Studio Foundations

Currently, vivoLabs has now relocated to a private studio located in California for personal research and art production. vivoLabs – an art and science collaborative founded by Julia, was first enacted in Troy, NY at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2003. The Art Studio/Laboratory in the Arts Department was built in conjunction with laboratory guidance and support from Helen Hong, PhD and the Stegemann Laboratory of Functional Tissue Engineering. Due to sensitive, mono-tissue culture research efforts and the restriction of prohibiting unscreened human cells entering the RPI biotech laboratories, portions of the art development had to take place at the personal studio in the Arts Department.

In the personal studio, there is more freedom to do more experimentation and “dirty work” which includes non-sterile sculpting techniques and production. There are multiple issues that the artist must consider in the creative phases of tissue cultured art. Contamination issues, exhibition experimentation and audience/environmental safety measures are major responsibilities. In the studio, laboratory protocols are followed for the safe use and disposal of any equipment or media.

The studio is also a location for play and informal learning. Much of the creative attempts anticipate many failures and trials in terms of specimen survival because the exhibit environment is not a contained world as the laboratory is. Air and gas exchange in the lab is cleansed and sterile. A studio is not. Laboratory specimens usually do not leave the experimental area until clinical testing begins perhaps years down the road. Studio art often travels to different exhibitions. So, the creation of enclosed systems to protect the quality of cellular life cycles has become a major research project.

The Center for BioMedia (CBM) was a collaborative project founded by Julia Reodica and Richard Pell (MFA Electronic Arts alumnus, 2004). The intention of a studio-art and science gallery is to also set a forum for play and informal learning in addition to an exhibition space. To date, youth outreach group activities and visiting artists’ workshops/shows have taken place there. Special interests includes the investigation and hands-on research of progressive tools in biotechnology, tissue culturing, synthetic biology, DNA analysis and electronics. The CBM differs from larger science and art museums in that the lab and exhibit spaces are visually and physically integrated with one another. Current research and bio-artworks are exhibited as in-progress and completed works.