The Arts Catalyst and Lighthouse presented Laboratory Life open lab projects at the Microwave International Festival exploring frontiers of art and biotechnology.

As part of an international exhibition of art labs, the five art-science projects made by the artists, doctors and scientists, who transformed Lighthouse into a living science laboratory earlier in the year were presented in Hong Kong. The projects were led by Adam Zaretsky, Andy Gracie, Anna Dumitriu, Bruce Gilchrist and Kira O’Reilly.

Laboratory Life was a unique, interactive art-science laboratory, organised by Lighthouse and The Arts Catalyst and open to the public. It took place February – March 2011. Conceived and led by artist Andy Gracie, a group of international artists and scientists from the UK, Spain and the US worked with doctors, scientists and artists, to create a series of projects exploring the cutting edge of medical technology in a living laboratory at Lighthouse. These projects were showcased in an exhibition at Lighthouse, shown as part of the Brighton Science Festival 2011.

What made this project unique was its open nature. Laboratory Life adopted a radically open structure, inviting the public to come and visit the laboratory, meet the artists and scientists as they worked, and interact with them.

During the laboratory, the artists and scientists created five art-science projects which formed the basis of a fascinating exhibition at Lighthouse, featuring DNA tattooing, astrobiology, microbiological textiles and much more.

The projects are:

Public Misunderstanding of Science - led by Bruce Gilchrist. Collaborators: Kate Genevieve, Simona Casonato, David Louwrier, Daksha Patel

Infective Textiles - led by Anna Dumitriu. Collaborators: Rosie Sedgwick, Sarah Roberts, Brian Degger, Melissa Grant

The Quest for Drosophila Titanus - led by Andy Gracie. Collaborators: Kuaishen Auson, Janine Fenton, Meredith Walsh

Tattoo Traits - led by Adam Zaretsky. Collaborators: Zack Denfield, Helen Bullard, Simon Hall

The Garden Shed Lab - led by Kira O’Reilly. Collaborators: Valerie Furnham, Columba Quigley, Genevieve Maxwell

A combination of the artworks and artefacts created by the teams, and documentation of the laboratory was shown in the festival international exhibition. The exhibition also features work by leading international art labs, including which includes work by etoy, robotlab and Time’s Up.

Lead artist Andy Gracie, and Lighthouse programme curator Jamie Wyld also took part in discussions about the project at the festival symposium.

Partnership

Lighthouse, Brighton

Microwave Festival, Hong Kong

Support

The exhibition has been funded by Wellcome Trust.