LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Have a good understanding of working in wet/biolab.
- Reflect on experimental and/or laboratory practices and their artistic context of the field of art & science.
- Make experiments and/or constructed prototypes that are discussed in relation to individual interests and further project plans.
Credits: 6
Schedule: 22.10.2024 - 26.11.2024
Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Laura Beloff
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):
Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):
Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
valid for whole curriculum period:
This course focuses on topics inherent for the field of art & science, such as: the emergence of hybrid ecology, modified organisms, artificial and biological life, enhanced humans, evolution, intelligence at large - among various others. This course will take experimentation from the ground up (understood widely from wet-lab and to physical computing and to artist studio) as a starting point for this strongly practice-based course.
Typically, laboratory is understood as a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. This definition leaves out artistic experiments, however, during the first decades of the 21st century increasing amounts of artists have begun entering scientific laboratories and using scientific methodologies in their work. Also, many artists consider their studio as a kind of a laboratory, a space for experimentations - systematic, messy and sometimes theoretical.
The course welcomes students from different disciplines with an interest in practice-based experimental artistic work, critical reflection and interest in the development of one's own practice in affiliation with art & science field.
It is recommended that students taking this course attend also the spring lecture-series course titled: Art & Science, which gives more grounding on the field of art & science at large.
applies in this implementation
Dear all,
This year's edition of the course will focus on liquids. We will work with liquids and simple computation for controlling (or not controlling) them. The course consists of few lectures and readings but most of the course is hands on and intensive practice based experiments!
Why liquids? Our planet is characteristically wet; approximately 71% of the planet’s surface is covered with water, meaning that landmass inhabited by humans accounts for less than 30% of the earth’s surface. Carbon-based life-forms (such as us, humans, among many other organisms) are dependent on wet matter. Liquids, fluids and flows have also entered the arts, almost as ‘undercover’, without getting much attention or recognition of the new moist and sometimes living materials that are used and also exhibited. This shift has happened with growing interests by artists towards biotechnological practices, working with living, non-human organisms and bodily fluids. Artists have adopted multiplicity of new methods and materials parallel to traditional art practices. When used as artistic media, liquids challenge objectness of things; liquids permeate every crack and corner of a space; they can be characterized as temporal and continuously transforming. Fluids are also messy, destructive, essential for life and they refuse to retain a fixed shape. But they can be retained in a vessel, mixed, combined and they can be made to cause dynamic chemical reactions. One could say that liquids represent natural forces, chance and uncontrollability, whereas instruments and computation represent control, precision and purpose. These merging areas of technology and biology also point out how the traditional boundaries between wet and dry are currently blurring.
It is recommended that students taking this course and interested in art & science attend also the spring lecture-series course titled: Art & Science Lectures (teachers: Helena Sederholm and Laura Beloff), which gives more grounding on the field of art & science at large. Both courses run every year!
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
Participation in teaching, completed assignments.
Minimum 80% attendance.
See MyCourses for more detailed information on evaluations methods and criteria.
applies in this implementation
Requirements for participation on the course and passing the course:
Attendance: 80% attendance equals to one time absence from the course!
BiofiliaABC is a prerequisite and it will be included within the course. To have a license to work in Biofilia laboratory, one needs to have the BiofiliaABC course done. BiofiliaABC will take place in the first two sessions of the course: October 22nd and October 29th! If you miss these, you cannot participate in the course!! In case you have BiofiliaABC already done - you dont need to do it; Please mail Laura.
November 26th we will have a presentation day - everyone will talk about and present their project to the others.
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
6 ECTS ≈ 162h
Contact teaching 42h/ Other 120
Lectures 5-10h, Groupwork 60h, Workshop and practice-based work 44h, Independent reading and writing 12h, Reflection and thinking 25h.
Other 13h: Making individual reflections for final presentation.
This is a strongly practice-based course and will involve for example: lab-work, design, construction, digital tools
and potentially a bit of electronics - depending always on the yearly study event. Additionally, there are given
compulsory humanistic and scientific readings - as well as just few lectures.
DETAILS
Study Material
valid for whole curriculum period:
Provided, please see MyCourses
Substitutes for Courses
valid for whole curriculum period:
Prerequisites
valid for whole curriculum period:
SDG: Sustainable Development Goals
4 Quality Education
12 Responsible Production and Consumption
13 Climate Action
15 Life on Land
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further Information
valid for whole curriculum period:
Teaching Language: English
Teaching Period: 2024-2025 Autumn II
2025-2026 Autumn IIRegistration:
Minimum amount of participants 8.
Maximum amount of participants 14.
Priority order to the course is ViCCA- and New Media-majors and others according to availability of places.
https//www.aalto.fi/en/services/registering-to-courses-and-the-order-of-priority-at-aalto-arts