symbiomatter: experimental arts lab offers a platform for dialogue, exchange, and collaboration between artists, musicians, designers, scientists, engineers, activists, and other enthusiasts who seek to experiment with the emerging digital and biotechnologies. Our aspiration is to collectively reimagine the future by rethinking the direction of new technologies and their impact on culture and society.

symbiomatter organises exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and debates with the aim to create a shared conceptual space where a free exchange of ideas, skills, and cognitive models between scientists, technologists, and artists can occur.

Our events include exhibitions that explore art and artificial intelligence, lectures on synthetic biology, DIYbio, open science and bioart, as well as a public debate between biologists and artists on the cutting-edge CRISPR technology and related ethical issues. Our events attract a wide audience and significant media attention.

symbiomatter: experimental arts lab is founded by Nevena Ivanova, Milena Georgieva, Albena Baeva, Rene Beekman and Georgi Miloshev.

Team

Nevena Ivanova

Nevena Ivanova works at the intersection of philosophy, art, science and technology. She has a PhD in interdisciplinary information studies from the University of Tokyo (Japan) and has taught post-cybernetic culture and technoethics arts in Hong Kong, China and Bulgaria. She has published in the domains of philosophy of technology, media aesthetics and critical software studies. Currently she is assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and visiting professor in aesthetics at Sofia University.

Linkedin

Albena Baeva

Albena Baeva works at the intersection of art, technology and social science. In her interactive installations for urban spaces and galleries, she uses ML and AI, physical computing, creative coding, and DIY practises. She is one of the co-founders of Runabout project, a platform for new performance instruments, the studio for interactive design Reaktiv and the only gallery for digital art in Bulgaria gallery Gallery and its sculpture park Ploshtadka. She takes part in exhibitions and festivals for performance art in Europe, Asia and the US.

www.albenabaeva.com

Rene Beekman

Rene Beekman is an artist and educator, who works with interactive and digital technologies. He has a BA from the art academy AKI in Enschede (the Netherlands) and an MA in Philosophy from Sofia University. His work is distributed by LIMA (Amsterdam) and the Kitchen (New York). Rene Beekman is a co-founder of the MA program in digital arts at the National Academy of Arts (Sofia), where he also taught between 2008 and 2016. He has co-founded xfilm festival and xfilm lectures, Dorkbot Sofia, DAFest, the studio for interactive design Reaktiv and the only gallery for digital art in Bulgaria gallery Gallery. He is a curator of many exhibitions involving digital art in Bulgaria.

www.raakvlak.net

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