In the core of the project is the tangible artscience work, in which artist Bartaku (Be/Fin) and a group of natural scientists create a biosolar panel based on natural dyes. The panel mimics the painting “Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth” (exhibited 1842) by J.M. William Turner.
The colorants originate from Bartaku´s companion plant Aronia m. Babe and its endophytic bacteria. They absorb sunlight that is transformed into electrical energy, used to highlight the original painting in the presence of public.
The biosolar painting is the point of departure for an experimental artscience process that generates various artistic, scientific and artscience works. These make tangible the societal and ethical implications of involving biological entities in art and technology. Also, relating other life forms with a human art master enables us to express the common vital basis we share in molecular, physical and aesthetic energy and time.
The concrete artscience work serves not only as a physical manifestation of transdisciplinary work, but also as a creativity-stimulating challenge that ties our disciplines together: interdependencies between biology, technology and culture that form research questions of their own. It forms a concrete, fertile “playground” enabling unconventional interactions to appear and new questions to arise.