ART & SCIENCE THE OPEN FUTURE/FREE CULTURE

46 - mcd�68 - INTERNET & SOCIETY / VIDEO & AUDIOVIDEO / SOUND & MUSIC / DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE / ART & SCIENCE

Could you tell me something about the history of Hackteria and how it is changingover the years?The three of us met in Madrid during a largeworkshop organized by the Medialab Pradocalled “Interactivos?09: Garage Science”, onhow the open sour ce and citizen scienceapproach can change society. During the work-shop we decided that we need a type of organ-ization and activities that will bridge the gapbetween the popular bioart practices and theemergent DIYbio/citizen science approach, andYashas came up with this funny name Hackte-ria. We organized our first Hackteria workshopin Berlin on how to use DIY microscopy forsound interfaces. In 2010 HackteriaLab start-ed a series of expert gatherings during whichwe evaluate what was done and establish newcollaborations. Right now we have Urs Gau-

denz in Lucerne working closely with SGMKon new workshops on laboratory infrastruc-ture, then Brian Degger, who co-founded aHackerspace in Newcastle, doing a lot of play-ful bio-experiments, then a DIYbio geek fromGermany, Rudiger Trojok, who will move toCopenhagen soon to start organizing work-shops in the local Hackerspace, BiologiGara-gen, and Denisa Kera, who is starting some col-laboration between Prague based Hackerspace,Brmlab, and the Hackerspace in Singapore.

Why is this focus on the world outside ofthe laboratories important for Hackteria?Rather than having just one citizen sciencelaboratory like a typical Hackerspace, wedeveloped a strategy of mobile labs, whichcan be installed and transported anywherein the world: art studios, art centres, or even

unexpected places like jungles or streets ofIndonesia, where we have already performedand further developed some science experi-ments. The mobile labs help us understandhow these future technologies will interactand influence our everyday life and practicein very different contexts. Most Hackteriawork is very process-oriented and open-end-ed, we like to improvise in new locations andwith new people, which often results in unex-pected, creative projects. Doing “science”and experimenting with technologies in theDIY manner on the streets, in the art centresor various other locations helps us under-stand what are the challenges and limits andhow to create tools and processes that willsimply enable more people to enjoy researchand tinker around with “expert” knowledge.

Could you describe some recent Hackteriaproject, which embodies this type of visionand practice?On our wiki you have over a dozen of peo-ple contributing and describing their ongo-ing projects, so right now there are over 45 projects starting with simple instructionson how to build a laboratory infrastructureto more sophisticated descriptions of lab pro-tocols on how to work with different livingsystems. You can learn some basic DIY tech-niques of growing bacteria and algae or startyour own microscopy project with a simpleset of instructions on how to turn a cheapwebcam or a Playstation3 Eye camera into aDIY microscope. The microscopy project isvery popular but also useful not only for sci-ence amateurs and artists but also for peo-ple from the developing countries with lim-ited access to expensive lab equipment. The microscopy project is also a good exam-ple of how we work, we like to hack con-sumer electronics and hardware to serve anew purpose. We transform these symbolsof our enslavement to the media industryinto emancipatory lab equipment, which canenable anyone to explore and observe nature,specifically the world of the microorganisms.

And how have you seen other themes andpractices evolving during these years?We are starting more projects in bioelectronix,but we will also continue our work with DIY

HACKTERIAINTERVIEW WITH MARC DUSSEILLER

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ART & SCIENCE - mcd�68 - 47

microscopy and synthetic biology. We wouldlike to start experimenting with biofuels forwhich we are building a bioreactor to growalgae using an Arduino. Many of our mem-bers are still very keen on fermenting winesand even various gar dening pr ojects. The microscopy project will likely evolveinto attempts to create a bioprinter to printfungi or bacteria. The laboratory tools, suchas incubators, pipettes, centrifuges and oth-ers are still the core of our activities, becauseI think it is essential to be able to set up alaboratory wherever you are. During the lastyear I have been building simple kits for 'lab-in-a-box', a m obile b iohacker s uitcase.This January in Indonesia we even trans-formed a local street food truck into a semi-functional biolab, with which we performedsimple scientific experiments with micro-scopes, sterilization, but also molecular gas-tronomy experiments like spherification.

