The “Biophony” art project, from interdisciplinary research at the MolinoLab Residency in May 2024, showcases the synergy of technology, science, art and human interactions. This collaboration illustrates how humans can create with nature using technology. Nine international artists integrated SymBioWare technology with plant life, recording plant impulses and converting them to MIDI for unique audio-visual art pieces. The results include documentary and multisensory audio-visual artworks.
Biophony: Dancing Nature
by
Lesia Kvitka, Cameron J Laing, Miriam Strasser, Alina Tofan, Alberto Monreal, Lucía Callén, Alec Ilyine, Salomé Méndez , Fernando Fernández Sánchez
Lesia Kvitka (UA)
Lesia Kvitka is a multidisciplinary artist born in Eastern Ukraine, and residing in Vienna. She intertwines innovations with timeless narrative, employing hybrid techniques to transcend conventional boundaries. Her work is influenced by personal experiences of forced emigration, which have informed her exploration of themes such as healing aspects of artistic practice, intersections of collective intelligence, connections between biological systems, space, human neurosystems, and AI.
Cameron J Laing (GB/LU)
Cameron J Laing is a multi-disciplinary artist primarily working in photography, music and sound design, and as a filmmaker. He is also published as a songwriter and author. During his studies in music at the Academy of Contemporay Music his abilities were already apparent and was thrust into the top level after securing management and a publishing deal, working with major label acts and then later on film and TV scores, working internationally live as well and in the studio.
Miriam Strasser (AT)
Miriam Strasser, a freelance performance artist and cultural worker based in Vienna, blends her background in biological anthropology with extensive training in physical theater, clowning, and Butoh dance. Since 2014, she has worked on projects between Spain and Austria, co-founding “La Experimental” in Barcelona and engaging with numerous theater companies. Strasser researches the “Homo Kemoni” butoh clown figure and leads the “Consciousness in Relation” project on neurobiology and performance. She directs, teaches, and participates in various artistic and cultural initiatives, including the “C³-Collective” and “International Clown Lab Vienna”.
Alina Tofan (RO)
Alina Tofan is an actress working in the field of the contemporary arts, which can encompass various forms of performances, including film, theatre, dance, art therapy and more. Curently, she is a Ph.D student at the National University of Arts (UNArte) Romania – Visual Art. Since 2020 she is developing her own methodology of ecoperformance/ ecomeditation in movement, focusing on a surreal realm where past and future converge to generate new myths.
Alberto Monreal (ES)
Alberto Monreal ‘s practice has a main focus on playing with limits, taboo and Nature as a frame for them. His practice delves into curation (Space for Nature international platform), facilitation of Live Art workshops and participation in multidisciplinary events such as Open Stages, Film Festivals or Performance Art events. He has lately explored his relationship with technology through experimental filmmaking and video installation formats.
Lucía Callén (ES)
Lucía Callén is a PhD in Neuroscience, actress-performer, butoh dancer and choreographer specialized in Physical Theater, graduated from the Nouveu Colombier Mime School and the International Theater School of Arturo Bernal; and in Butoh Dance, member of the butoh company The Phyisical Poets directed by Mushimaru Fujieda.
She is developing Synaptic Butoh, a methodology to put in common the original principles of Butoh Dance with those of Physical Theatre, basing the psychophysical processes with their neurobiological bases, at the service of contemporary scenic creation.
Alec Ilyine (BE)
Involved mainly in moving strings and natural sounds, Alec Ilyine is an electro acoustic musician mixing fingerpicking with fieldrecordings and effects on the iPad.
As an intrepid traveler, bird sounds and song are used as a sonic representation or souvenir of a certain place or country.
Sweet melodies and compositions are used as frameworks for an improvisational practice, using stringed instruments from around the world, creating a unique blend of textures and atmospheres.
Salomé Méndez (CO)
Salomé Méndez is a dancer, performer and trainer, percussionist and singer. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, she trained in dance at the ASAB (Academia Superior de Arte de Bogotá), and then specialized in traditional Afro-Colombian dance, Afro-Brazilian dance and West African dance and percussion. For more than ten years she has been studying and deepening in the languages of music and dance that have been inherited from Africa and with this she has been touring Colombia, Brazil, Spain and Portugal.
Fernando Fernández Sánchez (ES)
Fernando Fernández Sánchez or b1tdreamer is a multidisciplinary artist exploring the intersection of art, nature, and technology. With extensive experience in sound design, transmedia art, and interactive installations, he blends analog and experimental electronic music with field recordings from global locales. As the founder of MolinoLab.org, he fosters techno-artistic experimentation and collaborates with collectives like LiveCodeMad.org and Interactivas MedialabPrado. Fernando also leads technological projects in regions like the Sahel and Middle East and serves as a technical mentor at MediaLab Matadero and Teatros del Canal. He shares his diverse field recordings on SoundsOfTheWorld.org and has performed at international festivals like Asimtria, Ithaka, and Electronic Fields. Additionally, he organized the ICLC 2019 conference and toured extensively with “La gran Chócolo” across Portugal, Spain, France, and England.
