Event Blog 2

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For this event, I went to Anna Dumitriu's event, "The unnatural, the too is natural: Artistic Explorations in Synthetic Biology". She discusses two projects, "Fermenting Futures" and "Biotechnology from the Blue Flower".  These projects focused on how we can use synthetic biology to create new solutions to relevant problems, including climate change and food scarcity. 

She discussed the project "Fermenting Futures", which strives to show new research and development yeast biotechnology. The project aims to educate others on the impacts and use of yeast and show how it has played a role in human evolution. The art installation serves both an artistic and scientific purpose. It includes a genetically modified yeast that can capture carbon in the atmosphere and make lactic acid. This lactic acid is used to make PLA which is a vegetable based plastic material, used for environmentally friendly 3D printing. Parts of the art installation are made with the biodegradable PLA. This art installation is very important in today's world, as it try's to combat climate change and plastic pollution. This installation showed a positive example of how biotechnology can be used to help solve problems. The carbon capture can reduce the carbon footprint and the biodegradable plastic production can reduce plastic waste. This helped me expand on my knowledge of the topic, because I was able to learn more the positive extensions of biotechnology. In my weekly blog post, I focused on the negative aspects, but I think this was a good example of how it can be positive.

Yeast installation in "Fermenting Futures"

She also discussed the project "Biotechnology from the blue flower". This project explores elements of the chicory plant. She discusses how this plant was the inspiration for the "Blaue Blume", which means Blue Flower. This flower was a symbol and inspiration for the Romanticism movement. It symbolized desire, love, hope, and the beauty of nature. The root of this plant is important in biotechnology as they are trying to use it as a potential super crop, used for dietary fiber. It can potentially help with the food scarcity issue, as it can be synthetically produced, which can increase the accessibility of production. I think this is also a great application of biotechnology. In my last event post I discussed how biotechnology has also created some food disparities with production. I think this was an interesting take on how biotech can be used to help solve the issue.

Chicory plant installation

I definitely would recommend this event to others! I learned a lot about how biotech and art have intersected and got some answers to questions I had before, such as food scarcity. Anna Dumitriu is such a good speaker and I enjoyed the event!


Photo from the event!



Sources:

“Biotechnology from the Blue Flower.” Anna Dumitriu, 22 Apr. 2021, annadumitriu.co.uk/portfolio/biotechnology-from-the-blue-flower/. 

“Blue Flower.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_flower. 

“Blue Flower.” The Blue Flower, 23 Jan. 2019, sarumuse.org/the-blue-flower/. 

Drone.tv. “Anna Dumitriu.” Med in Art, 3 Apr. 2014, www.medinart.eu/works/anna-dumitriu/. 

“Fermenting Futures.” Anna Dumitriu, 16 Mar. 2021, annadumitriu.co.uk/portfolio/fermenting-futures/. 

“Science of Yeast - What Is Yeast: Red Star Yeast.” Red Star Yeast | A Tradition in Family Baking, 11 Feb. 2021, redstaryeast.com/science-yeast/what-is-yeast/. 

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) - Research Portal, forschung.boku.ac.at/fis/suchen.orgeinheit_uebersicht?sprache_in=en&menue_id_in=201&id_in=H792. 

UnnecessaryResearch. “Biotechnology From The Blue Flower.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Apr. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaRDuWDIlwY&t=1s.

 








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