Technobiological Futures Co-Laboratories
Contents
- 1 Overview
- 2 Arai-eek Lab
- 3 SGMK Homemade Summercamp 2026
- 4 Artist / Hacker-in-Residence
- 5 South2South Workshop / Exchange Programme
- 6 Acknowledgements and Support
- 7 Earlier projects & collaborations
- 7.1 เหลู้าบ - LLL CoLaboratory (Laab Lu Lao) 2024
- 7.2 Intimacy with Nature - BioArt workshop series, Thailand & Singapore, 2022-23
- 7.3 HackteriaLab 2014 - Yogyakarta
- 7.4 Oki Wonder Lab - ハクテリア 合宿 Documentation / Reflection 2020
- 7.5 SGMK Homemade Summercamp 20 years!
- 7.6 TTTlabs BioFeral.BeachCamp (BFBC) 2024
Overview
Planning and execution of two Co-Laboratories, in Thailand, including a regular series of regional Workshops in South East Asia; Residencies, Networking and Fellowships in Switzerland; Consolidation and Research of Hackteria’s Collective and Transdisciplinary «do-it-with-others» Methodologies.
What we plan to do
Co-Laboratories: mutual learning and knowledge exchange with shared fascination with biology, from ecological science to synthetic biology merging with digital technologies. Linking the Global Hackteria Network & SGMK (Swiss Mechatronic Art Society) with tomorrow.Lab in Thailand and a network of partners in Southeast Asia and India, “Technobiological Futures” emphasizes DIWO participation and experimentation across diverse perspectives through networks of people across disciplines. Co-Laboratories opens a liminal space to question how ecosystems, bodies, and machines evolve together, and how these shifts ripple into politics, culture, and ethics. Participants co‑develop low‑cost instruments, bio‑sensing device art, performances and media works; publish open‑access documentation and hold public hands-on workshops.
Over 18 months, we will:
- Establish two intensive "Co-Laboratories" (10-14 day collaborative residencies) in Thailand, bringing together 25-30 artists, makers, scientists, and cultural organizers from across the region to develop new methodologies at the intersection of bioart, DIY science, and open source digital tools
- Host 3 Swiss-based fellowships for key Asian artists/facilitators, creating deep bi-directional exchange rather than one-way knowledge transfer, and connecting them to Switzerland's vibrant maker and hackerspace communities
- Expand the network regionally through satellite workshops and events in India and Indonesia, catalyzing South-South collaborations that bypass traditional North-mediated routes
- Produce open-source outcomes including documented prototypes, workshop curricula, digital toolkits, methodological handbooks, and a living network map—all freely accessible for others to adapt and implement
- Generate public engagement through exhibitions, performances, workshops, and an online symposium that brings our collaborative research to wider audiences
- Consolidate 15 years of Hackteria practice into transmissible knowledge: documenting techniques, philosophies, and ethical frameworks for equitable international collaboration in art-science-technology fields
Conceptual Framework
Our present moment demands precisely the kind of collaboration Hackteria has been cultivating. We face converging pressures:
**AI and biopolitics:** as tools like ChatGPT and proprietary genomic databases and closed scientific publishing consolidate within corporations, placing fundamental research capabilities behind paywalls while open alternatives struggle for resources—artists and communities need pathways to engage critically with these technologies as builders, not just consumers.
**The acute environmental crisis** in the global south- as we face unprecedented droughts, and species extinction accelerates—communities need accessible tools (DIY sensing, citizen science, bioart) to document or actively slow vanishing ecosystems and imagine alternative futures beyond technocratic solutions or passive victimhood.
**Destabilizing persistent colonial knowledge structures**, where Bangkok-Bangalore exchange still routes through Zurich or Paris rather than occurring directly, and where South Asian/Southeast Asian scientific and artistic production requires Western validation—this project deliberately builds South-South infrastructure with Asian partners leading methodology while Swiss partners provide resources, inverting typical extractive patterns.
**Post-pandemic lessons** about distributed networks' resilience over centralized systems, and normalized hybrid formats that make sustained international collaboration feasible.
**The methodology gap** in transdisciplinary practice, where rhetoric outpaces genuine co-creation and Hackteria's 15 years of tacit knowledge urgently needs documentation at a moment when institutions increasingly seek such models.
