April 27th, 10:00 - 12:00 & April 28th 19:00 - 20:00

What is “central dogma?” Genes are the blueprint of life. The process of DNA ⇨ RNA ⇨ Protein is what makes a protein. This process is called “Central Dogma”. In this workshop, we will explore the “central dogma” using DIY bio-kits called BioBits, This workshop will allow participants to experiment, observe, and experience the mechanism of “Central Dogma” by making proteins glow using BioBits, a DIY bio-kit.

Biotopy is one of the cohort research projects that we've been incubating. It is a biotic game demo and art installation exploring bio-digital Symbiocine. Using a Pioreactor-based engine, players grow microbial cultures to terraform a virtual planet. The team, with expertise in synthetic biology, game design, and music, explores how biotic agents interact with virtual universes.

I will share my efforts to bring the BioArtBot to Biotech Without Borders. This will include basic information about the technical approach to the project and its organisation. I will also share about the work that Tim Dobbs, Corinne Takara, and I completed using funds from Experiment.com to create a place-based palette as well as update workshop materials.

Miso is a traditional Japanese fermented food with a diversity of tastes and flavors. This diversity can be attributed to the production method, the environment, and the microbial ecosystem involved in the fermentation that depends on it. This study will comprehensively elucidate the microbial ecosystem of various miso products using the latest technologies, such as metagenome analysis, to explore the relationship between flavor and functionality, as well as the effects on the intestinal microbiota of Japanese people. This research aims to reaffirm the scientific value of miso and contribute to the promotion of a healthy food culture. In this presentation, we will discuss the progress of the project so far and introduce our future plans.

Ronaldiaz Hartantio will be giving an educational and inspirational talk at BioClub. Hartantio will talk about co-founding and running Mycotech Labs, a startup that creates a revolutionary new mushroom leather that has made it onto the runways at Paris Fashion Week.

The short talk expands the research from the Tokyo Art and Science Residency in November 2024. Since 2023, Lau has been researching different ways of dyeing with indigo, its craft and its connection to the Land. They worked with communities in Finland, Japan, India and Thailand learning more about indigo vats. The presentation will share samples, research and field work done in those locations elaborating on specific indigo plants, ingredients, and ways of taking care of the vat. This project revolves around interspecies communication between communities of indigo dyers and bacterial communities inside the vat connecting us to the Land.

Bio-Moon Lab, created by multidisciplinary contemporary artist Laura Benetton, is an innovative interdisciplinary project that fuses art, sustainability, and scientific inquiry through the exploration of bioluminescence. By cultivating Vibrio fischeri bacteria in petri dishes and liquid solutions, the project aims to develop “Bio-light” as a sustainable alternative to conventional artificial lighting in contemporary art.

Together with Niq Vassie, a biology-savvy illustrator, we will use microscopes to peek into the hidden world of microorganisms! Both adults and children are welcome to join. Through observing these tiny creatures, we hope you’ll feel a deeper connection with non-human life forms and gain a new perspective on how we coexist with nature.

Shih Wei-Chieh will talk about an overview of his DIY protocol for developing dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) at home via artist perspective, sharing his experiences in manufacturing under non-controlled environments. Marc Dusseiller will introduce his project building a rapid prototype of I-V curve tester and his recent workshop Solarpunk "DIY conversation with the sun" in Thailand, Chiang Mai. Through these projects, he will share his vision for organizing workshops and fostering a science-art network between Europe and Asia.

Within the new work we would like to make a step towards organic materials such as compost, and research and discuss the implications of consuming humxn-made soil on personal health and community health. We hope to open up discussion of the safety surrounding consumption of organic materials, and the complexity of cultural understanding, spatial awareness, environmental awareness, and personal desires surrounding this.

Artist-in-Residence Rage will give an introduction talk about their work and their residency plan. Rage's work will focus on the idea of the human skin as a biosensor and indicator for environmental changes.

