Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Experimentelle Biophysik

Lyndsey Walsh

 

Lyndsey Walsh is an American artist, writer, and researcher based in Berlin, DE. Lyndsey has a Bachelor’s in Individualized Studies from New York University and a Master’s in Biological Arts with Distinction from SymbioticA Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia. Lyndsey’s practice fuses speculative narratives and horror with autoethnographic investigations into the ruptures created by technology in the corporality of culture. Lyndsey sets out to question the cultural binaries of human-non-human, diseased-healthy, and life-machine using Crip, Queer, and intersectional feminist frameworks. Currently, Lyndsey is the first and only residing artist of the Department of Experimental Biophysics at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Their work has been featured in events and with institutions such as Frieze Art Week New York, the Humboldt Forum, the Ural Biennial, the Berlin Biennale, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Transmediale/CTM, and more.

 

(R) EVOLUTION

 

Dance Dance Design Algae-2.png

 

Optogenetics are a set of biological techniques that propose a future where many neurological diseases in humans could one day be treated with light. It also proposes the ability to have control over light-responsive algae for the production of bio-fuel, food, and other biological materials and products. However, these techniques open the door for many bioethical issues and concerns about genetic modifications and control over cellular behaviors in both humans and non-humans. Inspired by the ecofeminist philosophy of Donna Haraway’s “Making Kin”, (R) EVOLUTION is an artistic attempt to rearticulate these relationships about visual perception between algae and humans through performance-based techniques of dance and game play. 

(R)EVOLUTION has been inspired by the hit 90s arcade game Dance Dance Revolution, which turns game players into performing dancers through their responses to programmed choreography. (R)EVOLUTION adopts the game’s premise to question the extent to which another organism can be controlled through sensory perception by turning the C. reinhardtii into dancing performers that respond to programmed light choreography. 

The project probes the extent in which light can be harnessed as a biotechnology to direct biological behaviors and mechanisms, and how that would impact the future of technologies that could emerge.

 

Instagram: @artexvivo

Website: https://lyndseywalsh.com/

 

Academic Publications:

Walsh, L., 2023. Self-Care: Seeking Queer Liberation from the Medical Gaze and Genetic Fatalism. AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, (32), pp.53-67. https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i28.581

Walsh, L., 2021, September. (R) EVOLUTION: Optogenetics and Interspecies Microperformance. In Proceedings of Politics of the Machines-Rogue Research 2021 (pp. 226-231). BCS Learning & Development. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/POM2021.30

 

Other projects, press, and published articles can be found on their website.

 

 

Raum:  410

Email: lyndsey.g.walsh@gmail.com

Tel:     (030) 2093 98282