Historically, most artists and designers working with biological materials have negotiated non-specialist access to existing scientific laboratories to pursue their research. Others have cobbled together provisional spaces in kitchens, greenhouses, farms, institutional or independent studio spaces, or worked in community biolabs and hackerspaces.
However, in the past decade, universities and art institutions have begun to invest in building laboratories and makelabs that are designed to enable bioart and biodesign research activities. These spaces are built to meet the needs of ecological, biotech, and biomaterials research and support creative practices, design methodologies, and aesthetic and audience engagement. These facilities are forging new architectural paradigms combining laboratory certifications and technologies with creative, collaborative, digital, and analogue design studios. SymbioticA, at the University of Western Australia, was the forerunner in developing laboratory infrastructure for artists and designers internationally, but many more have followed: Nature Lab at the RISD, Wet Lab Atelier at MIT, and The Bio Art Lab at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, among others. Each of these institutions has come to varying design solutions for how to build for biotech art and design futures.
This paper will explore the architectural, design, and technological decision making of one emergent art/science laboratory: INCUBATOR Art Lab at the University of Windsor, Canada. INCUBATOR Art Lab, founded in 2009 within the School of Creative Arts, supports ongoing student and faculty bioart and biodesign projects, science and technology studies research; and special events investigating the intersection of biotechnology, art, and ecology. INCUBATOR Art Lab’s focus is on creative biotech practices with an emphasis on supporting interdisciplinarity, creativity, interspecies collaboration, and love in bioart and biodesign practices.
Dr. Jennifer Willet is an artist, a Canada Research Chair in Art, Science, and Ecology, a Professor in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor and the Director of INCUBATOR Art Lab, founded in 2009. She is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists in the Royal Society of Canada. Willet is a leader in the Canadian bioart community, and works internationally as an artist and curator in the field. In 2018, Willet opened a new state-of-the-art bioart laboratory, and in 2020 a storefront bioart studio and community engagement lab in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. [@INCUBATORARTLAB]
Cite This Paper
Willet, Jennifer. “BIOLOVE: Designing Hybrid Laboratories for Creative Research at INCUBATOR Art Lab.” Arts Imagining Communities to Come, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 8-11 November 2021. Cumulus Association, 2023. Accessed [month, day, year].