Living Bits and Radical Aminos: A Workshop on Bio-Digital Interfaces for Human-Computer Interaction

A CHI 2023 Workshop

April 28, 2023

In-person: X10 room | Virtual: https://mit.zoom.us/j/6720945319

As knowledge around bio-digital interaction continues to unfold, there are new opportunities for HCI researchers to integrate biology as a design and computational material. Our motivation for the workshop is to bring together interdisciplinary researchers with interest in exploring the next generation of biological HCI and exploring novel bio-digital interfaces implicating diverse contexts, scales, and stakeholders. The workshop aims to provide a space for interactive discussions, presentations, and brainstorming regarding opportunities and approaches for HCI around bio-digital interfaces. We invite researchers from both academia and industry to submit a short position paper in the following areas: Synthetic Biology, Biological Circuits, Do-It-Yourself Biology (DIYBio), Biomimetic Interfaces, Living Interfaces, Living Artefacts, and Bio-ethics. We will evaluate submissions on fit, ability to stimulate discussion, and contribution to HCI. On our website we have included examples of past work in this area to help inspire and inform position papers. Our website will host a recording of the entire workshop session with accepted papers to support asynchronous viewing for participants who are unable to attend in-person or synchronously.

Organizers

Jack Forman, MIT Media Lab
Pat Pataranutaporn, MIT Media Lab
Phillip Gough, Design Lab, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney
Raphael Kim, Delft University of Technology
Fiona Bell, ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder
Netta Ofer, ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado Boulder
Jasmine Lu, University of Chicago
Angela Vujic, MIT Media Lab
Muqing Bai, Harvard University
Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab
Hiroshi Ishii, MIT Media Lab
Misha Sra, University of California, Santa Barbara

Due to the successful CHI 2021 Workshop, “Speculating on Biodesign in the Future Home” , in this year’s workshop we look forward to attracting participants from the emerging field of Biological-HCI.

We invite researchers from both academia and industry to submit a short position paper in the following areas: Synthetic Biology, Biological Circuits, DIYBio, Biomimetic Interfaces, Living Interfaces, Ethics of SynBio. We will evaluate submissions on fit, ability to stimulate discussion, and contribution to HCI. Our website includes examples of past work in this area to help inspire and inform position papers.

Papers should be maximum 4-pages and in the CHI Extended Abstracts format. Submission can be accessed through our website: https://biohci.media.mit.edu. At least one author of each accepted position paper must attend the workshop and all participants must register for at least one day of the conference. We will host accepted papers on the workshop website for participants and others to review.

Professor Oron Catts

Oron Catts is an Australian artist and researcher currently residing in Perth, Western Australia where he has been employed at the University of Western Australia since 1996. He works as an artistic director of SymbioticA, which he also co-founded. Together with Ionat Zurr he founded the Tissue Culture & Art Project. From 2000–2001 he was a Research Fellow at the Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. He has also worked with numerous other bio-medical laboratories in several different countries.

Tentative Program

Starting April 28, 2023 | 9:00 AM CET/ 3:00 AM EST/ 12:00AM PST

Zoom Link: https://mit.zoom.us/j/6720945319

9:00 – Introduction

9:15 – Opening Keynote

Oron Catts

Oron Catts is an Australian artist and researcher currently residing in Perth, Western Australia where he has been employed at the University of Western Australia since 1996. He works as an artistic director of SymbioticA, which he also co-founded. Together with Ionat Zurr he founded the Tissue Culture & Art Project. From 2000–2001 he was a Research Fellow at the Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. He has also worked with numerous other bio-medical laboratories in several different countries.

10:15 – Break

10:30 – Interfaces with Living Organism – Jasmine Lu

Living Garment: Interfacing with Microbial Beings

Ninon Lizé Masclef, Dassault Systèmes; Batoul Omar Al-Rashdan, Studio B.O.R

PlantMax: Exploring The Musical Interface Between Human And Plant Conversations

Yechen Zhu, Rhode Island School of Design

Listen to the pulse of plants: visualise and sonify plant data using a leaf as the user interface

Qian Jin, UCL

Bridging Biochemists and Communities of DIY Biochemical Testing – A Co-Design Challenge

Anton, Poikolainen Rosén. Aalto University, Helsinki, Stockholm

Living Interaction: from user-centered Design to bio-User System

Elena Albergati, Politecnico di Milano; Valentina Rognoli, Politecnico di Milano; Barbara Pollini, Politecnico di Milano; Carla Langella, University of Naples Federico I

11:15 – Break

11:30 – Biodesign & Biomaterials – Netta Ofer

Designing with Biomaterial Agency

Jon McCormack, Monash University; Nina Rajcic, Monash University

From Designing Material to Designing With the Living: Exploring the Uniqueness and Opportunities Offered by Living Materials

“MADALINA NICOLAE, Léonard de Vinci Pôle Universitaire, Research Center, Paris La Défense, France, Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarbrücken, Germany, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CNRS i3 (UMR 9217), Palaiseau, France; VIVIEN ROUSSEL, Léonard de Vinci Pôle Universitaire, Research Center, Paris La Défense, France, Nîmes University, Laboratoires Projekt et UPR Chrome, Nîmes, France; JÜRGEN STEIMLE, Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus, Germany; SAMUEL HURON, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CNRS i3 (UMR 9217), Palaiseau, France; MARC TEYSSIER, Léonard de Vinci Pôle Universitaire, Research Center, France”

Systematic Economy of Biomimetic Design

Garam Hann, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Project Designer at HOK

Algorithmic Nature

Hye Yeon Nam, Louisiana State University

12: 15 pm – Lunch Break

1:15 pm – Afternoon Keynote

2:15 pm – Bio-inspired System – Raphael Kim

Bio Deepfakes, Mimicry and Memes

Ninon Lizé Masclef, Dassault Systèmes; Kaitlin M. Reed, Dassault Systèmes

Interfacing AI Bits with Biological Brain for Symbiotic Attention Management

Thomas Pederson, University West, Sweden; Amit Kumar-Mishra, University West, Sweden

BioSenseMR – Multimodal Sensory Biofeedback-Interface for Mixed Reality

Jessica Sehrt, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences Germany

Developing a Framework for Programming and Interfacing with Physical Computing Systems

Steven Abreu, University of Groningen