S+T+ARTS Regional Centers | Repairing the Present

Preserving Co-evolution | Challenge nº9

How might we preserve the co-evolution of the species by enhancing the capacity of micro and macro communities to be resilient when challenged by diversity?

Consortium Partner: MEET

EU Green Deal:GD6 Preserving and protecting biodiversity

Problem Statement

Cultural, biological and artificial diversity generates contaminations in the co-evolution processes, with new interrogatives about how to stimulate resilience and inclusive sustainability that can lead humanity to find innovative answers to questions such as how can we live together in a changing ecosystem and how can we preserve the future of our planet.

Keywords

Co-evolution, Sustainability, Resilience, Inclusion, Communities

Challenge Context

Through the exploration of the infinitely small microcosms – like proteins and molecules – and the ways they behave, interact, communicate, self-repair in the presence of external agents, we could expand the reflection to larger communities, populations that need to embed diversity and allow its coexistence in a sustainable perspective.

The artist is invited to reflect on how to preserve sustainability and inclusiveness in the complexity of communities and populations (from proteins to natural and human ecosystems) exploring their ability to interact smartly and repair themselves in the transformative processes induced by external factors (e.g. viruses, pollutants, new species, artificial elements, etc).

The goal is to interpret, predict and represent – going from the micro to the macrocosms and vice versa – the trajectories of transformation, sustainability and resilience of the systems challenged by external agents, considering the new forms of coexistence including natural/artificial coexistence and how these could lead to new forms of inclusiveness.

The artist is invited to use digital languages to restitute the speculative/prototyping process.

Fellowship Characteristics: network, opportunities, and expectations

The fellowship is implemented in partnership with Area Science Park – as co-hosting institution – where the artist will access the latest technologies in the field of life sciences (e.g. data centre including a genomic sequencer, HPC, data science algorithms) and a scientific support team to work on the following possible but not exclusive trajectories:

examine environmental samples to see all the components of microorganisms and their community, how they connect with each other, how they react to changes, and to the intervention of an external phenomenon
research on new algorithms to reassemble DNA sequences and to have a powerful tool for reading organisms
reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of proteins which helps to identify its function (frontier research)

The fellowship is hosted by MEET in Milan. Participants are expected to be present in Milan on a regular basis and should include the travel expenses in the budget plans. MEET will coordinate the presence of the artist at the co-hosting institution. MEET will put at the artist’s disposal the Creative Studio and the Immersive Room.

The fellowship is supported by the City of Milan that will make available for the artist all the municipality open data and the advisor staff to access and use them.

The fellowship will be supported by ETT S.p.A. for technological consultancy.

The fellowship is accompanied by a public programme that will involve multiple stakeholders, from citizens and the public sector to research and industry actors, to identify the overall needs and increase collective commitment. Selected artists will have the opportunity to lead public events (workshops, roundtables, etc.) with the support of MEET.

The artist is expected to deliver a presentable outcome of the fellowship in the form of a prototype which will be included in the final exhibition.