Media appearances of me and my work, including television, podcasts, interviews and other media
Podcasts
Natural Dependencies (2022)
In this second podcast of the TR/X/E TALKS series you are introduced to the exhibition Natural Dependencies that took place in October 2021 at TR/X/E in The Hague. Natural Dependencies was a multimedia exhibition about the connectivity of all living things, using mycelium as a metaphor.
The conversation is led by Roland van Dierendonck (NL) an artist and PhD candidate at the Lab4Living, Sheffield Hallam University. Suzette Bousema (NL) and Catherine Ostraya (RU/NL), two of the exhibiting artists, guide Roland through the exhibition and describe their disparate takes on working with mycelium. While their discussion unfolds questions arise as: Is symbiosis necessarily collaborative? What role does the fungal network play in plant migration? And how do social metaphors influence our human interactions with each other and the world?
Suzette and Catherine curated the exhibition and organised a mushroom walk guided by Kees Pinster. Snippets of the walk introduce the various capacities of mushrooms growing right under our noses in The Hague.
Other exhibiting artists that were not present in the talk are Sophie Steengracht (NL), and in collaboration with Suzette Bousema Merle Bergers (NL) and Rafaele Andrade (BR/NL).
You can also listen to the podcast via https://anchor.fm/trixie-thehague
Biohacking impact (2019)
Interview with Peter Joosten for his podcast Biohacking impact. Episode 94 DIY-biologie, Biohack Academy & Biokunst. Peter Joosten was one of my participants in the 2019 BioHack Academy.
Text (Peter Joosten): “Roland van Dierendonck is begeleider van de Biohack Academy, die ik in het voorjaar van 2019 volgde bij De Waag in Amsterdam. In dit gesprek blikken we terug op deze opleiding, maar kijken we ook vooruit naar de potentie van (open) biotechnologie. We praten onder meer over de definities van biohacking, de kracht van open source biotechnologie en de impact van biokunst.”
WeTalkScience (2019)
Interview with Sheba AJ & Priyanka Kalra for WeTalkScience.
Link: https://wetalkscience.com/biohacking-in-amsterdam/.
Futurebased: science in the wild (2018)
I was interviewed by Sabine Winters for her Futurebased podcast, in context of the workshop Wetlab in the Wild.
Link: https://futurebased.org/topics/podcast-science-in-the-wild-with-roland-van-dierendonck/
Description by Sabine Winters:
“This podcast with Roland van Dierendonck head of the BioHack Academy of Waag is recorded for festival Onzichtbaar Landschap.
Together with his colleague Inger le Gué, Roland is presenting Wetlab in the Wild at the Festival ‘Onzichtbaar Landschap’. In this laboratory you will get the chance to discover the secrets of the surroundings of the festival. Through collected samples from the environment and using the microscope, we can see what is not visible to the naked eye. Photographs from research will create a map that makes an overview of the landscape at microscopic level.
Everything around us is part of an ecosystem: the earth, the forests, but also plants are part of the system that sustains life on earth. Plants make oxygen and are food for humans and animals. They are also one of the few living organisms that can make their own food from air and light. Leafy green granules are a crucial part of this and also cause the green color of leaves. With the help of microscopy and do-it-yourself coloring methods, we can expose the cell structures of plants. – Waag
Science is focused on new knowledge, while art allows for speculative scenarios: At the Open Wetlab it is special that Bio Art actually works, with living material in the lab. This allows you to speculate about scenarios that are rooted in material truth. So why is this combination, such as in bio-art and technology, so valuable? Why is interdisciplinary thinking between art, science, technology and biology so important?
Festival Onzichtbaar landschap is a project of Scarabee, Foundation for art and landscape.“
Television and documentaries
Proceed with Caution (2021)
Documentary by Kayleigh Youngh on CRISPR and art, featuring Adam Zaretsky and myself.
Description (by Kayleigh Young):
“The implications of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) are becoming more complex as its applications grow within and extend beyond biomedicine. CRISPR plays an important role in microbial immunity, and now its functionality is being introduced to human DNA. CRISPR makes a lot of promises and has the potential to permanently reshape humanity. This biotechnology is not to be underestimated; it is extraordinary but dangerous, and everyone must have some understanding of it to participate in the necessary dialogues related to its growth in popularity across multiple disciplines.
In my documentary film, Proceed With Caution, I explore the conceivable magnitude of CRISPR technology via cultural critique. Through the invaluable insight of bio-artists Dr. Adam Zaretsky and Roland van Dierendonck, the audience is offered an expert, inside look at the true extent of CRISPR and what it is capable of. There are many amazing things that this technology can do, but with that comes many concerns. Ultimately, it is concluded that a general understanding of the technology, and the intersection of art and science, is fundamental to the future of CRISPR.”
Borne in Beeld (2019)
I was filmed by RTVBorne for Borne in Beeld, when giving a workshop about DIY webcam microscopy in the Borne library for Tetem (Enschede). The interview is in Dutch.
Tegenlicht (2018)
I was featured in the episode Dokteren met DNA of the documentary series Tegenlicht, including biohacker Josiah Zayner and nobel prize winner Emmanuelle Charpentier. In the documentary I am filmed leading a CRISPR-Cas9 workshop and discussion on gene editing at Waag.
webpage: https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/kijk/afleveringen/2017-2018/Dokteren-met-DNA.html
You can also watch back the Tegenlicht Meet Up #122: Dokteren met DNA at Pakhuis de Zwijger.
Text (Dutch): “Zijn genenexperimenten de volgende disruptie?
De volgende revolutie vindt plaats in de biotechnologie. De genetische code van onze lichaamscellen, embryo’s en bacteriën is ook data en valt dus te herprogrammeren. De techniek heet CRISPR en met deze knip en plak tool kunnen we de eigenschappen van elk organisme naar onze hand zetten. Hiermee zijn de mogelijkheden eindeloos: de uitbanning van ziektes, de optimalisatie van de staat van ons lichaam en maximale voedingswaarde uit voedsel. Wat is de status van deze ontwikkelingen? Hoe scheiden we sciencefiction van realiteit? En wat is het nieuwe ethisch kader om deze technieken op een verantwoorde manier in te zetten?”
NIE Conference (2017)
An impression of the National Interdisciplinary Education (NIE) Conference 2017, where I won a prize for the project Euglena Spaceships.
Theses
CRISPR ETHICS & IMAGINATION: AN EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF DIY-CRISPR KIT IN CRISPR-CAS9 DELIBERATIONS (2018). Thesis by Ammu Joshy, MSc. Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (PSTS), University of Twente. PDF: http://essay.utwente.nl/76924/2/Joshy_MA_BMS.pdf