**The crisis of technological determinism**, where mainstream discourse oscillates between utopian boosterism and dystopian fatalism, leaving little space for communities to assert agency in shaping technologies that serve their values and contexts. In this landscape, Hackteria's commitment to open science hardware, radical transdisciplinarity, grassroots knowledge production, and equitable collaboration isn't just relevant—it's a model urgently needed, and this project allows us to strengthen, document, and transmit it precisely when alternatives to extraction, enclosure, and determinism are most critical.
Background of the collaborations
This project is nurturing networks in the global hackteria activities that have proven their value over 15 years, giving them the resources to flourish and scale. Founded in India and Switzerland in 2009, and many projects in Indonesia and across Europe. Since OkiWonderLab, 2020 we started to collaborate with Henry Tan (FreakLab) and Weeratouch (Wave) Pongruengkiat (tomorrow.lab), who organized events on bioart with very overlapping networks, which were the first of its kind in Thailand and Singapore attracting a lot of interest across Southeast Asia. It combined 3 months residencies and 1 week of public participatory events. Marc Dusseiller had the opportunity to deepen this partnership through Pro Helvetia’s research trip granted in 2023, which serendipitously led to the co-organizing of a prototype co-lab Laab Lu Lao in January 2024, and now led to this larger partnership programme of “Technobiological Futures”.
Presentation slides of background by dusjagr
We were invited to present our programme at the RöstiBrücke Symposium - SCIENCE IS ART (OR THE OTHER WAY ROUND..) on 22. March 2026, hosted at Kunstraum Walcheturm in Zürich.
Arai-eek Lab
Overview
Arai-eek Lab Camp & Ari-eek Lab Residency is a format of mutual learning and knowledge exchange rooted in a shared fascination with biology - from ecological science to synthetic biology — merged with digital technologies and traditional craft. Linking the Global Hackteria Network and SGMK (Swiss Mechatronic Art Society) with tomorrow.lab and Pa Rang Art Company in Thailand, CoLabs emphasises Do-It-With-Others (DIWO) participation and experimentation across diverse perspectives.
For the Chiang Mai chapter, we introduce Lannafuturism — a speculative framework that asks: What happens when centuries-old Lanna craft knowledge meets open-source technology, biological materials, and experimental art practice?
“Arai-eek” means “what else?” in Thai — a simple question that opens infinite possibilities. Both programs are built on that question.
What else can art become when it grows like an organism? What else can we create with living materials, waste, microbes, and time? What else is possible when technology is not only digital, but ecological, handmade, and shared?
Arai-eek Lab is a space for exploring bioart, experimental design, and future living practices. We invite artists, musicians, makers, and curious minds to step into a temporary laboratory where nature and technology are not separate — but intertwined.
“Arai-eek?” — What else can we do? What else can we become?
Schedule
Phase 1: Research Residency (6 weeks)
21 April — 30 May 2026
A focused period for invited artists, researchers, and makers to develop new work in response to the Lannafuturism theme. Residents are embedded at Pa Rang Cafe & Art Stay in Chiang Mai with access to fabrication tools, local craft communities, and academic partners.
Phase 2: Co-Laboratory (2 weeks)
15 — 30 May 2026
An intensive period of collective experimentation, public workshops, and knowledge exchange. Additional CoLabs participants join the residents for hands-on collaborative work culminating in a public showcase day.
Background
See our previous activites from 2023/24, Chiang Mai Cheese Fest and เหลู้าบ - Laab Lu Lao CoLaboratory
SGMK Homemade Summercamp 2026
See more info on the SGMK wiki
The Homemade summercamp is a week that is open for beginners as well as experts and everyone in between interested in exploring ideas in art & technology or creating objects for sound, light or movement. The participants can bring their individual projects or work in groups and get inspired by related topics from all other participants. During this self-organized research week we will do workshops and talks, run experiments, cook & eat together, go hiking and there will also be time for party and relaxing.
Artist / Hacker-in-Residence
More info on the SGMK wiki.
For the last couple of years, and especially since we moved into our new space at Bitwäscherei Hackerspace Collective in 2020, we have developed a truly global Residency Programme for hackers, artists, activists from all paths of life. As we share the premises of the MechArtLab together with other great initiatives such as the Hackteria, who runs the Hackteria ZET – Open Science Lab, a local public biolab in Zürich as part of their global network activities.
