Call for onsite and online participants and contributors

m/other becomings workshop – exploring the notions of m/otherhood and reproduction under the posthuman condition

March 7th - March 11th, full days, at BioGarage located at Aalto Design Factory, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

With this workshop, we want to take a closer look into what happens when the technologies and politics of the maternal are unleashed from the affective and economic structures of heteronormative reproduction, from natality, and even from species’ genealogies. The m/other becomings workshop will investigate junctions and leaky borderlands between motherhood and otherhood. Tentatively probing into the potentials of bringing forth an insurgent, but also non-innocent politics of care by investigating the strangeness of mothers as it pushes against conventional notions of body, self, family, and belonging. Just one example of how timely and necessary such a discussion is was demonstrated by the birth of Lulu and Nana, the first genome-edited humans born in 2018, and the subsequent discussions and consequences.

Participation

We are looking for practitioners from a diversity of backgrounds such as artists, designers, engineers, scientists (natural and humanities), etc. - if you think this is for you, then you should apply! The workshop activities will shift between hands-on wet-lab sessions, lectures, presentations, and interventions.

We look for onsite and online participants. The remote participation can be done individually but we would especially be happy to team up with another group at an art space, lab, etc.,  to share some of the sessions and create zones of interaction.

We are also looking for contributions to the workshop in the form of laboratory or theory sessions or other modes of intervention. If you want to contribute to the workshop then add your proposal to the application.

The workshop participation is free of charge. We are also glad that we are able to offer travel and accommodation support for some of the international participants and practitioners based in Finland who do not live in the Helsinki/Espoo region.

The workshop will be hosted by artist Marta de Menezes with the support of BioGarage laboratory manager James Evans, in collaboration with the workshop participants and invited guests from art and science.

If you would like to participate in the workshop, please send your application until February 4th via email to lisa.kalkowski@bioartsociety.fi including:

• a brief motivation statement
• indication of onsite or remote participation. If you want to participate remotely please let us know if you intend to do this individually or as part of a group at another site
• a possible session contribution
• a CV in pdf format via email 

During the workshop, we will follow the recommended COVID-19 restriction by Aalto University and the Finnish government. If you come from abroad please be aware of the travel restriction which might be in place.

Host

Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist with a degree in Fine Arts from the University in Lisbon, and a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of Oxford. She has been exploring the interaction between Art and Biology, working in research laboratories demonstrating that new biological technologies, DNA, proteins, and live organisms can be used as an art medium. Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, articles, and lectures. Besides her work as an artist, de Menezes curated major international exhibitions. She is since 2005 artistic director of Ectopia – Experimental Art Laboratory and from 2009 onward director of Cultivamos Cultura – Association.

The m/other becomings workshop is produced by the Bioart Society together with BioGarage and Aalto Design Factory within the m/other becomings network and the ARC-HIVE collaboration, co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union, The Nordic Culture Point, The Nordic Culture Fund, and A.P. Møller Fonden.