Bio: I’m a Singaporean mechanical engineer by training, but I later moved into (systems) software, and then electronics. I attended the inaugural Dinacon (held in Phuket, Thailand) where I ran my autonomous underwater vehicle (basically an underwater drone). This time I ran a workshop where participants made their own hydrophones (soon I’ll post details on how to make one for yourself). There is a pattern here! I’m still involved in underwater and terrestrial acoustics, but not so much underwater robotics any more.
You can read about my Dinacon project from the link. I was also involved in the Oven project where some of us got together and designed/built an outdoor brick oven. Well, we directed the construction rather than built it ourselves, we’re not skilled that way! Link on the way.
By the way, Sri Lanka isn’t the way the media has portrayed it. It isn’t a war zone, and people aren’t looting for example Tourists are not in any danger, and they can certainly use the foreign currency in this period. This isn’t to minimise the hardship the people are actually facing, but the solution isn’t to stay away. I found Sri Lankans as helpful and friendly this second time there as the first.
“The diverse sounds of the world are now in crisis. Our species is both an apogee of sonic creativity and the great destroyer of the world’s acoustic riches. Habitat destruction and human noise are erasing sonic diversity worldwide. Never in the history of Earth have sounds been so rich and varied. Never has this diversity been so threatened. We live amid riches and despoliation. ” – David George Haskell, Sounds Wild and Broken
Project
What does the sound mean to the crickets themselves? We know they are mating calls but we hardly pause to feel it from their perspective. I have been collecting different sound samples of crickets, and cicadas from parts of Pulau Ubin, a small island rich with mangroves off the shores of Singapore and from the hilly parts of the Western Ghats in Kerala. Both rich in biodiversity face different types of threats to their natural habitats. What messages are these insects relaying to each other in their own environment? What messages would they have for their fellow species that live in and around the mangroves of Batticaloa? What shifts in the Anthropocene when caught between a global conversation of insects from fragile ecosystems?
About
I am Service Designer and an Experimental media artist, from Kerala, India with fragments of San Francisco, Bangalore and Singapore. I let the context guide me to the form, medium or a technology. I am currently figuring out how to set up a small lab for artists, designers, and biologists in the Western Ghats in Kerala, South India.
Workshop
User Research and Paper Prototyping – Software Lab, Dreasmspace Academy, 21st July Thursday
BioPlastics and Kombucha SCOBY Leather – experiments in kitchen science.
Fermentation brings people together on a microbial level. Using pro-biotic projects to talk methods, flavour, art, and tech all at once in a hands-on and constructive manner lends itself to a shared understanding of the science and indigenous knowledge of the microbiome through storytelling.
I’ll be working with the DreamSpace team and folks from Sri Lanka to learn about their famed Ceylon Tea and the culture that surrounds it. With hands-on workshops on making Kombucha Starter, SCOBY, and vegan leather I hope to initiate an exchange of stories, recipes, practical ideas, and creative expression. This, together with cooking up bioplastics from rice-starch to address the constantly growing challenge of single-use plastics I hope to use kitchen science and informal education to link awareness, outreach, and solution prototyping through hands-on activity.
With the current economic crisis and a need for revenue from Tourism, I feel an influx of creative and collaborative international travelers offers a sign of positive support. With the Intention of building resilient systems, and helping to build resilience into systems I trust the open-sourced maker / hacker / DIY approach will inspire innovative progress through a “perfect storm” of challenges.
Mr & Mrs Mayor of Batticaloa visit the BioLabCris making Kombucha from the famed Sri Lankan Ceylon TeaDreamspace BioLab experiments with mycelium bricks and sustainable packaging from wasteMushrooms grown on liquid medium to form sheets – Cris and PramoShowcasing collaborative effortsArtists jump in and make the work make senseintentional unintentional textures from the cooking processLocally sourced cooking ingredients for bioplasticCooking up the bioplastic with food colouringcollaborative process formulating recipes to suit ingredients on handBioLab Reishi grown on liquid medium – Cris and PramoBioPlastics workshop with scoby leather and BioLab grown mycelium leather / bricks
Other projects: conversations with Dinasaurs and Dreamspace folks organically lead to many, many “side projects” some of which are documented here because, photos!
DinaCafe / Lounge w Tali and the Dinasaurs – DIY filters – Caffeinated contributions – Lounge / after-dark toddy Shenanigans (Oh My Gourd)
getting started: DIY filtersDinasaur international contributionspodcast! new episode every morning 🙂 Dinacafe birds – Origami by JayBrendi Coral Alphabet designDinaLounge shenanigans DinaLounge Repurposed audio ampMarc extracts Papain at DinaLoungs DInaCafe iteration – Mang & Tegan. Photo: Betty Sargeant
Papaya sap based alternative to CivetCat Coffee w Marc and the BioLab – see also a side-side-project using papain protease enzyme for vegan cheese w Ahac and BioLab
Papain rich sap just beneath the skin of the PapayaThe hotel owner generously helped us tap his plantsPapain sap – this needs an incubator for activation
ShroomMonitor w Cris, Pramo, Brian, and a hacked humidifier – Introducing Microcontrollers with Arduino and reverse engineering to emulate a touch sensor
fully hacked humidifier to respond to environment sensors via arduino
BikingHacks w Andy and DreamspaceCollective – Turning bicycles into horses using Coconuts and laser-cutting inspired by MontyPython and Trotify
need for steed – Trotify
Other other projects – DIY Incubator w BioLab – ButterChurn jar w 3D printed hand-crank inspired by visit to the museum – Caffeinator redux – cold brew coffee to keep caffeinated in spite of power cuts
Project: Felix will plant strangler fig saplings on a base structure made of bamboo. Once their aerial roots have reached ground, these will grow all over the structure, which will rot away. What is left is a living room. Think Meghalaya’s living root bridges or Baubotanik.
