Tölvera

On the 29th of November at 12:30 in N-129, Dr. Jack Armitage will give a seminar, titled:

Tölvera: Towards a Medium for Physical Computing in 21st Century Life Sciences

The microscope transformed biology by making the invisible visible, and physical play with tangible models enabled Watson and Crick's discovery of DNA's structure. Today, we stand at another threshold where interactive technologies are enabling us to deepen our hands-on exploration of biology. In this talk I will introduce Tölvera (http://tolvera.is), a GPU-accelerated toolkit for creating tangible interfaces to complex systems, developed at HÍ’s Intelligent Instruments Lab (http://iil.is) and supported by Mozilla's AI Accelerator program. Through case studies, I will demonstrate how bridging art and science, and physical and digital interaction, can enhance our relationship with biological processes. Drawing from diverse intelligence and bio-HCI research, I will describe the potential of composable, hybrid systems that combine artificial and real life to transform biological research through embodied interaction. I will conclude by discussing opportunities for collaboration and our microgrant program supporting researchers interested in developing new interfaces for biological understanding.

About the speaker:

I am a musician, designer and technologist based in Iceland, and the founder of research studio Afverhju Ekki. I was until recently a postdoc researcher at the Intelligent Instruments Lab, University of Iceland for three years, and now my open source AI project Tölvera has been funded by the Mozilla Foundation. I have a PhD in Media & Arts Technologies from Queen Mary University of London. My artistic work spans experimental concerts, electronic club performances and DJ sets, multimedia installations, interface design, sound design, music production and composition (credits including Charli XCX and Jónsi), and more.

This seminar is in person in N-129 but also streamed on zoom:

https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/61298006859

Meeting ID: 612 9800 6859