Focus Related Research


INTRA
Further information on INTRA projects can be found here:
Angewandte Programme for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Projects in Art and Research (INTRA)

Digital and social Transformation
This projects take place within the framework of “Digitale und soziale Transformation“ as a selected digitization project at public universities.

Projects are added on an ongoing basis.


Biological Interfaces, Ludic Cultures and Non-human Agencies


INTRA call 2021

Biological Interfaces, Ludic Cultures and Non-human Agencies. Games of/with/in/beyond Life


Contact: Margarete Jahrmann
BIO∞LUDIC∞LAB
https://www.instagram.com/bioludiclab/
Ivan Jakarić, Lab responsible
Margarete Jahrmann, head Experimental Game Cultures 
 
BASED ON THE INTRA PROJECT
Biological Interfaces, Ludic Cultures and Non-human Agencies. Games of/with/in/beyond Life. A collaboration between Margarete Jahrmann and Georg Tremmel, exploring the possible agencies and potential interaction dynamics between biological interfaces and ludic cultures. 2022/23.
 
The BiOLudiCLaB functions as an experimental Wunderkammer and a symbiotic incubator for collaboration and production, in alignment with the ongoing projects of the University of Applied Arts Vienna - especially with EXPERIMENTAL GAME CULTURES.
 
Serving as a portal to unlimited worlds of imaginary solutions, the BiOLudiCLaB synthesizes art, ludic methods, science and nature establishing the „Bioludic Wide Web“ for a sustainable bioludic society. Here, we cultivate and nurture experimental relationships among humans, non-humans, nature, games and technology.
 
As a hybrid and experimental environment operating in both digital and physical realms, the Lab serves as a dynamic hub for connection and collaboration. Through immersive presentations, interactive workshops, and knowledge dissemination, students and experts are encouraged to participate in bioludic design projects, while visitors are invited to explore and engage with our ongoing initiatives.
 
Explorations at the BiOLudiCLaB span diverse topics such as biocellulose, bacteria, fungi, algae, slime mold, soil, plants, and other non-human entities. These themes are distilled through the creation of an experimental ludic glossary and biomaterial library, aimed at fostering the development of innovative artefacts and materials. The impact of these activities is preserved in a continually expanding bioludic nexus, encompassing both digital platforms and physical exhibitions of current and future bioludic objects.
 
Moreover, the BiO∞LudiC∞LaB serves multiple purposes:
 
ANNOUNCERguest lecture 17.05. 2024
STUDIO EXPERIMENTAL GAME CULTURES
https://lyndseywalsh.com/
 
>It hosts lectures, workshops, and the class EGC: Games and Nature, Non-Human Play, Hybrid Games, Pataplay Ludic Flow.
>It functions as an exhibition venue, showcasing bioludic artworks.
>It challenges contemporary laboratory aesthetics through experimental ludic interfaces and
bioludic art installations.
 
 
BASED ON THE INTRA PROJECT
Biological Interfaces, Ludic Cultures and Non-human Agencies
Games of/with/in/beyond Life

 
A collaboration between Margarete Jahrmann and Georg Tremmel, exploring the
possible agencies and potential interaction dynamics between biological interfaces and ludic cultures.
In this artistic research project we aim to create a milieu for macro-speculative fictions based on bio-ludic game interventions and situations between human and non-human cultures and agencies.
We will collaborate with bacteria, fungi, slime molds, tissue cultures and synthetic cells to create playful epistemological situations for mutual learning and understanding.
Slime molds, especially Physarum polycephalum will be a special focus, not only because of their unusual cell organisation of consisting of one single cell with multiple cell nuclei (polycephalum: Latin: “Many-Headed”), but also of their agency exhibition behaviours in solving mazes and re-creating the Train Map of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

Recreated Train Map of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Tero et al. 2010. Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design. Science 10.1126/science.1177894

Preliminary Work
The concept of Biotic Games was introduced as the idea to digitally control microorganisms and living matter (Riedel-Kruse, et al, 2011) from an engineering-mind set point-of-view. Kim and van Dierendonck expanded the scope with Design and Art practices, emphasizing the spatial and temporal restrictions, limitations and possibilities of biotic games. Around the same time, Jahrmann started her investigation of Serious Play with the Ludic Society and the development of Ludic Methods up to the current Neuromatic Game Art. Tremmel’s work on the ethical, legal and societal implications of emerging biotechnologies was touching foreshadowed conceptually bio-ludic methods, but with an emphasis in the interplay between society and technology and it’s interfacing.
Recent work by Tremmel’s include the ©HeLa - Copyright Henrietta Lacks Project, where the still living cells of a woman who died in 1951 of cancer are operating a camera, thus taking pictures, thus being assigned the copyright of these pictures. These cells exhibit ludic behaviors decades after the permadeath of the original host. Also, Tremmel’s recent works on the biological re-interpretations of Claude E. Shannon’s Useless Machines and Toys is set-up as bio-ludic situations and micro-performances.
Installation View (Detail). HeLa cells controlling a camera. Project ©HeLa, Georg Tremmel / BCL, 2020 – ongoing
Building upon an existing foundation of Biotic Games, we aim to expand and invesite both the human and non-human agencies which are at interplay in these bio-ludic situations.
 
Expanded Research Questions
- How does ludic agency manifest itself in cellular life and in communication with human actors?
- What type of possible and potential ludic interfaces exist between biological and human domains?
- How can we create environments and milieus for bio-ludic potential?
- Can human and non-human actors create and play collaborative games?
- Can non-human actors create games and playful situations for human actors?
- Can non-human actors subvert and cheat in collaborative games?
- What forms of agency can non-human display, and how can these agencies be translated and understood?
- What kind of semi-living discourse objects or subjects can we create?
We are also interested in exploring the metaphorical interfaces of existing language, concepts, and metaphors in both game- and bio-cultures. Between Hardware/Software/Wetware, metaphors of life and death, the illusion of perma-death, immortal and immortalized life of cells, Simulations of complexity with Game-of-Life methods.

Laborious Play: Playing with labs, not laying with life
The main goal of this project is to create observable bio-ludic situations and playful interfaces between human and non-human agencies. We are aware that we as experimenters are also a part of the experimental setup, but we will not limit ourselves to observation, but aim to create dialogues and playful interactions with the experimentees (micro-organisms), with the hope of reversing and questioning the experimental setups.

Picture credits:
Margarete Jahrmann: Reishi Mycelium GAME mit Elektroenzephalogramm. Ein Psycho-ludisches Experiment
Ivan Jakarić: BioCellulose, 2023
Ivan Jakarić: BioLudicLab, 2024
Ivan Jakarić: BioLudicMask, 2024
Ivan Jakarić: BioLudicPerformance, 2022
Ivan Jakarić: Scoby 1, 2024
Ivan Jakarić: Scoby 2, 2024
Ivan Jakarić: Syndermica, TheThirdSkin, 2023