Sorry, but I decided that a blog format is not really the way to go for Biopresence News. I am working on other solution to give a more frequent and in depth view of the project and the thinking behind it.
I’ll leave it here for the time being though.
The Jomon ceder in Yakushima island (Kagoshima pref.) is found damaged with 12 deep wounds. According to the tree specialists, Wounds are deep and made dangerous state for the tree. Those wounds were made after 6 mm thick bark was torn off, then hit or stab by a sharp metal object.
The Jomon ceder is known as the oldest cedar in Yakushima. The tree is registered as a naturall heritage in 1993. It is said that the tree has lived approx. 7200 years.
Specialist investigate “Wounds are deep and the tree is in the serious state.” - Yakushima, Japan
(Japanese text)
The next day from dorknot TΩKYΩ. Friday the 13th (!!) of May, Biopresence was invited to do a lecture at the “Principles of Media Culture Theory” class at IAMAS. Following the presentation on Biopresence project, we held a workshop for extracting DNA from beans and kiwis. Satomi chan did a brilliant experiment with her saliva. Superb! We could see very long white stuff inside the test tube. The question is what she ate for her lunch…
On the next day, Hoshi kun and Satomi chan took us to the Site of Reversible Destiny in Yoro Park. What a crazy place. It’s quite dengerous especially when you don’t no sense of balance. Some place were pretty slippery. Never go there without a proper shoes in a wet day.
It was lucky that we were there on the day of the Ogaki Festival. We saw an initiation ceremony by groups of “Ladies” (motorcycle girls gang or “bosozoku”) in the middle of the main street.
It was a pleasure to stay at IAMAS and Ogaki.
Thank you and See you again soon!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Deep Electricity Junkies,
Emergency meeting! #000001
The first dorkbot TΩKYΩ
@ SuperDelux
12 May 2005
Open 18:00 / Starts 17:00
Free Entry (Please buy one drink at the bar to suppot the event)
Cooperation: Radio Life, SuperDelux
Flyer Design: Hiroki Hayashi
Staring:
Atsuhiro Ito
Oto Ga Band Mei
University of Electric Interception × Sound Quality Improvement Committee (writer for Radio Life)
Masaki Fujihata
Shiho Fukuhara+Georg Tremmel (Biopresence Ltd.)
DJ:
A.K.I. (KRUSH GROUP/A.K.I.PRODUCTIONS)
Further Info:
dorkbot TΩKYΩ site
(Japanese text)
In cooperation with NTT ICC, Biopresence will organise ‘DNA Cooking! Kids Workshop’ on May 5th (Children’s’ Day). Together will volunteers ages 6+ we will extract DNA from leaves and plants and will make tasty mochi with real plant DNA! No previous knowledge necessary. Please register with ICC.
Biopresence is invited to an exhibition “open nature” at NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] in Tokyo, Japan. We created a new installation “Biopresence 2055″for this show.
open nature
Date : April 29(Fri.) -July 3 (Sun.) , 2005
Venue : NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Gallery A, B, 5F Lobby, Entrance Lobby
Organizer : NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
Support : Arts Council England,
Austrian Embassy,
National Art Council, Singapore,
Pro Helvetia, Arts Cultural of Switzerland,
Cultural Ministry, Republic of Slovenia
Cooperation : Embassy of Switzerland
Participating Artists:
Angela DETANICO + Rafael LAIN
doubleNegatives Architecture
FUKUHARA Shiho + Georg TREMMEL
KOP (kingdom of piracy)
Knowbotic Research
Carsten NICOLAI
Marko PELJHAN / PACT SYSTEMS
r a d i o q u a l i a
The SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA
Robert SMITHSON
TAKAMINE Tadasu
tsunamii.net
ubermorgen.com
YAMASHITA Hideyuki + Yamashita Lab. in NID
Georg Tremmel and Shiho Fukuhara will are invited to speak at a panel discussion entitiled ‘Transgenic Art: A Breed Apart’ at the Edinburgh International Science Festival .
The discussion will take place at The Hub, Castle Hill, from 3pm - 4.30pm on Sunday 10 April.
(excerpt)
Advances in genetic technology are allowing artists to create ‘transgenic art’ by manipulating living things for artistic ends, for example a cactus growing human hair. Is this acceptable? Where should we draw the line, and who should draw it? Listen to transgenic artists, consider the context within which they work, then explore this new and contentious art form through dialogue with our diverse panel.
Chair: Robert Dawson-Scott, arts journalist
Professor Martin Kemp, historian of art and science
Laura Cinti, transgenic artist
Howard Boland, media artist
Marta de Menezes, transgenic artist
Georg Tremmel, bio-artist and entrepreneur
Professor Ian Jackson, Senior Scientist, MRC Human Genetics Unit
Richard Holloway, writer, broadcaster and former Bishop of Edinburgh
Curious to see, how a transgenic artist looks like!