Could you explain what is Open SourceBiological Art and how it relates to DIY biology?Whether it is a wiki or a workshop or bothdoesn’t really matter, what is essential is toenable people to collaborate and share knowl-edge and instructions. Open Source Biolog-ical Art enables people to perform complexscientific protocols without the support ofan official institution. We believe that it isimportant to enable more people to feel con-fident in working with living systems in order for creative and new ideas to emerge. When applied to science and art, it can cre-ate a new type of public participation andunderstanding of both domains. Artistsnowadays rarely share their precise instruc-tions on how they did something. They sim-ply think the documentation of their processis not important, and that the role of the pub-lic is to be just viewers, passive consumersand admirers of their works. In this respect,so-called bioartists are a little bit like scien-tists creating their own ivory towers. We thinkthis is very old fashioned and actually wrongbecause it creates the wrong impression thatboth science and art are something practicedby certain experts and elites that will decideon our future. Our approach is radical, webelieve that everyone should be activelyinvolved in the future of biology and science,and that amateurs, tinkerers and hackersshould have an equal access to the tools ofart and science “production”.

Why is it important to bridge the gap between artists and scientists and how itrelates to the discussions on the relationbetween experts and lay people?I am very interested in improving sciencecommunication and public participation in

the life science. I would like to see a type ofdemocratization of science, which involvescitizens directly rather than leaving the wholediscussion to some NGO, media or profes-sional science communicators who will rep-resent and mediate their voices. My hope isthat by enabling more people to do sciencein their garages, kitchens and bathrooms,and by enabling more artist, designers andsimply enthusiasts to work on various sci-entific projects, we will create a scientifical-ly literate public, which can democratize deci-sions on stem cells, embryos, GMOs,nanotechnologies etc.

And what is your relation to the DIYbioscene? On what type of projects do youcollaborate and how do you differ fromthem?Hackteria was part of the global DIYbiomovement right from the beginning andour activities were always overlapping.Twoyears ago when DIYbio.org was still start-ing I met Mac Cowell, the founder of themovement, and invited him to one of oursummer camp, and we collaborate and helpeach other quite often. The difference ismaybe that the DIYbio.org is more like amailing list with many functions, while weare primarily a wiki with instructions onhow to build things, and also we organizea lot of workshops and events, which ar enot that essential for the core DIYbio move-ment. Another difference is that they aremuch more science and business orientedwhile we engage much more with artists,designers and even philosophers. Hackte-ria’s educational and wiki resources areessential in helping artists and designers togain confidence so they can later go on anyscience related mailing list, pose more spe-cialized questions and communicate with

the scientists. The relation between Hack-teria and DIYbio creates this nice synergyand opportunity to support unique collab-orations.

Could you explain how you imaginethe ideal relation between professionalscientists and citizen scientists?When I visited Yashas in India for the firsttime, I realized how important is the DIY-bio work we were doing in developing coun-tries. There, science equipment is too expen-sive and scientific publications basicallyin-accessible. The Hackteria wiki enablesstudents in these countries to gain researchskills with some of the DIY tools we havedeveloped, and we are constantly develop-ing new tools. Many of our members areactually professional scientists, who tookthe DIYbio challenge seriously. They enjoydeveloping instructions and tools for peo-ple who for various reasons can’t afford ordon’t have access to a professional lab space.DIYbio tools may never produce a cuttingedge research but they play an essential rolein the education of scientists and basicallyanyone who is trying to understand what ishappening in professional science labs. DIYbio protocols and tools are means of sci-ence emancipation, a type of individual free-dom and even right to develop your own,personal relation to scientific knowledge and to try new things, so you can make an informed opinion about such issues. Hacking stuff and making cheap tools tostart your own laboratory and infrastructurewill democratize science in this sense. It cre-ates an opportunity for developing countriesto improve their science edu cation andresearch, which is meaningful to themselvesand not to some peer review, Western jour-nal, which is anyway inaccessible.

