This summer season in Berlin, a gaggle of artists, designers, and curious minds gathered round a inventive query: What can parasites educate us about robotics?
Led by Salvador Marino, a transdisciplinary artist with a PhD in biology, the workshop “Parasites and Robotics” invited contributors to discover the intersection of biology, sci-fi, and open-source {hardware} – all powered by the Arduino platform. Over 5 days of hands-on experimentation, attendees imagined and prototyped robotic our bodies impressed by the unusual and sensible variations of the pure world.
From natural methods to robotic creatures
Marino designed the workshop to discover how parasites evolve and adapt to outlive – and the way we are able to flip these evolutionary methods into robotic prototypes. Every day centered on a unique side of life on the margins: notion, host our bodies, environments, hybrid identities.
Members used UNO R4 WiFi boards, Motor Shields, and the Arduino Soldering Package, combining them with digital instruments like Pure Information, TouchDesigner, and Ableton Stay. The consequence? A collection of distinctive, experimental robots, every with its personal speculative logic and conduct. All this from college students and artists, a lot of whom had been utilizing Arduino for the very first time.
“The contributors had been fascinated by the intersection of parasitic biology and robotics,” Marino instructed us. “For a lot of, this was their very first step with Arduino, they usually had been extremely excited to work with it.”
Constructing past expectations
The workshop was hosted at Sybil in Berlin, working for 20 hours throughout 5 days. Every session blended conceptual dialogue with sensible software: soldering, wiring, programming, and testing prototypes that questioned the boundaries between natural and synthetic life.
As Marino explains, the selection of platform was key: “The UNO R4 WiFi is ideal for inexperienced persons. It doesn’t want exterior libraries, has wonderful documentation, and an enormous group behind it. The Wi-Fi function is a bonus – particularly if you wish to interface with different packages and create interactive environments.”
That is precisely the form of venture that displays our roots. Arduino was born in an academic context, and continues to thrive as a bridge between know-how and creativity – for college kids, academics, makers, and naturally transdisciplinary artists like Marino.
A rising ecosystem of concepts
The Berlin workshop was only the start. Impressed by the optimistic suggestions and inventive vitality, Marino is now engaged on new editions of “Parasites and Robotics” in different main cities similar to London and Barcelona. The rising curiosity is proof that open-source instruments like Arduino should not only for conventional engineering school rooms: they’re a canvas for anybody who desires to discover, categorical, or problem the best way we work together with know-how.
“It was inspiring to see the contributors so shortly constructing initiatives and concepts with Arduino,” Marino says.
Hold exploring
Wish to see extra of Marino’s work, or discover out when the following version of the workshop is occurring?Comply with alongside at salvadormarino.com and on his Instagram account. You may as well verify out the devoted web page for the workshop right here.
Photos credit score: Camila Pozner
