In “Grain & Noise – Artists in Synthetic Biology Labs”, SinFonia partner Biofaction presents collaborations between scientists and artists in the form of Artist-in-Lab residencies. These residencies may not only cause a productive disturbance for a day’s work in the laboratory, but also reveal new ways of understanding. Biofaction brought together four artists and synthetic biologists throughout Europe in a residence program that spans four completely cross-disciplinary collaborations – including composer and programmer Eduardo Reck Miranda’s residency at project coordinator Pablo I. Nikel’s lab at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, the outcome of which was already introduced here.

The contributors to this volume – both artists and scientists – share their reflections of the dynamic frictions that occurred when their artistic and scientific worlds met. These stories, where chemistry labs, tobacco plants, genetically edited bacteria, and new-to-nature enzymes collide with music, photography, film, and visual arts, infuse the ongoing dialogue between art and sciences with grain, noise, and synergies.

The book is made available as an open access pdf file, which you can download for free, and as a hardcopy. Please find both here: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6516-1.