Aamo artscience group, `Blck Vlvt: the at v2 version´ - experimental installation

`Blck Vlvt: the at v2 version´ - experimental installation

`Blck Vlvt: the at v2 version´ is the most recent manifestation of artistic and scientific research into the interplay between the Baroa beloabara* plant, light, electrical energy, J.M.William Turner and other humans. It is propelled by the Aronia Art Morphing (Aamo)artscience group at Aalto University.

The work consists of a solar glass panel that is painted with colours originating from the berryapple´s fruits, leaves and a microbial companion. These colorants convert light to electrical energy. The light-electricity powers an LED that illuminates the inks of the Tate Shop´s reproduction of JMW Turner´s painting `Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth making Signals in Shallow Water, and going by the Lead. The Author was in this Storm on the Night the Ariel left Harwich (Exh. 1842)´. The colour palette of this Turner painting is reproduced in the painted solar glass panel through Baroa belaobara’s natural pigments, morphed through chemical reactions and the artscience practice.

The research and the exhibition are integrated, with the the aesthetic and light-electric  transformations being monitored and shared: How and when will the unstable biomatter decay- both aesthetically and photoelectrically? How and for how long will the Baroa b. matter morph the reproduction of the human art master´s painting? How will the fragile, fast decaying and poorly performing solar-electric painted medium going to be experienced? Will there be artistic properties that will bring about a wish to preserve the work? Will the juxtapositions between the aesthetic and the electric, the anthropocentric- versus the biocentric, generate resonance, excite the senses, raise questions?

Aamo is supported by an Aalto University SEED grant in 2018-2019

* Baroa belaobara is the letter sequence the artist Bartaku experienced at the Baroa b. plantation in Aizpute, Latvia. Baroa b. is the eternally failing attempt to fixate the ever-changing scientific name of the plant that currently is mostly referred to as Aronia melanocarpa.

Aamo continues to evolve from Bartaku’s (School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Art) bonding with Baroa b. and his artistic intuitions since 2016. The ideas and concretised practical aspects of the workings have been enriched due to the presence of three scientists, each with their own disciplinary perspective and relationship to other biological organisms and the environment. Merja Penttilä (School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) is a molecular biologist who studies fungi, its role in biotechnology and the prospects of synthetic biology to provide solutions to combat climate change. Pyry Mäkinen joins the group as solar physics research assistant in 2018. Paulo Pinho (School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Lighting Unit) is an electrical engineer who studies how different wavelengths of light can be used to induce changes in plant growth and in the metabolic production of nutritional value. Janne Halme (School of Science, Department of Applied Physics, New Energy Technologies) is a physicist who is developing solar cells as an alternative technology to replace fossil energy. The great increase in knowledge on the rich functionalities expressed in nature, their vulnerability to human action, and the huge speed of technology development are also disrupting the traditional areas of research and comfort zone of the natural scientist. Aamo artist and -scientists all share a need to see our relationships with the other non-human biological entities as essential, and to examine that relationship at new levels.

A key factor in this biotope is the possibility to intertwine art-science experiments in various Aalto lsb, for example, the solar physics lab for solar cell fabrication and Biofilia Lab for Biological Arts for plant–bacteria related experiments. Also key is the help provided by lab managers Marika Hellman and James Evans (Biogarage). DNA-sequencing is done at the University of Helsinki`s Biokeskus.

`Blck Vlvt: the at v2 version´ is part of Bartaku´s “The Undisclosed Poiesis of the Photovoltaic Effect”, an enquiry into the interrelations between light, energy and bodies since 2007.