About

Informed by our Human Practices, our project is a toolkit designed with the central criteria of modularity and scalability. We, therefore, envision use cases of our parts and systems across every field that could leverage the power of the intersection of bio-digital tools. This includes but is not limited to: biomanufacturing (1), biosensors in robotics (2), music and new media art (3), therapeutics (4), and forensics ecology (5).
The bio-electronic toolkit is designed to be versatile in its uses, and our interviews with engineers and artists enlightened us on the potential applications of a bio-digital interface in the real world.

We envisioned uses of our toolkit that are in line with our values and the impact we want to have in the world. We interviewed engineers who create robots to access places dangerous for people and a representative from a local organization monitoring pollution in the natural environment. Beyond, thinking about safety and sustainability, we envisioned our toolkit opening new avenues in the arts and new media, and spoke with artists from the New Media Art movement. The versatility of our toolkit makes it a springboard for creativity.

Bio Hybrid Robots

Integration

One of the questions we asked ourselves was, can we use synthetic biology to integrate biochemical data ordinarily inaccessible to digital platforms? Could we make robots “smell” the microchemical environment around us and inform humans about the safety and health of their surroundings? To answer these questions we turned to engineers in the fields of robotics, and local professionals monitoring environmental pollutants.

Our team met online with Brian Ringley, the Construction Technology Manager at Boston Dynamics, to get his expert insight on the application of robotics sensing in industrial settings. Ringley is one of the main developers of the dog-shaped mobile sensor platform SPOT. Not only is SPOT a technological marvel but it can be deployed in sensing and monitoring industrial environments, such as construction sites or chemical plants. SPOT uses thermal imaging and vibration monitoring to look for anomalies and alert humans. SPOT's inspection can alleviate the exposure risks of workers from treacherous terrain, explosives, and hazardous gas.

We met with Cesar Harada, an inventor, environmentalist, educator and researcher working on floating and sailing structures monitoring water conditions in the Hong Kong Area. Cesar has a remarkable approach to design, made evident by his commitment to open-source innovations and his dedication to increasing sustainability and remediating pollution. We discussed about the power of information processing, sustainability, and applications of our bio-electronic system.

To understand more about the local pollution monitoring challenges which could benefit from our platform, we contacted Anne-Sophie Allonier Fernandes who manages water quality in the Paris-Normandie region. We namely identified challenges in taking samples frequently and in situ, which could be improved with increased automation methods.

Bio-electronic music

Integration

We wondered about the cultural impact of a bio-digital interface and spoke to musicians and new media artists about the way they would use our toolkit to create a piece of cultural significance.

To learn on this subject, we have met with Xiao Xiao (萧潇), a Chinese-Born, American technologist, interaction designer, and artist currently a Ph.D. student in the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab. In her work, she applies insights from the art of piano playing to human-computer interactions and explores the experiences bridging the digital to the physical. Because of her involvement in design and music, we wanted to get her insights on the potential cultural impact of our bio-electronic system.

In close collaboration with Dr. Helena Shomar, our mentor in the competition, and in the context of Education and Communication we organized a 2-day event at the Learning Planet Institute (LPI) around the subject of Bio-Arts and design. The event was in 2 parts: A master class and a full day of the workshop on creative coding.

For the Masterclass, we invited NSDOS, a French musician whose work at the intersectionn of techno-bio hacking and live electronic music. We discussed the cultural basis for bio-feedback music.

Here is what we learned: Electronic Techno music was born in Detroit in the late 1980s out of the intersection of 2 driving forces :

1. The massive unemployment crisis that followed the de-industrialization of the city created a cultural background that was discussed through most media.
2. The technical revolution of electronic technologies initiated in the 1970s was starting to make its way to commercially available products. In Japan, synthesizer manufacturers started to commercialize and ship to the US cheap and user-friendly musical synthesizers.

Out of the intersection of these cultural and technical forces emerge modern electronic music.

Unlike in the context that allows for the emergence of Techno music, Bio-Feedback musicians lack the tools to sonify natural and biological processes and often rely on Handmade DIY sensors that lack the range of what can be sensed by modern synthetic biology tools.

Circling back to our work, our project aim at producing these tools. See the Integrated Human Practice section on the right of this page to learn how.

We had the chance to discuss with a broad audience of scholars and artist about the technical need of the nascent field of Bio-Feedback music. A full write up of the event can be found here.