Bacteria Battery No. 8 (installation, 2013) is a part of an innovative art and science ongoing collaboration project „Biotricity” (ongoing since 2012) by Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits and Martins Ratniks together with sound artist and composer Voldemars Johansons and young biologists from University of Latvia. Bacteria Battery experiments with new generation „green energy” technologies and sonifies the process of generating electricity from bacteria living in water. The installation consists of a cell network altogether creating a ‘bacteria battery’. „Bacteria fuel” process is interpreted in sound structures providing an aesthetic perspective on the mutual relations between nature and technology, biologic systems, and electronic networks.
Project is carried out in collaboration with the Institute of Solid State Physics of University of Latvia, and shown within Media Intersections project.
Media Intersections is a collaborative project between WRO Art Center, House of Electronic Arts (Basel), and RIXC Center (Riga) supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in the framework of the Cooperations 2012—2013 program.
Media Intersections project during WRO 2013 includes installations by Aline Veillat, Michel Winterberg, Denis Handschin, the RIXC group and a lecture by Doris Gassert.
Rasa Smite is a media artist—innovator and network researcher based in Riga, Latvia. She has graduated from Art Academy of Latvia (with MA in visual art), and holds a PhD in sociology from Riga Stradins University (the topic of her PhD thesis was „Creative Network Communities”, 2011). Currently, she is an Associate Professor of New Media Art Programme and researcher at Art Research Lab (MPLab)/Liepaja University. She is also co—founder of RIXC Centre for New Media Culture in Riga.
Raitis Smits is a media artist and curator. He holds MA from Art Academy of Latvia, and currently he is doing his PhD (the topic of his PhD thesis is „The preservation of new media art”). He is an Assistant Professor in Visual Communication department at Art Academy of Latvia, and the artistic director in RIXC.
Martins Ratniks is an artist, VJ and designer working together with E—Lab/RIXC since 1997. He is also one of the founding members of artists collective F5. He is an Assistant Professor in Visual Communication department at Art Academy of Latvia and he still works as an artist and designer in RIXC.
Latvian artist and composer Voldemārs Johansons works with audio/data in forms of composition, installation and performance. Studied at the Institute of Sonology in Hague and Latvian Academy of Music. His work deals with acoustics and sound processing, examining aspects of spatiality, physicality and interaction in context of real and virtual environments and their hybrid intersections.
