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biofab17-track2 Track 2 | Thursday 11th May
On Institutions: Drawing boundaries and collaborations 
Moderation: @raronoff, supported by @lu_cyP

// TALK 1
‘Science without scientists’: DIY biology and institutional leakage
- Massimiliano Simons, Winnie Poncelet (@winnieponcelet )

// TALK 2
Citizen vs. Science
- Puneet Kishor (@punkish)

// TALK 3
Institutionalization of DIYbio 
- Ricardo Mutuberria (@rikimut )


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ROLL CALL

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// TALK 1
‘Science without scientists’: DIY biology and institutional leakage
- Massimiliano Simons, Winnie Poncelet (@winnieponcelet )

Massimilliano:
    
there have always been people doing science who are not 'officially' scientists. 
What will be the histroy of DIYbio?

#1 DIYbio is anti-institutional
- modern diybio is an extension of the hacker movement
- parallels with populism (in politics, in religion) - we like science, but not the way it's done, "remember when science was fun? At Genspace it still is."

#2 OR DIYbio is all about biotech industry
- parallels with silicon valley. Open Source communities feed into innovation (indieBio, Experiment.com). Danger is that DIYbio becomes even more precarious or even free labour for industry. Economisation of the life-sciences... Don't universities have advantages too?

#3 history of biology
- 1960s molecular biology, 1970s genetic engineering, 200s systems and in silico biology...
- synthetic biology
- iGEM propaganda machine

Questions
- what are the origins and goals of DIYbio?
- how many faces fors DIYbio have and are they compatible?
- Is DIYbio the effect or the cure of science distrust?
- What about its relationship to the biotech industry?
- Is DIYbio a product of shifts within the life sciences?
- How to keep an eye on biosaftey


Winnie:

Why did ReaGent start?    
Bridge the gap between science and society
Shared space

Community (>)+ physical space

There are many different recipes, depending on serendipity, money, external partners, policy, etc - these things guide you to where you end up
Different people involved
_ Lab users - determine the projects
_ volunteers - open the space/community
_ hustlers - make things happen

we are still the early adopters 
- we need growth to sustain ourselves 
- there are limits to how much volunteer work you can do
- inevitably there is a need for professionalisation
- this means you're drawn to institutions (for grant money, for jobs, for space..)

on institutional partnerships
"I feel like they are sucking my blood"

How to sell diybio
- DIYbio is a major skill
- USP - rebel biohackers 
- but the has already been captured by the establishment)
- 

"Keep non profit work non profit"
"sell expertise, not a product"
"find synergies, not scale"
"have a broad curiosity" - can offer more services that don'T compromise the original diybio ethics
"stay independent"

Future
- better education
- more accessible biosciences
- interdisciplinary science
- better science communication (affect institutional change)

are you building a mini-university




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// TALK 2
Citizen vs. Science
- Puneet Kishor (@punkish)

Puneet is an independent xxxxx - not affiliated with any institution. 
Has been manager of science and data policy at creative commons, background in environmental and geological sciences.10 years experience with intellectual property rights and creative content.
This talk will be based on an opinion piece published by Puneet here:
http://punkish.org/citizen-vs-science

It is not possible for institutions to carry out citizen science (the way he understands it).
What is citizen science? It is impossible to make a single definition as too many different people need to agree

Often academics have a very condescending view of the possible role of citizens in science (eg as sensors), that leaves them absolutely no agency.
This kind of Citizen science is just Crowdsourcing - has parallels with web 2.0, with Über...

just as, citizens cannot do institutional science.
BUT institutions could support citizen science (open up labs and facilities, find funding support...)

Cultural appropriation of citizen science by institutions - sucks the oxygen away from real citizen science

There is no awareness of grassroots citizen science in the discourse around research funding. And so the mechanisms for funding grassroots citizen science just don't exist. 
We need to have this conversation, and not just the philosiphers amongst us, we need the practitioners to be involved.
(relates back to the question from @sabgaby - how far can diybio really make systemic change in research institutions/universities...) seems there is an even higher hurdle in the way thanks to institutional citizen science - sucking the oxygen from the room


links from the discussion
- https://www.scribd.com/document/84015163/Liars-Poker-Holmes
- crohn's disease forum 
- Kristian's question - what happens when individual citizen scientists get together and form organisations? THen start looking for volunteers - isn't that just the same?





