[DIYbio] SymbioticA Talk: The Op-Shop Aesthetic: Tissue Culture, and the Art of the Scrounge

The Op-Shop Aesthetic: Tissue Culture, and the Art of the Scrounge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzkOuVcn2KQ&t=172s

Abstract:

To be human is to create and interact with tools and toys, knowledge systems and symbolism. We frequently look at the artifacts of the knowledge systems of other cultures such as the churingas of the central desert peoples and admire their beauty as art. Yet these are functional, and are used to encode sacred knowledge. Our objects are rich with possibilities, not only those their makers intended for them. They can in their own ways become portals to knowledge, in the hands of the amateur scientist.

We at the start of the 21st century are surrounded by objects that have both a daily usage and a hidden and parallel potential.

Op shops are filled with the relics of past years fashions, not just in clothes but in consumerism. They represent a vertical slice across time that lets us view one of the greatest of our societies abilities, the production of stuff. To the (self) initiated amateur scientist, worlds of possibilities exist in such places, and objects become a link between their intended daily use and a second chance as part of a home lab.

In this talk, I will briefly describe my hunts through such places for materials to make vacuum pumps, gas chromatography instruments and Geiger counters, before I delve in depth into my current project, which is to make a plant tissue culture lab available for schools and hobbyists.