A Heeding Tapestry
A thought-provoking inquiry poses the question to the members of the collective: "How would you explain the concept of 'Ancestry' to an artificially created life form?" This project does not aim to discover a single truth, but rather to celebrate the diversity of ideas and opinions. By doing so, it explicitly showcases one of the core beliefs of the SEADS collective - that we can shape and execute ideas without the need for a uniform, homogeneous, and agreed-upon viewpoint.
Co-creation has been a fundamental method employed by the collective since its inception. While the term is these days widely used with various interpretations, it remains a crucial aspect of our process, both in our research and in the works we create. For us, co-creation is not about finding the average or the lowest common denominator. Instead, it serves as a descriptor and facilitator for a complex and challenging system that embraces and contrasts different ideas.
This project was first showcased as a series of graphic design works by Pieter Steyaert and was showcased at “Zomerspoor” which was co-curated by SEADS member Daniel Vandersmissen.
It contributed submissions from Rob Figueroa, Florian Giroul, Shari San Pablo, Ana Margarida Esteves, Sophia Deterala, Giusy Checola, John Paul Macabling, Isabelle Smeets, Amy Holt, Sam Popelier, Hanne Peeraer, Maggie Buxton, Diego Maranan, Rudolf Arnold, Daniel Vandersmissen, Kristina Mitrovic, Monica LoCascio, Angelo Vermeulen, Daniel Kirchner, Mary Pedicini, Pieter Steyaert.
Participating SEADS members
Pieter Steyaert
Pieter Steyaert is an artist and transdisciplinary researcher who explores collaborations within artistic and scientific communities. His work particularly focuses on the context of astrophysics and exoplanets. Pieter is one of the co-founders of SEADS and has worked on a wide range of Biomodd, Seeker and Ēngines of Ēternity projects in Europe, the USA and SE Asia. He leads the development of tools and platforms that support the global SEADS community.
Pieter is fascinated by the possibilities, ethics, and shortcomings of the techno-realm. He shares and explores insights as an educator and researcher. His interests include artificial life, data-driven experience design, and art-science interactions. Pieter conducts research at CHAMELEON, an exoplanet research group which is affiliated with both the University of Antwerp and the University of Copenhagen. His research aims to use artistic methodologies to advance scientific ideation and research.
Links
daniel vandersmissen
Daniël (in virtual environments Dan Yapungku) is an artist creating installations and performances that relate to various social themes (climate change, migration, dialogue, social behaviour) and events. He was a teacher in and a pedagogical advisor for the part-time art education in Belgium (Flanders)
Daniël created classic artwork (since 1972) as well as artwork in mixed media, installation-art (since 1979), objects and environments in virtual spaces (since 2006).
In 1994, together with volonteers, local people and cultural organization and a lot of friends and artists he organized a conceptual art event (ArtWall-k - KW) during 7 years in the unknown village Schriek (Flanders, region of Antwerp).
The used media, formats and materials in 2D and 3D artwork performance and installations are various find, residual and disposable materials - everyday utensils and products from consumer society - and are brought into public space/contemporary reality or a virtual environment, on request or unsolicited.
Rob Figueroa Jr.
Bobby is a technologist, teacher, and researcher who works in the area of Educational Technology and Information Systems. He is currently working on research projects involving virtual reality in learning contexts. He is a PhD Candidate at the International Christian University in Japan and Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines Open University. He also does consulting work as a Learning Management Systems project leader. As one of the newer members, Bobby joined a SEADS project in the Philippines and hosted a small collaborative project sponsored by JICUF in Japan.
Shari Eunice San Pablo
Shari is an artist, mental health advocate, and researcher who explores the synergistic relationship of art, science, communication, and development to effectively communicate messages as one intertwines art and research. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Studies from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), currently teaches at the same university while studying Ph.D. in Development Communication minor in Family Resource Management at UP Los Baños. Her recent work is a participatory exhibit that intends to spread awareness about mental health. Shari’s research interests also include family studies, visual communication, the effects of social media, and e-Learning.
Ana Margarida Esteves
Ana Margarida Esteves is a Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies of the University Institute of Lisbon, ISCTE-IUL and Guest Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Economy of the same institution. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from Brown University (Providence, RI, USA). Her research and teaching focuses on sustainability transitions and regenerative development, including issues of social justice, inclusion and democratic participation, synergies between nature, culture and technology and the role of critical pedagogy and the arts in these fields. She collaborates with ECOLISE- European Network for Community-led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability (https://www.ecolise.eu). She is a co-founder and member of the International Editorial Committee of the journal "Interface: A journal for and about social movements" (www.interfacejournal.net). She also co-founded the New Orleans Solidarity Economy Network and "Academia Cidadã" (The Citizenship Academy), a civil rights and urban activism collective in Lisbon, Portugal.
Giusy Checola
Giusy is a PhD candidate in Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of Arts, University Paris 8, in cotutelle with the Doctorate in Humanistic Intercultural Studies, University of Bergamo, where she is studying art-led place-making as an integrated research field and applied theory. She analyses the relationships between art, geoaesthetics as geopolitics, collective memory and thinking, pushing on the conceptual and methodological boundaries across the disciplines to understand the transformative potential of the art project and the deepeness of its social, cultural and political impact.
Isabelle Smeets
Isabelle is an international artist who worked on several large community and public art commissions in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Japan and Bosnia Herzegovina. In 2006 the Albertina Museum in Vienna invited her to design a work, and in 2007 she received the Dale Djerassi Fellowship in the U.S. The first time she participated in Biomodd was in Delft to explore possibilities for her hybrid project ‘A watchtower of nothingness’. This project is situated at the crossroads of visual art, architecture, philosophy and empirical science. She also participated in other subsequent Biomodd projects in New York and London. She likes to saunter, and drink champagne.