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// TALK 3
Institutionalization of DIYbio 
- Ricardo Mutuberria (@rikimut )

Has worked for about 10 years at different museums and science centers
Will talk about how museums are evolving and starting to incorporate diybio and labs


Why?
- we are facing the rise of populism
- sustainable development goals
- we need better education to fiy the world  - active learning & applying knowledge to real world problems is the best way to learn

diybio model offers all the solutions! ;)
(applying the scientific method, critical thinking, collaboration, social & environmental responsibility, empowerment, gender and social equality, tech awarem´ness, bioethics, art, open access, demystification of science etc...)

museums have...
events, facilities and resources, spaces, visitor experience expertise, auditoriums, exhibitions, collections, trusted environment, designers, families, teachers, students, politicians, artists, engineers, scientists, relations and funding, local community, media, civil servants....
(there is a lot that diybio can learn form museums)

whilst working at Museum of Natural History (NY), creatures of light exhibition, he was starting to collab with Genspace (Brooklyn) - tried to convinced his museum colleagues to do bioluminescence workshops - NOT possible at that time... so they did workshops at Genspace (for adults then for children) - painting with different coloured bioluminescent bacteria on agar plates.

Was a great test-case and a good argument to start doing diybio at the museum.

How to bring diybio to museums:
Museum was too afraid to just let the community have free access to the museum to define their own content. So instead, 
  1. start with workshops, 
  2. move to hackathons and competitions, 
  3. engage other institutions (universities...)
  4. codesign lab/workingspace
  5. THEN allow artists and hackers to codesign the programme and define the projects
  6. develop products and services
  7. collections and exhibitions
  8. let the museum contribute with communication and evaluation (can be very helpful)
  9. network and dissemination - if done right, could help support other independent diybio spaces, build independent network

so - some level of success in the US

Now working on building a community lab with a museum in Spain, Cosmocaixa (Cosmocaixa Open Lab) http://www.cosmocaixa.com/
projects made by the lab can become part of the collection of the museum

Another project: 
Museum of AIDS in Africa http://museumofaidsinafrica.org/
A different kind of museum - experimental centres at different locations in Africa (popup museum) where the community would get involved in hands on activities to research and learn about AIDS
Winnie: I particularly like in this example how far you can take the role of the museum. Beyond transmitting information, beyond 'doing' and participating: how can museums play a role in prevention in these healthcare topics? Can science be a medium for activating prevention?

Another example:
Cube design museum (NL), living labs - bring students to work on real projects in collaboration with universities, hospitals, companies...
http://www.cubedesignmuseum.nl/en

Another example:
Columbia - Co Laboratorio
really innovative centre where citizens can come to do science

Another example:
San Jose, CA - Techmuseum https://www.thetech.org/
Wetlab

The Future of Museums
- small and many
- oriented to tackle global needs
- community-oriented  & citizen-driven (communities will start to run museums)
- multidisciplinary
- research institutions
- will become places of cultural production
- sustainable

Recommended reading: Paul Tatter. A need for a new education https://medium.com/@ptat/a-need-for-a-new-education-starting-over-c9cc91f563e5
- a learning park


QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION


- museums have been talking about innovation and social change for the last 10 years, but they make change VERY slowely. It's only now that things are gradually starting to change. They are very afraid of damaging their reputations. Are still very ignorant about diybio.

what do you mean by 'engaging community'
- museums can open up space for eg unemployed people & other community players to meet and collaborate

what about the power dynamics? How do we redress the balance wrt marginalised groups? Would it be better to remain independent?
- 


- Lucy question! how can we avoid exploitation of volunteer diybio along the way to change. How is the discussion wrt 'community' - is it free content for the benefit of the museum... diybio can just as easily (perhaps without the fight) do what we do in our own spaces. How can diybio practitioners talk constructively with musuems about compensation? (seems we operate on different timescales - we need to pay our rent next month)



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// EXTRA TALK! 4
Adam Zaretsky

Adam was at the Waag before the biolab was founded
VASTAL School - VivoArt School for Transgenic Aesthetics
https://twitter.com/vivoarts
http://emutagen.com/

vivoarts (any art that has life in it):
    ecoart
    culinary arts: whenever you eat, you're a monster 
    bioarts
    non-human arts - with or for (if you cut off the dog's head and use it to make prints, that's also with)
    body arts
    

We are all mutants, so where did mutaphobia come from?

"making transgenics is basically trying to fuck some organism where you can't get the DNA in there any other way."
in vitro xenopus fertilisation - 

Adam wants to get into our gonads and inject a piece of DNA, much in a way like choosing Chinese food: one from A, one from B, whtever you want. Basically, genetically modifying human embryos.

Thanks to genetic engineering, interspecies sex could be reproductive again. Not merely for recreation.

Mutantphobia is phobia of mutants: fear of difference itself.
humanphobia: fear of human potential and our track record
enigmaphobia: afraid of things that don't make sense in general, like a puzzle that's missing a piece
pathogeniphobia: afraid of things that are smaller than you that will kill you (virusses, bacteria, disease, nuclear waste, ...)
boomerangophobia: being afraid of karma. The Frankenstein dilemma, where what you created will come back to revenge itself.

Just say no to mutantphobia. It's not okay: we are all mutants.

Human genome diversity netporn project: promote and save weird human fetishes in order to keep them to extend human biodiversity

Human genomic engineering falls under FDA in the US. Which makes humans either food or drugs.