Workshops

Biological Diversity Lives Here

2 full day hikes to explore biodiversity at is source
2 ½ day hikes to explore local in relation to urban and agricultural impacts

These Workshops focus on the topic of biodiversity in water and soil. They are especially designed for citizen scientists. These workshops are led by Jill Scott (water), Dorothea Rust (soil) and Kristy Deiner, ecological scientist from Simplex eDNA Winterthur, as well as scientists from WSL, Birmensdorf. In these unique workshops, participants will have the opportunity to collect their own soil and water samples, make drawings and collect biodiversity sounds. This includes analysing soil and water using environmental DNA, observing microorganisms and discussing species and ecosystems found in local water and soil. By making drawings and sound recordings, participants will enter into a dialogue with art and science, with the aim of making invisible life more visible, learning about ecology and sustainability and recognising the potential of reviving some parts of nature. Participants will develop their own stories and relationships with the micro-world and engage in reflective discussions. The organisms of soil and water are not passive creatures, and our own health depends on them being interactive and healthy. Like us, they are active agents involved in survival and in the very process of their creation.

Dr. Kristy Deiner – eDNA Expert (ETHZ Envionmental Systems and SimplexDNA Winterthur) | Vanessa Barrera Giraldo – Sound and software engineer | Dr. Aline Frossard – Wissenschaftler:innen der Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft WSL | Prof. Dr. Jill Scott – Media Artist (www.jillscott.org) | Dorothea Rust – Performance Artist (www.dorothearust.ch) | Toni Fröhlich – Physicist | Arnold Hähi – Alpine Tour Guide

Storyboarding Science

By Jill Scott, Marille Hahne and invited guests

Duration
5 – 10 Days

Limit
25 Participants

This workshop aims to give scientists and science communicators from all disciplines the basic knowledge to collaborate on documentary films and help them to humanize science through the medium of film and interactive media. It includes storyboarding and storytelling skills, semiotics, critical discussions of film examples and basic production and editing techniques by invited filmmakers. Film students are also encouraged to participate.

Former workshops include:
Kulturama Film and Neuroscience workshop (2013), The Singapore Science Center (2014) and Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) (2016) in collaboration with Life Science Zurich (or in collaboration with the Life Science Zurich Graduate School)

Enhancing sensory perception for Artists and Designers

By Jill Scott and invited neuroscientist

Duration
2-3 Days (including one day for students to work on a specific research parts in partner groups)

Limit
20 Students

This workshop is a unique blend of sensors systems lab exercises from Neuroscience, electronic media, digital art and design exercises and body awareness experiments designed and taught by Jill Scott. It is designed to not only educate students in neuroscience and cognition, but to help them work in a unique way with users or their interactive viewers in the actual process of construction. It focuses on the stimulation of three neural systems, the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Automated Nervous System. The aim is to help artists and designers think differently about sensory stimuli past old fashioned interaction ideas of cause and effect, and to understand cross-modal sensory interaction. The following themes are explored:

Sight
Observation, saccade movements, blink and light reflex reaction, the blind spot, visual acuity, eye dominance, visual impairment and photoreceptor adaptation.

Taste
Understanding taste receptors, relation of taste to visual, olfactory response, trigeminal (hot, cool). Mechanical contributions to “sapictive” perception, location, distribution and thresholds of taste.

Smell
The act of odour detection, smell and taste, adapted nostrils, somatic mapping, chemo-sensors and the role of cilia.

Touch
Touch Reception, distribution of touch receptors, tactile discrimination, temperature, pressure and vibration.

Sound
Deafness, localization and eco-location, inner ear interpretation and action potentials, bone conduction and substitution.

Proprioception
Balance and sound reflex, relative position and tactility, Movement and mind body centring, sight and the sense of the bodies edge. Smell and movement. Environmental effects on the body. Students attend lectures and work in pairs to develop unique approaches to media art and digital design interaction processes.

Comments from participants in Saarbrücken, Germany
– “Very good, things I learnt here were not connected in my mind before now.”
– “The content of the course was amazing and I learnt a lot from their own neuromedia experiments. I totally recommend this workshop.”
– “I enjoyed every part of this 3 day workshop. It was a unique chance to learn about how the percepts works and it gave me tons of ideas for new media art.”

Former Workshops include
School of Visual Arts NY (2013) | Rutgers School of Art (2014) | Nan Yang University, Singapore (2016) | Tasmanian School of Art (2017) | University of the Arts (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien), Department Digital Arts, Vienna, Austria (2018) | Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar, Saarbrücken, Germany (2019)

Redesigning Nature

by Jill Scott and Invited Ecologist

Duration
1 Day

Limit
20 participants (participants work in groups of 4–5)

Originally designed by Christoph Kuffer (ecologist) and Jill Scott (artist). How are artists and designers representing the changing relationships between humans and “nature” today? This workshop is for both scientist and artists, about the challenge for ecosystems to be adjusted through targeted new design concepts. How do we deal with climate change, urbanization, invasive species, or ecosystems eutrophication and the fundamental anthropogenic changes that these cause? Using drawing and brainstorming techniques, the science students work with ideas like: intervention ecology, re-wilding, resurrection ecology or assisted migration and reconciliation ecology.

Former Workshops include
Monte Verita: Conference on Ecological Novelty ETHZ (2011), The ETHZ Integrated biology department Summer School Zurich (2014)

Creativity Workshops

LASERZURICH Creativity Workshops foster collaboration between artists and scientists to brainstorm on themes related to sensory perception, emotional contexts, and global topics such as climate change and artificial intelligence.