C-LAB is an art collective and organisation that engages with critical and contemporary amalgamations of art, science and technology. Headed up by London-based artists, Howard Boland and Laura Cinti, it focuses on artistic explorations of meaning and idiosyncrasies involving life both organic and synthetic.
C-LAB is internationally recognised as an interdisciplinary art platform that generates and participates in both artistic and scientific forums brokering discussions on the intersections of art and science.
Recent activities include exhibiting living synthetic biology artworks at Techfest 2012, Mumbai, India and curating public art exhibitions for the EU funded European Public Art Centre - EPAC (2010-2012), a European-wide collaboration between organisations exhibiting public artworks focusing on art, science and society for which C-LAB is UK partner.
C-LAB aims to be a body where artworks and ideas of culturally challenging nature can circulate and mature. This is a place where such stories, ideas and documentations can be accessed. To an extent, we are promoters of resistance aimed at challenging structures and ideas in our culture. We do not wish to be advocates of a world that is better to live in, to generate order out chaos or even be a mirror to the world. By hacking the codes of our culture we seek to create substances that circulates between our culture, reality and the other. From a theoretical stand we also open ourselves to texts in a more ephemeral way by using argumentations that allow inventions of new language. Even irrational rhetoric can be a linguistic construction that serves logic and our interest lies in texts that re-codes and break formal constructions. As organisations mature they have a tendency of formalising themselves into semi-academic bodies and our objectives is to resist this by allowing ruptures, disparities, irrationality and inventiveness. Finally, we want to be advocates of intensities and for intensities to be acted out with great expression.
howard boland, filming 'The Martian Rose' (2007/2009) experiment, at the Mars Simulation Laboratory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Howard Boland is co-founder and artistic director of C-LAB and an artist working with Synthetic Biology. His research focuses the use of standardised genetic parts using the MIT-based biobricks library through a laboratory-based practice. He holds a PhD (funded by the AHRC and the University of Westminster) titled “Art from Synthetic Biology” combines synthetic biology and art to produce novel visual expressions in bacteria. The research was situated at The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) and daily practice at the School of Life Sciences working independently and alongside science researchers. He has degrees in Mathematics (University of Oslo), Software Systems for the Arts & Media and has a Masters in Digital Practices with Distinction (University of Hertfordshire).
Howard has taught and worked extensively with award winning interactive productions for clients such as HSBC, Vodafone, Sony, V&A and Microsoft. His strong professional involvement with the creative industry include heading up interactive digital teams for major agencies. The work crosses highly technical activities and liaising client services.
Laura Cinti, setting up 'The Martian Rose' (2007/2009) (UN)INHABITABLE? – ART OF EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS Festival @rt Outsiders 2009, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France.
Laura Cinti is an artist working with biology. She is co-founder and co-director of C-LAB, an internationally recognised interdisciplinary art platform that generates and participates in both artistic and scientific forums. C-LAB has been invited to range of international conferences, exhibitions and continues to contribute in publications to broker discussions on the intersections of art and science. C-LAB is currently co-organiser of European Public Art Centre - EPAC (2010-2012), which focuses on collaborations between art and science across Europe and funded by the European Commission.
Laura has a PhD from UCL (Slade School of Fine Art in interdisciplinary capacity with UCL Centre of Biomedical Imaging), a Masters in Interactive Media: Critical Theory & Practice (Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London and BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class) from University of Hertfordshire.
Her artworks have been exhibited and presented internationally at venues such as the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (Seville), Stone Bell House (Prague), Microwave International New Media Arts Festival (Hong Kong), Göteborg New Media Art Festival (Röda Sten), International Astronautical Congress, Less Remote (Glasgow), Mutamorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences (Prague), Arts and Genomic Centre (Amsterdam) and Edinburgh International Science Festival.
Publications and features on her artworks include; Leonardo, Next (Michael Crichton), An [Un]Likely Alliance: Thinking Environment[s] with Deleuze/Guattari (Bernd Herzogenrath), Det Menneskelige Eksperiment (Museum Tusculanums Forlag, Copenhagan), Wired Science, The New York Times, USA Today, Wiedza I Zycie (Poland), New Scientist, Ceska Televise Port TV (Czech Television) and Scientific News Program (Vox Channel, Canada).