Amy Holt
Dr Amy Holt is a bioscientist and artist who holds a Ph.D. in molecular immunology and has over a decade of experience in the field of immunology and microbiome research, where she worked on the development of live biotherapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancers. She is a graduate of the International Space University's Master of Space Studies program, and she has worked for the last year at a company as part of a team designing an astronaut training program for a governmental organisation. Her expertise in the fields of both biology and space sciences have allowed her to develop a keen interest in the effects the space environment has on biological processes and how these can either be mitigated or potentially leveraged, in the development of new disruptive technologies. She is also interested in the use of biomaterials, with an emphasis on sustainability and their implementation in closed-loop, zero-waste systems that are essential for supporting human life in space.
Dr Holt is cultivating a practice in the arts that uniquely builds on her science background. She is a member of the SEADS coordination team and also serves as the collective's community organizer. This role allows her to explore the advantages of transdisciplinary approaches within collaborative artistic ventures. Her creative interests lie in exploring the intricate interplay between the natural world, technology, and themes related to identity and transhumanism. She is passionate about further exploring the benefits that transdisciplinary approaches can yield when applied within collaborative ventures.
Hanne Peeraer
Hanne Peeraer is an artist and interdisciplinarian investigating intersections of (self-)perception, cognition, and the natural world.
Her practice delves into physiological optics and light’s interaction with the body, investigating the connection between form, matter, and self. Through intuition-led explorations in physical and life sciences, she seeks to engage instinctive responses, using magic, light, and play to reveal complex themes.
Maggie Buxton
Maggie Buxton is a transdisciplinary practitioner, producer and curator. Her practice actively engages with the spirit and spirits of place and opens portals to parallel universes and alternative realities. Maggie has nearly 30 years of working in NZ and globally to support projects in the arts, environmental, social and political spheres. This includes working with ecovillages in West Africa and Latin America; social enterprises and spiritual communities in Scotland; and significant political and corporate institutions across Europe. Her most recent projects have focussed on indigenous cultural centres and capacity-building initiatives near her home in Te Tai Tokerau/Northland, New Zealand.
Her creative works are usually site-specific, and designed to activate spaces and places in grass-roots settings and heterotopic locations. Her collaborative studio AwhiWorld has run pop-up cross-disciplinary innovation labs in empty CBD retail outlets, created town wide augmented reality installations and opened portals to alternative realities in elementary schools, indigenous cultural centres, historic sites, derelict buildings and rest homes. Maggie has a cross-disciplinary PhD (focussing on augmented reality, tricksters and the spirit of place), an MSc in Organisational Development and Consulting (Sheffield Business School) and a BA in Politics and Education. She loves poetry, pickling, photography, politics and propagation. But does not do these simultaneously – yet.
Diego Maranan
Diego is an artist, academic, and activist who works in the area of human-technology interaction. Through technology research and intermedia artistic practice, he investigates, critiques, and reimagines the relationship between humans and the world we inhabit. He holds a Marie Curie fellowship at Plymouth University; teaches at the University of the Philippines Open University; advises for WeDpro, a feminist nonprofit that empowers marginalized women and youth in the Philippines; and co-founded Curiosity, a Manila-based design strategy firm. As one of SEAD’s core members, Diego worked on an extensive range of Biomodd projects in the Philippines, New York and Europe.
Rudolf Arnold
Rudolf Arnold studied mathematics and physics at the University of Ulm and became a teacher at a vocational grammar school. Since 1980, he has conducted several media education projects. He was cofounder of Radio free FM, which got on air in 1995. In 1996, he produced an award-winning radio feature about ecstasy.
Since 2006, he has been a successful Cosplayer. In the role of Hatsune Miku, a teenage virtual Japanese popstar, he was an essential part of the international performance Still Be Here.In 2013, he joined the smart fashion community. Since 2014, he has been an experimental musician. In 2016 and 2017, he won awards at Fashion Hack Day Berlin.
2018, he created a novel sensor with sex researcher Dr Nicole Prause. This sensor became the key component of a system for the sonification of sexual arousal and was presented at the 4th International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots. The PLAY ME system was also presented at the 4th interdisciplinary conference Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence and at the 1st Experimance Festival Saarbrucken. At the 7th International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, he presented his first thoughts about a Pleasure Spacesuit Prototype. Parts of this work and PLAY ME were included in a Convergence Seminar 2023 Antwerpen presentation. During an art show at the Interdisciplinary Conference Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science 2023 in Malta, he presented the narrative audio Cosmic Caresse, which is based on his current fashion and research project, A Multisensory Pleasure Suit for Space Sexology and Earthly Delights.
Angelo Vermeulen
Angelo is a space systems researcher, biologist, and community artist. With his multidisciplinary background, he collaborates closely with practicing scientists, while also creating multimedia art installations, and building communities through design and co-creation. In 2013 he was crew commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation in Hawaii. Currently he is doing research on interstellar travel at Delft University of Technology. He has lived in many corners of the world, is a TED Senior Fellow, and loves computer games.
Mary Pedicini
Mary Pedicini is an American artist/sculptor based in London. Her practice encompasses writing, object-making, curation, sound and video. Her work is grounded in research and storytelling, and the objects that she makes - a 3D-printed tap, a metal mirror, a wax salamander - often reframe old tales, or prompt new ones. Borrowing elements from mythology and science fiction, she tries to imagine non-human ways of thinking and being, to broaden the scope of what we can envision.
Pedicini received her BA in 2019 from Dartmouth College, where she studied Art and dabbled in Ecology, and her MA in 2022 from the Royal College of Art, where she studied Sculpture. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions in the US, the UK, and China.