The Hacker-in-Residence Programme is organized and funded on individual basis, always searching for synergies with other local organisations and events, and is primarily co-ordinated by dusjagr aka Marc Dusseiller, CEO of the Center for Alternative Coconut Research, in his role as as co-founder and board member of both the Swiss Mechatronic Art Society (SGMK) and Global Ambassador of the Hackteria Network in collaboration with Maya Minder, fermentista, artist and currently president of SGMK.
The current CoLabs programme, supported through the Synergies grant from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, gives us now a unique opportunity to professionalize, establish and grow this residencies and be able to invite artists/hackers from Southeast Asia to join us during Summer 2026 and later on in our schedule in 2027!
Call for Support
You want to support our "Hacker-in-Residence"? Cos as always,... Money is never enough, and to be able to properly host our guests from Indonesia or Thailand, we would love to have more resources to be able to make everybody happy and not rely on self-exploitation.
- You want to donate some finances to our programme
- You have access to an appartment / room in Zürich?
- You want to host a short period of the residency in your art-space / hackerspace?
South2South Workshop / Exchange Programme
Acknowledgements and Support
Partners & Friends
Technobiological Futures Co-Laboratories (CoLabs) is a format of mutual learning and knowledge exchange rooted in a shared fascination with biology — from ecological science to synthetic biology — merged with digital technologies and traditional craft. Linking the Global Hackteria Network and SGMK (Swiss Mechatronic Art Society) with tomorrow.lab and Pa Rang Art Company in Thailand, CoLabs emphasises Do-It-With-Others (DIWO) participation and experimentation across diverse perspectives.
Hackteria - International Hackteria Society
As a community platform hackteria tries to encourage the collaboration of scientists, hackers and artists to combine their expertise, write critical and theoretical reflections, share simple instructions to work with lifescience technologies and cooperate on the organization of workshops, temporary labs, hack-sprints and meetings. Over the last 15 years Hackteria has been broadening its base of associates and collaborators with the aim of enriching its resources and increasing the possibilities of communication and dissemination. It’s GLOBAL - the virtual knowledge-sharing platform allows learning and participation, which is not restricted by physical location. We have performed workshops in more than 30 countries; it’s DIVERSE – scientists, engineers, artists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, foodies and chefs, academic and citizen initiatives, young and old(er) bring together their interests and expertise; it’s FACE-TO-FACE – through workshops we engage a wider audience in art festivals, academic institutions, and the general public, through the HackteriaLab immersive format we experiment and develop of new models for knowledge sharing and collaboration building.
Under the name “International Hackteria Society”, is an association according to article 60ff of the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) with seat in Zürich. The association aims to guarantee the organizational and financial processes of the project “Hackteria | Open Source Biological Art”. It wants to further development and access to practical knowledge in artistic engagement with the lifesciences. It wants to create platforms for public discussions and invite international artists and scientists for critical and theoretical discourse. The association works as a non-profit organization to reach its aims.
- Hackteria website
- Hackteria wiki
- International Hackteria Society
Tomorrow.Lab
tomorrow.Lab is a collective of futurists, explorers of spheres that unites art and science. Our collective encourages an open conversation with local individuals, communities, and cities. – Everyone, to actively participate in the world of tomorrow.
SGMK – Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Mechatronische Kunst (Swiss Mechatronics Art Society)
The Swiss Mechatronic Art Society (SGMK, established in 2006) is a collective of engineers, hackers, scientists and artists that joined to collaborate and promote on creative and critical uses of technology. They develop DIY technologies, collaborate with social and educational institutions, run the diy* festival and the public „MechArt Lab“ in Zurich, and organize workshops in electronics, robotics, physical computing, diy-biology, lofi-music. SGMK has been supported by Bundesamt für Kultur, Migros Kulturprozent, Stadt Zürich and more. Since 2020 we joined forces with other local hacker groups (CCCzh, DigiGes, UwU space, LUGS, hackteria) and founded the collective hackerspace "Bitwäscherei" part of the cultural center Zentralwäscherei, in the heart of the city of Zurich.
BEAK - Bioart Ethical Advisory Kommission
The Bioarts Ethical Advisory Komission (BEAK) was established to provide artistic and other expert oversight towards creative bioethical assessment for bioart applications. By exploring novel Life Science research as bioart, we provide both artists and scientists with professional bioartistic aesthetics consulting. BEAK is able to utilize art history and cultural criticism to prepare reports, public education workshops and best practices including thorough risk-benefit analysis by reviewing the Legal, Ethical, Societal and Libidinal implications (LESLi) of bioart in production, exhibition or disposal/archiving.
