Education
Our education is designed according to the age level of the audience, with Science Pop-up book workshop for young children and Middle school students, Synthetic Life Beer Festivals, lectures, and clubs for college students at the college of fine arts, and Synthetic Life Foundations, NAND LAB, and Tap Synbio-art Creation Workshops for the general public.If we categorize the contents according to the depth of the content, there is a process from simple to difficult, from the simple science-oriented Science Pop-up Book Workshop and the Synthetic Life Foundation, to the Synthetic Life Poetry Workshop, which is a simple exploration of humanities and science, to the NAND Book Club Podcast, Tap Synbio-art Creation Workshop, and the synthetic biology-related lecture series, which are related to philosophy.
part1:TAP Synbio-art Creation Workshop
Project Overview：
From July to September 2022, we joined three igem teams from Tsinghua, CAFA_China and peking to form TAP, aiming to exchange art and science through art workshops. Centering on the theme of synthetic biology, we held three art workshops: 1) Synthetic Life pop-up book workshop, 2) VR painting workshop, 3) iGem project exhibition. We invite scientists, artists and bio-art curators to participate in bio-art workshops. Promote the teams of the three universities to jointly develop biological art based on team projects and plan our biological art exhibition.
1.Synthetic biology pop-up book workshop
Synthetic biology pop-up book "Small Cell, Big World" is a popular science book of synthetic biology basic technology produced by CAFA_China and Tsinghua team for young students. It increases the interest, interactivity and vividity of knowledge through the pop-up book. By stimulating children's interest in life code to achieve the purpose of popular science.work with Tsinghua and peking
2.VR painting workshop
3.iGem project exhibition
We jointly planned the project exhibition scheme of three teams.
part2. Synthetic Life Foundation
Project Overview
We hope to build a website for the popularization of synthetic biology with the participation of synthetic biology researchers,the public,art school students,and artists.Part of the website will be a microbial illustration of synthetic biology,for example,an illustration of monsters,which were collected drawings or texts by the public.The website will also contain artworks based on the morphology,functions,and anecdotes of microbiologyresearch in the field of synthetic biology,which include texts,visual paintings,and music.After the basic framework is built,the website will open to the public and receive submissions and comments.At present, we have collected a large number of drawings and manuscripts and displayed them on our wechat, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
part3.Syn-bio Beer Festival
We held a beer festival at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and there were almost no courses in the natural sciences in our school. Most of the students had no background in biology, and we knew that in China, Biosysen was developing new types of beer with the help of synthetic biology. It was inevitable that with the help of this attractive drink for artists, it was easy to arouse their desire to learn more about synthetic biology. That's why we partnered with Biosysen to host a beer festival for the artist community. Through this activity, we introduced more artists to the methods of synthetic biology and discussed with them how artists could use synthetic biology to complete works of art about conservation.
part4. Lecture Series
In order to discuss synthetic biology and art, we invited scientists and artists to give online and offline lectures. A total of six lectures were held, which attracted a large number of participants from universities and the community. The following is the information of the lectures we held.
| Time | Topic | Information/Activity Profile |
|---|---|---|
| 21.10.22 | Recruitment | Introducing igem |
| 21.11.12 | Synthetic Biology Map | Mr. Zhijie Qiu was invited to share his work," the map of synthetic biology1', from the perspective of an artist, to look at synthetic biology today, and to share the topic of "science in the eyes of an artist". |
| 22.3.5 | Synthetic Life - Heavenly Creations in the Age of Life Technology | Mr. Haoqian Zhang is the lecturer. The amount of development of human society is accompanied by the advancement of material making technology, and new materials and molecules often bring innovation in the way of life. However, traditional petrochemical-based production methods are facing a serious innovation stagnation, and biotechnology is a very good solution to bring industrial innovation, corresponding to the discipline of synthetic biology. The lecture will focus on: how to manipulate life to create the ideal substances we want, how it is progressing now, and what kind of changes it will bring to human society in the future. |
| 22.3.19 | Responsible Innovation and Sociotechnical Imagination in Synthetic Biology | Speaker: Bao Yuhan Lecture content 1、The hidden worries and anxieties behind the technological development in the evolution of human civilization. 2、The opportunities and challenges of synthetic biology. 3、Socio-technical imagination: the possibility of co-evolution of technology and society. 4、Exploring the paradigm transformation of science and technology development--Responsible innovation of synthetic biology. 5、The dialogue between science and humanities: the development of iGEM Human Practice Program. |
| 22.4.30 | Public Understanding of Science: Science and the Public in the Age of Acceleration | Speaker: Yilin Hu Lecture content: In the 20th century people has seen more technological inventions than any previous era combined, biotechnology has also seen great changes in the 20th century, and synthetic biology has again become the frontier of life science research since the new century. In this era of accelerating technology, what kind of interaction is needed between science and society? Does the public have the right to participate in science? And in what way should the communication of science be carried out? |
| 22.5.7 | On Human "Consciousness" and "Unconsciousness"-A Glimpse of Dialogue and Cooperation between Artistic and Scientific Thinking | Speaker: Hanbin Deng Lecture content: Scientific research has finally begun to pay close attention to the human mind and the composition of its capacity to think, to "consciousness" and "unconsciousness", a field that used to belong to philosophy, religion, occultism, etc., and that is of strong interest to artists and art audiences. This area used to belong to philosophy, religion, mysticism, etc., and was also of strong interest to artists and art audiences. However, there is a significant difference in approach between these two concerns and interests. To bridge these two kinds of thinking, we need to share and respect each other's knowledge and methods on these two paths. The lecture discusses some of the key points of experimental design in the life sciences that require the attention of collaborative artists and are likely to bring artistic and philosophical inspiration, using examples of experimental design in human behavior research in which the lecturer has been involved. By creatively changing the conditions of observation, "scientific experiments" broaden the horizons of "natural observation" that artists may be more accustomed to, and artists may also bring a different perspective to their work because of their unique sensitivity to life issues or because of their special physical (hand, eye, nose, consciousness, etc.) training. |