Working with life can get messy. There is an ever-growing tension that forms between the desires and needs of different organisms, as well as emerging creatures and their creators. The technofication of life as a material to be grown in surplus, to manipulate, and to exploit has further complicated these relationships. In this talk, artist Lyndsey Walsh will share insights from their practice, which sets out to make space for Crip, Queer, and Intersectional Feminist perspectives to question the cultural binaries of human-non-human, diseased-healthy, and life-machine.

Happy New Year! Spiral Club will have Biotope Observation Day 🌱🌀 We have been holding monthly biotope observation meetings since June 2024, and have tried creating a place where you can feel the presence of non- human beings along the Shibuya River. 👾🌱 Since January too cold to do outdoor activities, we will take a break from taking care of the biotope.

An open-ended, speculative project aimed at exploring the psychological evolution of synthetic biology while interfacing with internet subcultures. Inspired by the emerging field of synthetic biological intelligence, the project seeks to forecast the trajectory of technological acceleration in biocomputing and its impact on the human psyche.

The Student Application for the Global How to Grow (Almost) Anything 2025 course are now live! Please apply until January 19th. BioClub Tokyo will again be an offical node for HTGAA 2025.

Mandatory Lab Safety Lecture for lab users. If you are planning to use - or want to contine using - the lab, it is mandatory to participate in a lab safety lecture. This lecture will be for Japanese-Speakers, see Events for the lecture in English.

The custom of making homemade miso every year and drinking miso soup every day is thought to be useful for maintaining a healthy body and gut. The MISOMICS project aims to create homemade miso and compare its microbiome with that of storebought miso through genomic analysis. Join us for the first miso workshop since 2022!

Mandatory Lab Safety Lecture for all BioClub Lab Users. If you are planning to use - or if you want to continue using - the lab, it is mandatory to participate in a lab safety lecture. This lecture will be for English-Speakers, see Events for the lecture in Japanese.

Atsushi Niida will share his findings on the microogranisms in miso through the MISOMICS project and his future plans for genomic analysis of miso.

Indigo dyer Cozo Cazama will speak about the unseen chemistry of indigo dye and how he cultivates indigo.

A hands-on workshop with multimedia artist Lau Kaker. During the workshop, Lau will share their research from the Tokyo Art & Science Research Residency and invite participants to reflect on our communication with the indigo vat and its bacteria. The workshop includes talking, writing, and listening to the vat, as well as dyeing small textile samples.

A relaxed presentation to meet and talk about the indigo tradition and hear more about Bioclub’s community, research and practices.

Since my last talk on March 19, "The Joys and Complications of Creating Living Musical Instruments," which focused more on my personal background and practice, this time I'd like to discuss my short but meaningful history with BioClub Tokyo, its members, and how this experience, in many ways, has spurred a new open, creative biology lab in Seoul.

Critical Making is an academic practice that combines critical thinking and making. But it also has a lot of relevance outside of education and research: worldwide, we encounter how makers use their critical thinking skills to make things that are regenerative, social and situated. Based on examples from Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan, we will discuss why we are all critical makers.

Artist Talks accompaning the metaPhorest Biome Exhibiton at the White House Gallery in Shinjuku. Please join us online for this first round of Artist Talks, featuring: BCL / Georg Tremmel, Tomoki Matsumura. Tomoya Ishibashi, Kazutoshi Uemura, Takahiro Tsukamoto, Henry Tan, Hideo Iwasaki, Mio Iizawa, Hanna Saito & Akira Fujioka.

From Saturday 6 July 2024 metaPhorest will hold a group exhibition 'metaPhorest Biome: Art Ecosystems in the Biological Laboratory'. The exhibition takes place at Whitehouse Art Space in Shinjuku, artists and members affiliated with the metaPhorest Research Group at Waseda University will showcase their work - and their ongoing artistic research.

Human-centric thinking is causing us to damage our planet and other forms of life in ways that can’t be repaired. As the Anthropocene rampages, our challenge for the next decade will be to reimagine how we live through the lens of the environment.