- BEAK - Website
- Insta?
Pa Rang Café & Art Stay
We are also partnering with Rong Sa Dang โรงแสดง เชียงใหม่ as a live venue and other public events
EAR - Environmental Artistic Research
EAR is a non-profit association situated in the rural Emmental region of Switzerland, adjacent to the UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch. Our work is dedicated to fostering empathetic listening, interdisciplinary dialogue, and ecological awareness through artist residencies, retreats, and collaborative research formats.
Myriad / Makery
Myriad is an association based in Brittany, France, dedicated to the design, development, and promotion of cultural, artistic, scientific, educational, and social projects that foster connections and interactions between art, science, and society; it also focuses on organizing interdisciplinary initiatives, international collaborations, outreach programs, and research-creation projects.
Myriad co-produces with ART2M.eu the community web media platform Makery.info and the art & marine biology platform Roscosmoe.org.
Makery.info is an online magazine, bilingual French/English, free and ad-free, covering the Do-It-Yourself and creative communities scenes in art, science, technologies since 2014. Makery carries the voice of cultural players, facilitators, makers, intellectuals, artists and more generally all those who are part of social innovation, think and act for a more ecological, inclusive and open world.
HAZE
Shristi Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology
Serrum
Serrum is an art collective founded in Jakarta in 2006 focusing on education, visual arts, social issues, and public space through collaborative practices. It is part of Gudskul, a collective study ecosystem initiated by ruangrupa, Serrum, and Grafis Huru Hara that promotes collectivity, resource sharing, and horizontal learning. Together, they facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge exchange among artists, researchers, educators, and communities.
FreakLAB - Futuristic Research Cluster
Futuristic Research Cluster (FREAK Lab) is an anti-disciplinary research cluster that converge arts, science, and technology for thinking beyond and exploring the the symbiotic relationship between human and the emerging technologies.
Wise Mouse culture
Center for Alternative Coconut Research
- insta? dusjagr's personal website?
Biohaha
Biohaha, founded in 2024, is a collaborative platform that merges art and science, with a focus on biology and its relevance to Indonesia’s social, cultural, and climatic conditions.Biohaha’s members come from various cities, bringing unique perspectives shaped by biological inquiry, technological curiosity, and hands-on material practices. Biohaha’s works and experiments combine innovation with simplicity. One of its key practices involves developing do it together biology laboratory tools using repurposed materials. This approach not only makes science more accessible but also embodies a spirit of sustainability and creativity in navigating limitations. These methods are shared through regular workshops aimed at knowledge exchange and fostering an organic, dynamic DIY biology community. Biohaha believes that collaboration between art and science can not only generate meaningful works but also contribute to shaping a more creative and environmentally conscious society.
Funding & Financial Supporters
The "Technobiological Futures" programme (February 2026 — August 2027) is a multi-phase initiative spanning Thailand, Switzerland, Indonesia, and India. Co-funded by “Synergies”, by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, the Co-Laboratories catalyse South-South collaborations that bypass traditional North-mediated routes, building sustainable networks for art-science-technology exchange across the Global South.
See our full proposal "as submitted" on our cloud. We received 80k CHF (of 98k requested), co-financed with an additional 50% of in-kind contributions, third party fundings (still in process), and a high level of volunteer work that has been put in. You can see our in-process to be revised budget as submitted here.
