Research team
Expertise
`Koelleven´is a project featuring the exploration of the ethics of attunement, - deep listening in the context of the microbiota in hyperboloid cooling towers of electric energy facilities. The methodology consists of field, lab (microbiology and solar physics), - and literature research in the fields of BioArt, energy art, art-science, transdisciplinarity and bioethics. Partners: X-LAB, UHasselt; Lab of Microbiology and Centre for Synthetic Biology, UGhent; Department of Philosophy, UAntwerp; New Energy Technologies Group, Aalto University; SCK CEN, Mol; Bioart Society; Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture, Hasselt; nadine lab for contemporary art, Brussels. Koelleven is a project by Bartaku Art_Research / r-Ohm vzw – Helsinki, Brussels. With support from: the Flemish Cultural Authorities (Innovative Partner Project Funding).
MicroTuning: New perspectives on the intertwining of microorganisms with cooling towers of nuclear power stations lungs and air. Art inquiry to create new ways of knowing by weaving science & bioethics into visual and sonic media.
Abstract
MicroTuning is dedicated to intertwining microbiota in cooling towers and human lungs and proposes a shift of perspectives: Cooling towers of electric power stations provide an extraordinary ecosystem for interdependent microorganisms to flourish. Among these are the highly monitored and combated bacteria, Legionella p. that pose a serious health risk for humans. The microbial communities can ascend from the cooling tower water basin via evaporating steam, attach to the microbial world on the tower walls, detach, and join the (aero)microbiome in the air. They can then become part of the lung microbiome and cycle back into air, water, and towers. Can this unique biodiverse ecosystem be considered other than a threat to humans? Through fieldwork, laboratory and biophilosophical study, we develop new insights into these realities. The artistic inquiry then proposes new imaginaries of microbiomes and their hosts as interdependent and co-constitutive, using visual and sonic media. MicroTuning is a research creation, designed as a process. Hereto, I build upon my previous adventurous ways of working (method), the 'way of play'. It aligns with the qualities of improvisation music. Inspired by P. Oliveros, T. Ingold and L Lippard´s views about 'tuning with awareness´ I will further this path experimentally.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Hens Kristien
- Fellow: Vandeput Bartaku
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project