Biopresence is invited to exhibit at ‘Today in Paradise- Genetics & Art’ organised by Mobileart.se We will also participate the the Symposion on Wednesday, 23 march, 9.30 - 17h at aland School of Fine Arts, Gothenburg together with:
Peter Thomsen, Sweden. Prof. Gothenburg University.
Jan Wahlström, Sweden. Prof. Gothenburg University.
Olof Olsson, Sweden. Scientist Gothenburg University.
Laura Cinti & Howard Boland , South Africa
Arthur Liou, USA
Elona Van Gent, USA
Oron Catts, Australia/Finland
Tim Coe, UK/Germany
Brian Knep, USA
Gair Dunlop, Scotland
…and other artists participating in exhibition.
We are getting ready and looking forward to Sweden.
Firstly I think someone should make it clear to him that whatever is done to these plants they will become GMOs. Even putting a single copy of a gene back into the host plant of origin constitutes a GMO. As far
as I understand it, these ’silent’ alterations would involve inserting a synthesised recombinant molecule, so this would definitely constitute a GMO.
I think I remember from the web site that the NESTA grant was ~35k this would not be enough to cover the work required.
It doesn’t really matter what his ‘bio ethicist’ says. His proposed work would result in production of GMOs as defined below (source HSE):
“Genetic modification (GM) occurs where the genetic material of an organism (either DNA or RNA) is altered by use of a method that does not occur in nature and the modification can be replicated and/or
transferred to other cells or organisms. Typically, GM involves the removal of DNA, its manipulation outside the cell and reinsertion into the same or another organism. The aim of GM is often to introduce a new or altered characteristic to the target organism…. The organism which has been modified is referred to as a genetically modified organism (GMO).”
The genetic manipulation, to ‘prove’ his ‘concept’ (such as it is) presumably he would also have to fund protein analysis. And what does he intend doing with the plants after this??
Even if he has got the money, we’ve already expressed reservations about the possible adverse publicity that could result from being associated with such a project: depending on the containment class allocated
following risk assessment, the HSE would have to be notified, and notifications are entered on a public register. Even if not necessary to notify I doubt that ???’s (our institute’s) involvement would remain ’secret’ and publicity about this sort of GM project is likely to be negative which would be bad for GM and bad for ??? (our institute).”
Cornelia Thomas of the Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and science correspondent for the FAZ wrote an feuilleton article about our Biopresence/PYI appearence.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Archiv
So lass mich denn als Apfelbäumchen wachsen
Zwei Künstler wollen das Erbgut Verstorbener in Pflanzen einbauen und “transgene Grabsteine” anbieten / Von Cornelia Thomas
CAMBRIDGE, im Oktober / / Ein windiger Oktoberabend in Cambridge. Drinnen, in einem Hörsaal der juristischen Fakultät, haben junge Biotechnologie- …
So let me then grow as as an apple tree
Two artists would like to incorporate the DNA of deceased people into plant and offer them as ‘transgenic tombstones’ / Cornelia Thomas
CAMBRIDGE, October / / A windy October evening in Cambridge. Inside, in a lecture theatre of the faculty of law, young biotechnology- …
{due to the restricted access policy of the FAZ, we can not provide the full article here. please mail for further information}
news @ nature.com - Mice do fine witho.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ nature.com - Mice do fine witho nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ nature.com - Mice do fine without ‘junk DNA’breaking science news heai”http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ nature.com - M.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ naturdlines ut ‘junk DNA’breakut ‘junk DNA’breaking science news headlines ut ‘junk DNA’breakiceng sciee.com - Mice do fine witho.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ nature.com - Mice do fine witho nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ nature.com - Mice do fine without ‘junk DNA’breaking science news heai”http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ nature.com - M.nature.com/news/2004/041018/full/041018-7.html”>news @ naturdlines ut ‘junk DNA’breakut ‘jnce news headlinesnews @ nature.com - Mice do fine without ‘junk DNA’breaking science news headlines
Biopresence is pleased to welcome the Abteilung II/1 - Bildende Kunst, Architektur, Design und Mode - der Kunstsektion of the austrian Bundeskanzleramt as a sponsor on board.
.kunst
We are delighted to have won the second place at the Biology in Business Pitch Your Idea 2004 competition. It was extremly impressive to see the high standards of all the presenting companies and extremly encouraging to hear the very positive feedback from the expert panel to our idea.
Biopresence is invited to pitch against 5 other biotech start-up companies at the annual Biology in Business presents Pitch Your Idea 2004competition. The event will take place at the Faculty of Law at the University Cambridge {10 West Road, CB3 9DZ} on 6th October from 6 - 9pm.
Full report to follow. Everybody welcome at attend.