Earlier projects & collaborations
เหลู้าบ - LLL CoLaboratory (Laab Lu Lao) 2024
A do-it-with-others Art&Science CoLaboratory
A Night-Market of Ideas and Interactions
A Gathering of Enthusiastic People to Share and Experiment Together
LLL CoLaboratory (เหลู้าบ แลบ) คืองานที่จะชวนทุกคนมาทดลองร่วมกันในธีม ศิลปะ และวิทยาศาสตร์ ทั้งการเล่นกับนาโนเทคโนโลยีในชีวิตประจำวัน การตัดต่อพันธุกรรมด้วยอุปกรณ์บ้าน และการหมักดองจากจุลชีพ เป้าหมายของเราคือการรวมกลุ่มผู้คนที่สนใจในการทำงานแบบสหสาขา และการทำโปรเจคที่สำรวจอนาคตของเรา กิจกรรมนี้จะมีขึ้น 5 วัน ที่เราจะได้มาใช้ห้องทดลองเปิดด้วยกัน เราจะมีอุปกรณ์ และองค์ความรู้จาก opensource เพื่อให้ทุกคนได้มาทำงานร่วมกัน เราจะมีทั้งกิจกรรมที่เราจัดขึ้นทั้ง เวิร์คชอปหรือการฉายภาพยนต์ และมีส่วนที่เปิดให้ผู้ร่วมได้ร่วมตัดสินใจร่วมกัน
17. - 21. Jan 2567 (2024)
LLL CoLaboratory (เหลู้าบ แลบ) is a "do-it-with-others" Art & Science open laboratory. Our goal is to gather the enthusiastic people and work on various multidisciplinary and speculative projects. We organize a 5-days "OPEN LAB" session for everyone to access. We are providing a space for share equipment, material, consulting, workshop and opensource for learning and working on projects. There will be workshops from the organizer. However, there also a flexible session for participant to decide. The session has no limit to creativity - let's see how the opensource community bring us to the next level of imagination.
Intimacy with Nature - BioArt workshop series, Thailand & Singapore, 2022-23
Intimacy with Nature explores our socio ecological system, as well as how human civilisation affects and changes biodiversity and climate. What role does biotechnology and life sciences play in protecting and restoring nature that has been lost or creating future nature?
https://freaklab.org/residency-program/
Media article: https://www.matichon.co.th/mic/news_3413904
HackteriaLab 2014 - Yogyakarta
Watch the full movie / documentary: "SENI GOTONG ROYONG: HackteriaLab 2014 - Yogyakarta"
Citizen science has long contributed to the health of local communities by making people aware of their environment in the form of oral histories and traditional wisdom. Recently, international open source and maker movements have been actively engaging with the life sciences to focus on the environment. This brought a revival of the tradional knowledge as well as an opportunity for innovation and a model for public participation in science. These activities are becoming influential policy forces changing how we produce and share knowledge as an iterative and collective process. Yogyakarta, Indonesia, has been one of the most active hubs in this movement.
HackteriaLab 2014 – Yogyakarta was held in April 2014 as a two-weeks making-oriented gathering of researchers, artists, scientists, academicians, hackers and whatevers in Yogyakarta. It expanded on ideas and methodologies about BioArt, DIY biology, DIWO (Do-It-With-Others), appropriate technology, art and science, and biohacking, developed during the previous versions of HLab10 - Dock18, HLab11 - Romainmotier both in Switzerland and HLab13 - Bangalore, India. HLab14 was hosted by LIFEPATCH - citizen initiative in art, science and technology and co-organized together with HACKTERIA | Open Source Biological Art in collaboration with various regional partners.
This book tried to assemble a collection of essays written by the participants, asked to reflect on their own experiences, individually or collectively, which only gives a glimpse into all the projects and exchanges that happend during HLab14. With a short overview of the programme and activities, selected photo impressions and the exhibition manual the book is rounded up and can be an entry point to explore further our online resources and serve as an inspiration for transdisciplinary collaborative practices.
Find all info about the HLab14-Book"Reflections on HackteriaLab 2014 - Yogyakarta"
Oki Wonder Lab - ハクテリア 合宿 Documentation / Reflection 2020
ハクテリア 合宿 – Oki Wonder Lab was a concentrated gathering of people working transdisciplinary who are interested in creative biological fields and any other areas which intrigue the critical interaction across art and science. Held in Spring 2020 as a local and globally connected series of events, co-organized by Hackteria, dusjagr, Toru Ryu Oyama, Andreas Siagian and many other friends and collaborators
(* ハクテリア 合宿 - Ha-ku-te-ri-a Gasshuku translates to "hackteria camp")
Video footage: Toru Ryu Oyama (and other participants) Video editing: Yoshimoto Azusa
SGMK Homemade Summercamp 20 years!
The Homemade summercamp is a week that is open for beginners as well as experts and everyone in between interested in exploring ideas in art & technology or creating objects for sound, light or movement. The participants can bring their individual projects or work in groups and get inspired by related topics from all other participants. During this self-organized research week we will do workshops and talks, run experiments, cook & eat together, go hiking and there will also be time for party and relaxing.
See an Overview of 20 Years of Homemade
TTTlabs BioFeral.BeachCamp (BFBC) 2024
