Jung Eun Lee. The Ecosphere Battery.

What are bacteria batteries and how to make them? Can these “green” batteries also become ecological artworks? Discover the answers to these questions on the online lecture, presentation and workshop series by HfG Karsrhue students and RIXC artists Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits on January 29, from 11 AM (EEST).

The authors of the Bacteria Battery artwork and workshop idea are artists Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits who will open the online event by the “Biosensing, Ecoaesthetics and Bacteria Battery‘s Workshopology” lecture at 11 AM.

Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits are key founders of RIXC Art Science Center, organizers of its annual festivals, as well as curators and educators. They are internationally acknowledged artists working on the edge of art, science and emerging media technologies. In their artistic practice they are engaged in ecosystematic explorations seeking for more sustainable and more imaginative ways for ‚terrestrial coexistence‘ (CriticalZones/Latour). In their artworks – Biotricity. Bacteria Battery (2014), Swamp Radio (2018) and Atmospheric Forest (2020), they are using data interpretations to make visible the invisible processes in nature, and to reveal the relational patterns between the terrestrial and atmospheric ecosystems.

Bacteria Battery Workshop is based on their artistic experiments using innovative renewable energy technologies, scientific methods and environmental data interpretations. In addition to their artistic work, for ten years now they have been organizing Bacteria Battery ‚workshopology‘ events in various art, education and cultural settings, building new “techno-ecological” discourse based on sensual and emotional experiences – a poetics of green energy.

This artist keynote talk will be followed by the student presentations of the BioSensing course by prof. Rasa Smite, in a result of which, the students have created “bacteria battery” artworks and creative media and design projects that explore the relations between nature and technology, biological and social systems, human and microorganism worlds.

The 2nd part of this event will include a hands-on ‚bacteria battery‘ workshop during which the students will introduce how to build “bacteria battery” based on MFC (microbial fuel cells) technology, in which the electricity is generated by micro-organisms living in a mud.

PDF file of the program and lecture, presentation, and workshop descriptions.

Program (EEST, Latvia time zone):

11.00 – 11.30 Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits.
BIOSENSING, ECOAESTHETICS AND BACTERIA BATTERY‘S WORKSHOPOLOGY

11.30 – 11.40 Carmen Westermeier.
CRITTERS CONNECTING IN A CRIPPLING WORLD

11.42 – 11.52 Jung Eun Lee.
THE ECOSPHERE BATTERY.

Heidesee, Ententeich, Guenther-Klotz Anlage, Oberwaldsee

12.54 – 12.04 Christina Vinke.
PERPETUUM CIRCUITUS

12.06 – 12.16 Efren Trevisan.
PROMETEO CELL

12.18 – 12.28 Moritz Schottmüller.
LOCKDOWN BATTERIES

12.30 – 13.00 Demo/Hands-On Production of Bacteria Batteries Part 1
We build one-cell battery (from provided kits)
_ workshop conducted by Efren

 Lunch break

14.00 – 16.00 Hands-On Production of Bacteria Batteries Part 2
We build two-cell battery (from DIY prepared own materials)
_ workshop conducted by Moritz

afterwards Final discussion with Biosensing: Bacteria Battery
workshop students and participants of this workshop.