Janne Nora Kummer

16. August – 31. August 2019

I am Janne. I am a director, a performance and multimedia artist. I am a member of the artist group VT (www.virtuellestheater.net) and a researcher within the masters program “Spiel && Objekt¨ at the HfS Ernst Busch Berlin, where I met Leoni Voegelin, Tomas Montes Massa, Lena Maria Eickenbusch. As a group, we share the desire to develop an ecologic & non-anthropocentric view of arts. Our research motivation drives us to explore the interaction between the biodiversity of the rainforest with the behaviour of light, using these local biosolar entanglements as inspiration to create a techno-vegetal monster. Relevant milestones for us are monstrous & cyborg thinking, kinetic sculptures and object-oriented theatrical narratives. We imagine a solar-powered, Arduino-motored, light-searching hybrid creature, a wired-photosynthetic robot that aesthetically condenses our research and friendly coexists in the jungle. Speculating on the fusion of organic material and new technologies is for us an artistic urgency, and therefore we are eager to prototype and meet this critter!

Madeline Blount

Dates: August 24th-31st

coder/technologist, explorer, researcher, artist. very much looking forward to meeting others at the intersection of fields at Dinacon!

currently splitting time between Brooklyn, NY + Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – hoping to focus on filming the agoutis (Panamanian cousins of the Brazilian “cutias” I’ve met!). also interested in complex systems dynamics, birds, sound, dance, writing, + any chance to spend time outside.

http://mab.space

fellow: Blue Ridge Labs

Michael Ang (Mang)

Dates: Aug 13-31

Project: Unnatural Language

During Dinacon I will create environment-specific sonifications using the Datapods (developed for Unnatural Language with Scott Kildall). Datapods are electronic devices that translate the unseen activity of plants and the environment into sounds for human appreciation. The troupe of Datapods will be spread into the jungle to converse with the environment, us, and each other. The Datapods are a modular system based on Arduino – curious to see if we can create new sensors and ways for them to interact with nature!

Michael Ang (https://michaelang.com) is a Berlin-based artist and engineer who creates light objects, interactive installations, and technological tools that expand the possibilities of human expression and connection. Applying a hacker’s aesthetic, he often repurposes existing technology to create human-centered experiences in public space and the open field. Countering the trend for technology to dissociate us from ourselves and surroundings, Michael’s works connect us to each other and the experience of the present moment.

Päivi Maunu

Dates: 21-31.8.2019

Project: Biomimeticx2 is creating a link between visual art and bioinformation on a site-specific project named the Cloud Garden in Panama.

The plan is to focus in a miniscule, 1 square meter area which will be called the Cloud Garden in Panama. The art work is a continuation of The Cloud Garden in Harakka island in Helsinki founded in 2015.

The project will transform into Community Art when we are kindly requesting other conference members to provide images from the milieu of conference e.g. via Google Drive.

Bio: Päivi Maunu is a visual artist living and working in Helsinki, Finland. She graduated as an environmental artist from Aalto University in 2011. Maunu is a multidisciplinary artist practicing Performental Art (a combination of Environmental Art and Performance Art), that she has established and advanced further since 2010.

She has participated in several international performance festivals such as Live Action Venice, Venice Biennale 2015, 2017 Preview Week and environmental conferences such as Digital Naturalist Conference in Thailand in 2018.

Päivi Maunu is a one of the founding members of art and research groups Nature&Art Post Scriptum (NAPS) and Biomimeticx2.

Mike Grusin

Hey everyone, I’m honored to be a part of Dinacon and will be joining you the first week of August. I’m hard to categorize; I’m an engineer and artist at heart and am happiest when I get to wear a lot of hats. I’ve built spacecraft and fighting robots, made costumes and movies, chased the shadows of asteroids and rare birds, and designed electronics for both the space station and just to make people laugh. I was most recently employed by Sparkfun Electronics, where I was an engineer with strong proclivities towards education and citizen science. I’m currently doing freelance design work for the Boulder CO aerospace community (will work for launch). At Dinacon I plan to serve as roving tech support; if you need electronics, coding, or media help, just let me know!

email: mgrusin@gmail.com
twitter: @flyingcircuits
insta: mikegrusin
site: flyingcircuits.com
whatsapp/SMS: +1 303 931 4219

Kris Casey – Beginning Endless Forms

August 12-19th. Kris Casey is a visual artist and creative researcher from Chicago, IL. Her work draws heavily from various fields of philosophical and scientific inquiry, including evolutionary developmental biology, bio-aesthetics, evolutionary aesthetics, and genetics. Her research and practice examines relationships between biology and technology, natural and artificial, material and immaterial, subject and object. Her paintings can be seen as assemblages or accumulations of natural and technological elements whereby the biological concepts of mutation, contamination, decay, generation, emergence and metamorphosis become modes of inquiry into the production of novel forms.

Stephanie Rothenberg

Dates: August 13-26

Hello! I am Stephanie, an artist and prof from Buffalo, NY. I will be experimenting with sensors and creatures for a larger project that looks at biology as technology and living machines in extreme landscapes. I am going to try and harness the aggressive energy of crocodiles to power the blockchain.

www.stephanierothenberg.com

Jonathan Hefter

August 1st – 16th

Project: I’ll be creating 3D digital models of local flora using photogrammetry that others can then use in their own works. With any luck, I’ll have the Dinalab OpenScan device humming away, if it isn’t already.

Bio: I’m a New Yorker with a taste for going far off the beaten path. I’m also the founder of the edtech company, Neverware, and a former firefighter. I will be travelling the world to learn more about how technology is created, used, and disseminated in different communities. Dinacon will be my first destination, followed by Berlin, and then parts unknown. Collaborators and co-travelers welcome.

Grace Grothaus

Dates: Aug 25-31

Project: The Future Within, a sculpture series inspired by Karel Capek: “the future is not in front of us, for it is here already in the shape of a germ (seed); already it is with us; and what is not with us will not be even in the future.” Onsite I will be continuing fieldwork in which I find, photograph, and create 3D models of seeds via photogrammetry. The lowland rainforests of Panama form a critical junction of North and South America and are so biodiverse they contain many tree species they even today are not yet part of the taxonomic system. Due to climate change, sea level rise, and anthropogenic habitat disturbances, many may even go extinct before they are scientifically known. Future seeding is an ongoing sculpture series created from the 3D models made in the field; attempted sculptural catalysts of discussion. Upon completion, each 3D printed seed sculpture will also contain a simple electronic circuit that activates an audio recording when touched. Audio artist and composer Felipe Rossi will be assisting in the field audio recording.

Bio: I am a visual artist working in physical computing and other forms to create immersive installations and performances as well as interactive paintings and sculptures. Engaging with themes of environment and technology, I produce my artworks towards the creation of moments of reflection about human agency and balance with the built and natural environment. Right now I am a MFA candidate at the University of California, San Diego where I reside with my dog and many plants.

Peter Marting

Dates: 5-8, 11-14 Aug 2019

I am a behavioral ecologist currently based in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. I have a passion for artistically expressing research, and will be developing a piece that conveys how soil nutrients affects Cecropia trees and their symbiotic Azteca ants.