1:
title:
the cost of trying to hold on.
venues:
classes:
bioart
categories: a
description (300 words):
mitochondrial-dna (or mtdna) in human-beings is inherited by a child exclusively from their mother. therefore, as a single male child, my mother’s mtdna is fatefully destined to die with me.
as an offspring with little to no tangible inheritance, learning about this instinctually made me want to preserve & keep this dna alive, and see it passed it down to future generations. through genetic-engineering with dr. ellen d. jorgensen at biotech-without-borders, we addressed this desire, and successfully managed to express some of my mtdna into e. coli. bacteria cells — a commonly used organism in many biotech-labs.
however, the moment we did so, we killed them. millions of them — living peacefully in small colonies on a petri dish — wiped out by a human-desire to preserve a piece of maternal inheritance. analogous to a world where people increasingly preserve more — data; objects; spaces; genomes — i wonder how many such organisms will bear the price for the human inability to let go.
main image:
alt text:
what is it about (one sentence, 60 words):
a genetic-engineering experiment to preserve my mtdna that ended up killing the receiver (bacteria cells).
what does it do technically?
artificially synthesized a plasmid — containing pet-28a + green-fluorescent-protein + my mitochondrial-dna-sequence — and transformed it into e. coli. bacteria cells.
how will people engage with project:
people will see petri-dishes and images of the bacteria cells.
to scale diagram:
demo video:
url:
2:
title:
itp-community-synth-wall
venues:
classes:
electronics for inventors / sound studio
categories:
AccessibleArtCommunityCultureEducationFaith/SpiritualityHealthHistory & PhilosophyInformation DesignInstallationInstructional DesignInteraction DesignMachine LearningMobileMusicNarrative/StorytellingPerformancePlay/GamesPrivacy/SecurityProduct DesignSocial Good/ActivismSoundSpeculative/FuturesSustainabilitySystems DesignTech & SocietyTool\ServiceUX/UI DesignVR/ARWearables
description (300 words):
many people at itp — when introduced to the idea of electronics — end up exploring sound made through analog-circuits. these circuits take time to build, and producing a complex sound often requires people to build many of them.
currently, there is no way for students to ‘immortalize’ a circuit, or use it in conjunction with circuits made previously, unless they’ve been soldered and stowed away neatly.
the itp-community-synth wall changes that. people can put in any audio circuit that operates at 9-volts, and patch different circuits together using banana-cables.
main image:
alt text:
what is it about (one sentence, 60 words):
a community-synth-wall for itp where anyone can put in a breadboard-audio-circuit and listen to it in conjunction with other circuits on the wall.
what does it do technically?
provides a standardized way to build & patch between different audio circuits.
how will people engage with project:
use patch cables to patch between different circuits, listen to the output on headphones, and use a table to build a circuit and put it onto the wall.