CURRENT

PROJECTS
A Memorial for the Still Living. Premiered at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. Upcoming show at the Horniman Museum in London.

BOOK
Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience. MIT Press; Leonardo Book Series. ed., Beatriz da Costa & Kavita Philip.

WORKSHOP
Invisible Earthlings Workshop. [as part of "Species We Live With"]



ON VIEW
Pigeonblog [documentation & ephemera] on view at Sweeney Art Gallery in Riverside, CA.



REVIEWS/INTERVIEWS I LIKE
The Place of Art in the Age of Biotechnological Reproducibility. (pdf) [Review of Tactical Biopolitics in "BioSocieties."]

Processes, Issues AIR: Toward Reticular Politics. (pdf) [Full fledged article about Preemptive Media's and my work in "Australian Humanities Review."]

Interview with Beatriz da Costa. (pdf) [by Alessandro Ludovico, "Neural Magazine."]

COLLABORATIVE
Preemptive Media Preemptive Media is a collaborative operating at the nexus of art, activism and technology.



BEATRIZ DA COSTA
Beatriz da Costa is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She works at the intersection of art, politics, engineering and the life sciences.



Transgenic Bacteria Release Machine
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Transgenic Bacteria Release Machine

Transgenic Bacteria Release Machine was developed as part of GenTerra, a project with Critical Art Ensemble. The Transgenic Bacteria Release Machine is a simple robotic game machine. It holds ten petri dishes on its circular surface. One of the dishes contains transgenic e-coli bacteria (a harmless strain, which is usually found in the human intestinal system), whereas the other nine are growing bacteria and mold samples collected from the nearby surroundings (changing each time the machine is installed). The transgenic bacteria are recombinant e-coli bacteria containing human DNA. As part of the GenTerra performance, visitors are invited to interact with the Transgenic Bacteria Release Machine. When activated by the red power button, the machine starts spinning its wheel and randomly stops after a few seconds. The mechanic arm slides down and opens the corresponding petri dish. In a chance of one to ten, the machine opens the transgenic dish. A red indicator light turns on if the transgenic dish was opened, and a green one for the wild bacteria samples. The machine was designed to help people understand and reflect upon the environmental impacts of transgenic organisms.