Bio: Felix has an academic background in architecture and physics. He is exploring tropical regions for opportunities to construct with strangler figs beyond the living root bridges, something that is not possible in his home country Germany. In 2020 and early 2021, he was visiting Hong Kong, where he did experiments with vines, including a sound installation in the jungle atop Victoria Peak together with noise artist 3x3x3. In 2019 he showed two installations related to adaptable architecture in Hong Kong, one of them created from bamboo, coconuts, and electronics. He is partner in the Berlin art production company Rieger & Klee GbR.
Project : i will be working on micropower analog electronic art installations! using the power of the sun, wind, and water, I will be creating small circuits to make sounds and light and interaction hopefully making people laugh and think and wonder
bio: hello! i am a digital media artist, musician, lighting designer, lampsmith, and recent electrical engineer graduate from georgia tech. i like building interactive art and light installations for touring musicians, bands, music venues, municipalities, music festivals, and events. I like to focus on the idea of ‘play’ and the spontaneous whimsical nature of creation, using found objects and hacked together commonplace items to customize daily life. I’ve spent many years as a touring musician before getting into the art and design and engineering game!
I intend to continue my DiNaCon/PIFcamp ethnographic observations. Focusing on DinnerCon and PIFood activities through exploring local food practices and how they resonate with fellow participants. In the process I plan to set up the PIFood.club blog where I will be documenting these explorations and other related research happening.
BIO
A biographies editor. Datafication of the human experience without losing humanity enthusiast. Late to finish, slow-paced academic. Wondering child that is constantly rediscovering what it means to be part of the planetary dumpling experience.
Previously I have worked on various aquatic animal systems, both in the field and in controlled laboratory environments, to better understand the mechanisms governing social interactions. Now I have joined the interdisciplinary cluster Science of Intelligence as part of the project on Dynamical Collective Adaptation & Learning to elucidate on the fact that animals are capable of continuously adapting to changing environments and novel situations. One way individuals are capable of doing so is by learning, a form of inter- individual information transfer and knowledge accumulation. It enables an individual to understand its environment and therefore minimize uncertainty about future situations. Using schooling fish (whose social and physical context as well as the previous experience and knowledge of each individual can easily be manipulated), my project addresses the topic of adaptation and learning in animal groups.
In my daily life I’m driven most by the combination of art, science and craftsmanship, which I try to implement wherever I can. A further aspect of focus dear to me is teaching and passing on information and coming up with new ideas and ways to interact with each other.
Project in vivo information gain
To me the best way to learn and study is by trial and error, which is why I especially like to move between the controlled lab space and the field environment, in order to test my ideas and gain robust insights. The project I want to approach while at Dinacon is a device with which wild animals can interact with. These interaction should be recorded (either via video or sensor output) and serve as quantifiable information about such naturalistic processes as play, exploration, creativity and problem solving in wild animals. I hope to achieve this by implementing some simple mechanisms which can be manipulated by the animals directly without receiving any reward other than information about the process. The mechanism is planned to be constructed by using raspberry pis, cameras, stepper motors, leds and microcontrollers.
I’m excited to join Dinacon this year as I have been following the work by this fantastic team over the last years and always thought this was a amazing platform for bringing people together in a constructive way!
I’m a theater maker, installation artist, and archivist. I studied directing and photography at Carnegie Mellon University and have since created and facilitated performances in NYC, Berlin, and Abu Dhabi. Recently I’ve been really enthralled by multi-species thriving, site specific materials, and entanglements between ecology and technology. Currently I’m working on a garden installation for a research initiative exploring concepts and critiques of the Anthropocene at NYU Abu Dhabi.
PROJECTS —
Collective Field Jam — I will co-facilitate a sound jam/ performance with Mang using audio and video recordings collected from the environment of Batticaloa. I’m excited to gather samples focused on texture, kinesthetic movement, and points of attachment. Everyone is invited to contribute — let’s explore, listen, & make some cool music with nature!
Abscission Art Books — I’d love to make zines out of naturally shedded materials with textual reflections on human and non-human exchanges; also thinking about the permanence/impermanence of archival and collective impulses.
Michael Ang (aka Mang) is an artist, professor, 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.
At Dinacon I’ll be continuing the Unnatural Language project (with Seamus) where we use Arduino-based “Datapods” to create in-the-field sonic orchestrations from environmental sensors.
I’ll be hosting a field recording sound jam with Tegan Ritz McDuffie. Contribute your field recordings and come join the collaborative jam to create some music using the sounds of Batticaloa!
Dinacon dates – July 14-31, coming from Singapore
Datapod sonic installation in the Panama Canal at Dinacon 2019Recording sounds using found objects to embed in the Datapods
I’m a stage designer and performer and currently also a student in a masters program called “Play && Object” at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin. There I came in contact with physical computing, developing my own sensors with odd materials, games and code. I learned about Dinacon from last years class, and thought it would be a great extension of my studies and an opportunity to keep spending time with all those fun and beautiful fields I just discovered.
As a project I would like to build up on a portable setup (including an ESP32 and a set of wool-sensors), which I’m working on right now, and combine it with whatever materials inspire me in Batticaloa, and adjust it to the scenery. Also I really want to focus and have fun with documenting my process and the projects I get to observe.
