented their residency artworks in progress, which included musical instruments that interpret unique 'fingerprints' of the gut flora, artistic explorations into hormone engineering, foraged bio-imaging-technologies and living Kombucha sculptures.

A Squeaky Wheel workshop led by Mary Maggic Tsang (MIT) and Byron Rich (Allegheny College) explored ways in which our interactions with toxins with our environment and ecosystem “queer” our bodies. Tsang and Rich explore estrogen as an agent that identifies toxins in our local waterways and estrogen as a speculative element in their collaborative project while at Coalesce. This hands-on experience allowed workshop goers to investigate issues such as toxicity and pollutants that invade our daily lives and how bio-art demystifies these complicated chemicals. 

This free event was offered members of the public the chance to get their hands dirty in a DIY science activity. Visitors extracted DNA from strawberries in our lab, using household materials like overproof rum and pineapple juice, and learned about how genome science and bioart come together at the Coalesce Center for Biological Art.

This roundtable featured a lecture by Zbigniew Oksiuta (School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and a panel/roundtable discussion on the theme of Skin, for instance as a site of identity, as a microbial habitat, as a barrier, and as an interface. The discussion included Oksiuta, Dr. Irus Braverman (School of Law, University at Buffalo), Shelley Jackson (WBFO Artist in Residence, University at Buffalo), Dr. Gerald Koudelka, (Department of Biology, University at Buffalo), Dr. Timothy Murray (Department of Comparative Literature, Cornell University), and Paul Vanouse (Department of Art, University at Buffalo.)

This workshop was led by Zbigniew Oksiuta (School of Architecture, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), who explores the possibility of designing biological structures, focusing on membranes, self-organization and gravitation. While the workshop was aimed towards experimental art and design practices, its intent was to enable its participants in a hands-on creative engagement with the tools and technologies of the life sciences.

As artists and cultural investigators who worked with technological life for the last seventeen years, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, co-founders of Tissue Culture & Art Project, explored and highlighted the links between the industrial, agricultural and medical fields to the story of the Buffalo Incubators. Workshop participants explored what the duo have dubbed “The Aesthetics of Care,” as they were introduced to basic principles and techniques of incubation, animal tissue culturing and tissue engineering.