This class shares ancient practices of fermentation, followed by the reaction of edible bio-art that will take two weeks for microbes to cook for you.

Open-Source education contra the neoliberal university. Slow-cooking class with raw dripping shelf-unstable cabbage. Spiritual revival of unsterilized interspecies collaborations. Ritualistic healing of Industrial Amnesia. Ecstatic dwelling in decomposition and decay. We will be reading about and discussing ancient practices of fermentation, followed by the creation of edible bio-art in the kitchen that will take two weeks for microbes to cook for you. Preceded by social time with bio artists Leila Nadir and Cary Adams. Funded by NEA BioArt Futures.

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Bios:

Leila Nadir and Cary Adams have been working together for over two decades as multi-species kin-makers, creative-critical researchers, undisciplined storytellers, eccentric educators, and healers of industrial amnesia. Their mediums are poetic visibility, feeling-perception, and the simple acts of everyday life in an effort to regenerate and repair disturbed ecologies. Their work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Center for Land Use Interpretation, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, K2 Family Foundation, and Franklin Furnace Fund. They teach at the University of Rochester in upstate New York, where Nadir is Assistant Professor and Founding Director of the Environmental Humanities Program and Adams is Associate Professor of New Media and Emerging Practices.

Special thanks to prof. Kathy High, from RPI’s Humanities Arts and Social Science department, for her collaboration with the Sanctuary for Independent Media on this workshop though her Biopunk class which is part of the NEA funded Bioart Futures and (Forgotten) Urban Ecologies: a series of artist Residencies/workshops presenting contemporary art working with living systems, sustainable practices, and using biological techniques and materials. Biopunk is an upper level art and science seminar combining lectures, critical readings, hands-on workshops and diy methodologies that teaches the language, aesthetics and techniques of working with biological materials. Emphasis will be on acquisition of a working knowledge of the history and contemporary investigations of the microbiome and how to culturally explore these scenarios of living amongst multiple diverse communities and species. Influenced by the “punk” era and the beginnings of punk resistance, as well as the biohacker community, emphasis will also be placed on developing critical and transgressive thought around ethical issues and cross-disciplinary experimentation in art – such as art/science collaborations, art as research.

About the NATURE Lab:

North Troy Art, Technology, and Urban Research in Ecology (NATURE) Lab is a volunteer-led urban ecology education initiative. North Central Troy is one of the most environmentally devastated neighborhoods of New York State. One block from the Hudson River, our environmental education campus is adjacent to brownfield areas, combined sewer overflows, and seemingly endless litter. Artist/scientist teams work to empower the community with knowledge about the local ecosystem and the skills to intervene in creative ways. Our programming includes community workshops, public art installations, artist residencies, research activities, and after school activities. We seek to combine global expertise with local knowledge to address the issues that are unique to the North Troy ecosystem and community.

We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.