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48 - mcd�68 - INTERNET & SOCIETY / VIDEO & AUDIOVIDEO / SOUND & MUSIC / DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE / ART & SCIENCE

Who are the people who participate in yourworkshops?It depends on the venue and the location. If it is a media art festival, the majority of theparticipants will be “technology and scienceoriented” artists and some engineers work-ing on an art project but mostly those whodon't have much experience with biology, sothey are reaching out and trying to learnsomething different in a friendly environ-ment. Sometimes we also work with chil-dren. In India or in Indonesia we were alsosuccessful in attracting the local villagers andcommunities, and there we often work withsome local organizations that have similargoals. In Indonesia there are organizationssuch as HONF (House of Natural Fiber) and

Lifepatch.org that often involve local farm-ers and use some of the Hackteria method-ologies, our DIY webcam hacked microscope,or protocols for making wine and fertilizers.Also Yashas is working with local villagersin India, teaching genetic manipulation andsynthetic biology by using comics books,which speak to the general public.

Tell us something about your personalprojects under HackteriaFor the last two years I have been doing a lotof work in Slovenia on nanotechnology andbiology with Kapelica Gallery, a prominentinstitution at the interface of art and science.We started with the NanoSmano project in2010, which was a participatory public labfor experiments with nanotechnologies andtheir aesthetic potential. For two weeks asmall group of science experts and artistswere working on developing nanotech pro-totypes while the lab was open to the gener-al public. With Kapelica we are also planninga series of workshops with children and weare setting up a mobile lab. I’m also active inIndonesia, where I have been organizingworkshops for the last three years on DIYmicroscopy, fermentation, science outreachfor local schools but also science and VJingevents with the booming art scene. Mean-while they star ted a new pr oject calledLifepatch.org, a citizen initiative in art, sci-ence and technology with a wiki very simi-lar to ours but in Bahasa, so we are cooper-ating on many projects. It is very gratifyingto see how the network is spreading, mutat-ing and interacting around the globe.

What is your view on the future of citizenscience?My hope is that if more people are makingthings with their hands and have this directand everyday experience with scientific pro-tocols, we can demystify science and openthe whole decision making process to morepeople and opinions. I think this is the future

society, where I want to live, a place wher etinkerers and lay people find new and unex-pected uses and functions of technologiesand scientific knowledge, where they hackit and adapt it to their dreams and lives anddon’t wait for some big corporation or gov-ernment to decide what is good or safe forthem. Because I’m also working as an edu-cator, I have the opportunity to see how theattitude to science changes with direct expe-rience. I think scientific institutions shouldspend more money teaching people how todo science and open their labs to the publicrather than pay specialized science commu-nicators to do some PR campaigns, whichonly create more suspicions.

interview by Sara Tocchetti

Hackteria is a network of peoplepracticing DIY (do-it-yourself) biol-ogy with an interest in art, designand interdisciplinary cooperation.The network was founded in 2009by Yashas Shetty, Andy Gracie andMarc Dusseiller and now includesnot only scientists, engineers andartists, as you would expect, but alsophilosophers, entrepreneurs, andeven foodies and chefs. Hackteriaoperates on a global scale, and isbased on a web platform and a wikifor sharing knowledge, which enableanyone to learn but also test differ-ent ways of hacking living systems.Hackteria is not based in a physicalspace, and its goal is to allow artists,scientists and hackers to collaborateand test various biohacking andbioart techniques outside the officiallaboratories and art institutions, basi-cally anywhere in the world. Web: www.hackteria.org

Kresse Shield. Working in Lab.

Cyber Oechslemeter.

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