Posted by Rob Holmes on Mammoth:

[Not a cyborg plant, but certainly technobotanical; image by NL Architects via Inhabitat]

1. This post is for 50 Posts About Cyborgs.

2. This is a cyborg arboretum. That is, a collection of various plants not naturally found in geographic proximity, brought together for educational purposes, whose constituent plants happen to be cyborgs. Not augmented humans, but flora augmented by “non-hereditary adaptations”.

Now, in some real and valid sense, just as we’ve been augmenting our own biological capabilities with technological adaptations for millenia, we’ve also been engaged in a massive and only semi-conscious re-shaping of the forms and functions of plants. Continue reading

Biotech Art Workshop @ SEAFair 2010 (Skopje Electronic Arts Fair) :: October 4-7, 2010 :: Research Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts :: Call for 10-15 artists from Macedonia and Central & Eastern Europe :: Deadline: September 30, 2010.

The Visual Cultural Research Centre, Euro-Balkan Institute and the Research Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (RCGEB), Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, are announcing the Call for artists-participants for a four-day workshop about Biotech Arts, as a part of the project “Apparatus of Life and Death.” Continue reading

Membranes Surfaces Boundaries: Creating Interstices :: October 9 - November 11, 2010 :: Opening: October 8; 6:30 pm :: Aedes am Pfefferberg, Christinenstrase 18-19, 10119 Berlin, Germany.

At first glance, surfaces are boundaries. But already the natural philosophers of Classical Antiquity were aware of the enigmatic character of this perception. Material consisted of small particles, themselves “atomos” or indivisible. This exhibition presents works by artist Heike Klussmann, architect Thorsten Klooster, designer/artist Susanna Hertrich and designer Clemens Winkler. In projects and experiments, these works demonstrate interactions between theoretical and material manifestations of membranes, surfaces, and boundaries, and their transitional stages between everyday objects, technology and aesthetic production. Continue reading

Becoming Transreal: A mixed reality, biodigital performance by Micha Cárdenas and Elle Mehrmand :: November 3, 2010; 4:00 pm :: UCLA Freud Playhouse.

What if you could become anything? What happens after species change surgery becomes a reality? Becoming Transreal speculates on a future in which the promises of bionanotechnology have become realized, and yet as capitalism has continued to fail, both the interiors of our bodies and the virtual world have become totally commodified. you can become anything, but to finance your whims of identity transformation, the same nanohormones that transform your body are also producing drugs for others. Continue reading

[Image: Vincent Callebaut Architecte, Dragonfly, A Metabolic Farm For Urban Agriculture, 2009; Concept rendering for New York City] Art Works for Change presents The Nature of Cities at Shanghai World Expo 2010 :: until July 31, 2010 :: United Nations Pavilion, World Expo 2010, Oakland, California.

The Nature of Cities — guided by the Expo theme “Better City, Better Life” — presents 16 short videos from artists, animators and architects from around the world addressing the theme of urban biodiversity. The exhibition illustrates the relationship between the urban and natural environments, proposing new ways forward that acknowledge the necessity of human habitats and the fragile state of our ecosystems. Continue reading