Brian Degger

This slide is an embroidery, we're mixing the idea of embroidery with bacteria. The threads in here actually contain antibiotics, and then we're actually growing environmental bacteria. So I work with other engineers and designers and scientists, I belong to organizations like Hackteria, there are many projects that have aspects of DIYbio.

I have been doing the basic things, like glowing bacteria. I had a one week residency in a gallery which was actually a garage, this was some of the equipment. I think for some reason my slides aren't quite coming up. Almost everyone has done the glowing bacteria from rotting seafood thing. This is one of the simplest and cheapest things that we could probably do. You don't need any license in the UK to do this. To do the GFP stuff, you might need a license.

So I'm also interested in this sort of plastics. Do people know about this? It's a plastic that you can cook, and it's an interesting easy way for things you can cook at home. Things you can find in the supermarket or kitchen. I am also interested in these quite simple model organisms, like daphnea. I was at a mini makerfaire in the UK, and I was trying to do these things that they could take home and observe Daphnea for as long as you want. Once you set them up, they are self-contained, and do they keep growing or not? It's sort of like science as observation.

I am really interested in assembling workshops and showing them to kids. So we had zooplankton observations. Kids really loved looking down a microscope. It's not complicated. We're also asking them if they want to model these.

This was the outcome of the textiles where we have glowing bacteria on clothing, and then sterilize them. Then we do artwork around slides. For me, one of the issues is that there might be in the minds of the public a confusion between BioArt, DIYbio and speculative design. Some people might see something and think that it's actually what happening, each of them seem to look the same but they have different motivations. DIYbio might be used for education. Speculative design might be used for services in 10 years time. We have this problem where the public might already believe that this utopia is already here and they might react against it, they might see DIYbio as something we shouldn't be doing.

So, I'd like to acknowledge all the groups. Hackteria, GarageLab 25 Stratford, Laboratory Life, Lighthouse Arts, Wellcome Trust, Arts Catalystistt, Interactivos'10 Neighborhood Science, Field_Notes.

What is the difference between BioArt and speculative design? Speculative design is sort of, a service, and BioArt tries to evoke certain thoughts or ideas. They have different motivations. It's a bit like fine art and design.