In this Artist Talk, Pino will take you on a journey to uncover the almost forgotten Shibuya River. We will discuss what the river truly represents, with all its complexities, and imagine ways to approach it with empathy to transform it from an urban hazard into an ally that has a positive impact on the city.

In this Artist Talk, Georg will talk about his practice as BCL and about the projects and technical developments leading up to the CRISPR Tomato Project.

Kumavis will introduce his background with hackerspaces in Tokyo and San Francisco, as well as his research on peer-to-peer applications and javascript software supplychain security. Kumavis is a founder and software engineer with a focus on software security and secure protocol design.

Georg Tremmel will give an overview of the orgins, history, present and future of BioClub Tokyo. We will take a look back and the amazing events that happened (and are happening) at BioClub, and look at potential & possible future for BioClub. Please also join us after the talk for a small get-together and party!

In collaboration with BioClub Tokyo, FabCafe is hosting a lecture and exhibition tour alongside Multidisciplinary Artist and Material Designer, Eleonora Ortolani. You will get a chance to hear a deeper discussion on her award-winning Guilty Flavours project and even smell the actual vanillin made from PET plastic!

Mikael Hwang/Psients is a scientist-turned-artist exploring the intersection of biology, sound, and music by creating art that incorporates biological sources. His work centers around developing and performing alongside a new class of 'living' instruments to meditate on agency, speciesism, and our relationships with manipulated living systems.

Interactive data visualization is an important part of the data science process, especially in the life sciences. Visualization enables analysts to directly interact with the data, exploring it with minimal effort. Alexander Lex will demonstrate the value of visualization for set data, as is commonly used in genomics and cancer microscopy data.

BioClub will participate in How to Grow (Almost) Anything 2024. If you are interested in the cutting edge of bioengineering and synthetic biology, this is the course for you!

Learn how you can use the BioClub Lab for your art, design and science projects, and what kind of biosafety rules and regulation you will have to follow to keep everyone save.

Ekaterina Kormilitsyna will talk about her research visit to the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT and about her ongoing and future research.

BioBus brings science to the people! We support the local community to explore science and answer the research questions that matter to them. In this talk I will present several examples of BioBus's community science initiatives, and discuss how we support the next generation of problem solvers.

Korean Artist and Researcher Soyo Lee will present her latest work exploring the notion of the Anthropocene through excavation and analysis of municipal landfills in South Korea.

Throughout my practice, I have explored the theme of 'existence' since the early stages, contemplating and researching what it means to 'be'. As part of this exploration, I've been thinking about human evolution. After the pandemic, the fluctuation between physical and virtual experiences has accelerated. In our current state, how can we understand and interpret our own existence?

How to Grow (Almost) Anything (HTGAA) - is a global distributed course in Synthetic Biology, taught by the experts in field, including George Church, Joe Jacobson, Patrick Boyle, Drew Endy, Manu Prakash, Neri Oxman and many others. David Kong is kindly opening up the lectures to the global audience, and with the help of Global TAs (Teaching Assistants), Global Committed Listeners are also challenged to complete the course and homework.

Weekly BioClub Meeting. Everyone is welcome.

• This week will hear from the new lab manager some suggestions on how to organize the lab. We also want to hear your ideas!

Also, we make the BioClub Bonenkai (Part 1).

This year's Artist-in-Resident for the Finnish BioArt Residency at BioClub Tokyo is Antti Tenetz. Please join us in welcoming Antti to BioClub Tokyo.

Weed Day will talk about their artistic practice and about contemporary foraging in today's age.

An artist talk to introduce a new speculative film Finnish artist Aaro Murphy is making exploring electronic noses and ways in which they might assimilate into our urban fabric. The talk is a continuation of The Tokyo Arts & Science research residency hosted by BioClub Tokyo, The Finnish Institute in Japan and BioArt Society Finland, in October 2022.