Dr Howard Boland (PhD, MA Digital Practices Distinction, BSc Hons Software Systems for the Arts and Media, BSc Mathematics) is a multidisciplinary practitioner working across art, science and technology. With a strong technical and innovative creative skills, his experience spans from artistic and scientific research contexts to leading projects and teams in the interactive industry. Howard is artistic director of the . His PhD (funded by the AHRC and the University of Westminster) titled “Art from Synthetic Biology” combined synthetic biology and art to produce novel visual expressions in bacteria culminating in UK’s first art exhibition featuring living genetically modified microorganisms at the Royal Institute of Great Britain. He has an extensive experience in the digital creative industry leading creative and technical teams to award-winning projects.
Water as a Site for TransformationIstorik Gallery, Valencia, Spain, 2026
H for HybridWizard Lab, Milan, Italy, 2025
Out of the BoxWiyu Wahono Collection, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, 2019 BioFiction: Science Art Film Festival, Microwave International New Media Arts FestivalChinese University of Hong Kong & Hong Kong Space Museum, Hong Kong, 2016 ACCRA [dot] ALTChale Wote Street Art Festival, Accra, Ghana, 2016 Human+ The future of our species, BioFiction: Science Art Film FestivalCentre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2016 Trust Me, I'm an ArtistHet Glazen Huis, Amstelpark, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017 GlobaleZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2015-2016 Imaginary Body Boundary, BioFiction: Science Art Film FestivalDigital Art Center, National Taiwan Science Education Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2015 JUST 40Cultivamos Cultura, Odemira, Portugal, 2015 Science Art SocietyMAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy, 2014 BEYOND Biennale: Reality ShiftDiscovery Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2014 Not Invented by NatureBioQuant Center, Heidelberg, Germany, 2013 - 2014 BioFiction: Science Art Film FestivalArs Electronica Center, Linz, Austria, 2014 BIO·FICTION Science Art Film FestivalMuseum of Natural History, Vienna, Austria, 2014 Alt_Cph 14, AssembleThe Factory for Art and Design, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014 Age of WonderNatlab, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 2014 Grow Your OwnScience Gallery Dublin, Ireland, 2013-2014 Terra 0Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong, China, 2013 DA4GANaturalis Biodiversity Center, Raamsteeg 2, Leiden, Netherlands, 2013Art from Synthetic Biology* Solo exhibition, The Royal Institute of Great Britain, London, UK, 2013 Evaporation of ThingsInspace, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013 Re-New Digital Art FestivalAalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012 Graduate School LaunchUniversity of Westminster, London, UK, 2012 Cage Rattling: #1: Kill SwitchKings Place, London, UK 2012 TechfestIIT Bombay, India, 2012 (Un)Inhabitable? - Art of Extreme EnvironmentsFestival @rt Outsiders 2009, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France, 2009 Transient CreaturesMicrowave International New Media Arts Festival 2008, Hong Kong, China2008 Unsafe Distance3rd International Festival for the Arts, Sciences and Technologies, Stone Bell House, Prague, Czech Republic, 2007 Bios 4. Arte Biotecnológico y AmbientalCentro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain, 2007 Today In Paradise :: Genetics & ArtsMobileart 05, Göteborg New Media Art Festival - Göteborg, Sweden, 2005Bio art: Intersections in Art & Synthetic Biology BioHack Academy, Waag, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2022Bio art: An immersive perspective Life as an Object, Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2022 From Synthetic Biology to Bio ArtBurgLabs Opening Symposium, Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle, Germany, 2020 Intersecting Art with BiotechnolgyBenoy Innovation Series, Benoy Global, London, UK, 2017 Intersections in Art and Synthetic BiologyIntersections Lecture Series, Royal College of Art, London, 2017 Crossing Paths - Intersecting IdeasTEDx, University of Bolton, Bolton, UK, 2016 Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Cellular PropellerTransmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2016 C-LAB’s Biological Art PracticeRoyal College of Art, London, UK, 2015 Synthetic Biology and ArtUniversity of Oxford, Oxford, UK, 2015 All About Imaging: TransactionsUniversity of Westminster, London, UK, 2014 Art and Innovation: the Future of InterdisciplinarityHet Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2014 Bio Art & Synthetic BiologyArchitectural Association School of Architecture, London, UK, 2013 Bio Art & Synthetic BiologyCentral Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK, 2013 Synthetic Biology ArtRoyal Russell School, Surrey, UK, 2013 Synthetic Biology ArtArt Laboratory Berlin, Germany, 2013 Synthetic Biology & ArtNeuro-ethics Open Debate, UCL, London, UK, 2013 Mutamorphosis: Tribute to UncertainityNational Theatre & Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic, 2012 Synthetic Biology Society Kick-offUniversity College London (UCL), UK, 2012 Interactive Media Arts Conference IMACAalborg University,Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012 Cage Rattling #1: Kill SwitchKings Place, London, UK, 2012 Synthetic Biology Speed DebateUniversity College London(UCL), London UK, 2012 Subtle Technologies: Where Art and Science MeetRyerson University, Toronto, Canada, 2012 The Two Cultures: Visual Art and the Sciences University of York, York, UK, 2012 Synthetic Biology: Machine or Life?Dana Centre, Science Museum, London, UK, 2011 Less Remote: The Futures of Space ExplorationInternational Astronautical Congress (IAC), Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), Glasgow, Scotland, 2008 Telling Places: Narratives and Identity in Art & ArchitectureThe Slade Research Centre, London, UK, 2007 Mutamorphosis: Challenging Arts & SciencesInternational Centre for Art and New Technologies (CIANT), Prague, Czech Republic, 2007 BioramaDigital Research Unit, Huddersfield, UK, 2007 An Encounter with Biotechnological & Environmental ArtCentro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain, 2007 Official Launch of the Arts & Genomic CentreUniversity of Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005 Transgenic Art ForumEdinburgh International Science Festival, Scotland, 2005 Göteborg New Media Art Festival SymposiumValand School of Fine Arts, Göteborg, Sweden, 2005
In Search for the Rarest Plant: Art, Drones, and AILeonardo (MIT Press), 2025
Bioart: An Immersive PerspectiveArc-hive: Case Studies and Life as an Object (KONTEJNER), 2022
Self-Willed: Flux and Reaction in Systems, Organisms and MaterialsH Boland, J Freeman, JJA Hastings, S Hessels, T Klein, 24th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA 2018), Durban, South Africa, 2018 Stress-o-statLeonardo Electronic Almanac 22, no. 2, Lanfranco Aceti (eds), Cambridge, MA: LEA / MIT Press, 2017 Banana BacteriaIn Michael John Gorman (eds), Grow Your Own...Life After Nature, Science Gallery, Dublin, 2013 Art from Synthetic BiologyDoctoral Thesis, University of Westminster, June 2013 Stress-o-StatCybernetics Revisited – Towards a Third Order?, Proceedings of Abstracts, Re-New Festival of Digital Arts, Interactive Media Art Conference (IMAC), 2012The Martian RoseLeonardo, Vol. 42, No. 2, MIT Press, April 2009 The Martian RoseMulti: The RIT Journal of Plurality and Diversity in Design, Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 2008 The Martian RoseMutamorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences, Conference Proceedings, CIANT, International Centre for Art and New Technologies, 2007