Yeastograms are living images made with yeast, growth media, UV light and rasterized images. During this three-evening workshop, participants will learn how to make them: rasterise images, make a suitable growth medium for yeast, and to expose the images with UV light. The workshop is hosted by visual artist Johanna Rotko. 

- -

Yeastograms are formed by cultivating yeast on a biological growth media to create images out of conventional photographs. Raster images printed on film are exposed with Ultraviolet LED lamps onto cultivated yeast in petri dishes. After approximately 48h, the yeast cells exposed to UV are killed or injured and the ones sheltered by the black parts survive, and the yeasts form the image on the growth medium.

Johanna Rotko is a visual artist working with living materials, mainly different yeasts. She was first introduced to yeastograms in 2013 during a workshop organized by artist collective Pavillon_35 and the Bioart Society, and has been working with yeast images since then. In her works Rotko explores the themes of transiency, material loss, change and time. She currently focuses on different yeast species, biological colours and the many purposes of yeast. Rotko's works have been exhibited in Mänttä, Dublin, Oulu, Corwallis, Helsinki, Kotka, Dortmund, Tokyo and Paris. The workshop will take place during the Living Images exhibition of Johanna Rotko.

Workshop schedule:

Monday, August 24, 16-20h: Making rasterized images
Tuesday, August 25, 16-20h: Making agar plates and exposing them to UV-light
Thursday, August 27, 16-20h: Exploring the results

Apply by August 21 by e-mailing your statement of motivation and CV to info (at) bioartsociety (dot) fi!

- -

The workshop is part of BioFacts - a programme that consists of a series of artistic research work labs. During 2020, the programme introduces fundamental techniques of working with biological arts and serves as a vehicle to discuss art and science, materials, techniques, safety and policy, biopolitics, ethics as well as artistic examples through hands-on work. 
BioFacts is supported by the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation.

- -

Photo by Johanna Rotko