TALK: How Biotechnology Can Be Used to Unlock Creativity and Human Potential

YOUFAB www.youfab.info
YouFab, through its award framework, serves as a platform to unearth and promote new ideas and works that can shape our future.This year’s winners were selected from 227 works from 26 countries and will be displayed at Good Design Marunouchi (Tokyo).  Amy Karle’s work “Regenerative Reliquary” is grand prize winner. 

BIOCLUB Open bio lab and community platform www.bioclub.org
BioClub is a platform for practicing and discussing the potential implications of biotechnology. It was launched in 2016 by Georg Tremmel, Shiho Fukuhara and Loftwork Inc. As well as holding regular events such as talks and workshops, it provides visitors with opportunities to interact with biology and biotechnology. It has also established an experimentation and research bio lab that meets the biosafety standards level of P1, allowing it to engage in genetic recombination projects. It arranges workshops inviting specialists from a wide range of fields as well as exhibits genetic recombination artworks by bio artists.

MeCA | Media Culture in Asia: A Transnational Platform https://meca.tokyo 
Aspiring to cultivate and disseminate the culture and art of the digital age, the Japan Foundation Asia Center and TodaysArt JAPAN / AACTOKYO present Media Culture in Asia: A Transnational Platform (MeCA), a comprehensive showcase of new media and digital culture in Asia. MeCA focuses on the rapidly developing creative scene in Asia, encouraging exchange and partnerships within the emerging generation of talent in the region through an art exhibition, music program, workshops, talks, and an international symposium. As the first fully comprehensive event of its kind in Japan to examine digital creativity through the frameworks of art, music, and education, it takes place in Harajuku, Omotesando, and Shibuya areas with established reputations as birthplaces for exciting new culture and produce a platform firmly rooted in the global scene; fostering both new international networks as well as more opportunities for exchange and participation in ways that transcend the divisions that exist between the occupations and fields of artist and researcher.

BIOCAMP: Gardens as ‘Biotechnik’ http://jfac.jp/culture/events/e-biocamp/ 
Biotechnology is today regarded as a field with immense potential to impact our lives, and research into how its technology can be developed and applied is advancing rapidly. At the same time, we can also see the spread of DIY bio (sometimes called biohacking) in workshops and biology labs among individuals and community groups, or, in the creative fields of art and design, a variety of endeavors are reinterpreting and critically examining biotechnology and how it relates to our lives as well as its legal and moral implications. The BioCamp: Garden as ‘Biotechnik’ is a special workshop directed by BioClub, a Tokyo-based platform for practices and discussions pertaining to biotechnology’s potential. Viewing biotechnology as “biotechnik,” a “living technology” necessary for understanding life, the workshop will bring together artists, researchers, designers, and DIY bio practitioners from around the world to consider the future social environments that will encompass biotechnology. The workshop will encourage extensive exchange, dialogue, and encounters as well as share understanding and issue awareness while searching for organic biotechnology design methods that can facilitate new ways of living. Attending lectures related to arts and BioArt, participants will acquire fundamental techniques in DIY lab equipment, bioink, CRISPR kits, and plant tissue cultures, and then use these to attempt new garden designs based on organic functionality.