a_digital_naturalist - Dinacon 2025

January 28, 2025

Lucinda Dayhew

We (Dinoj, Luci, and Sumugan) plan to collect ocean plastic and make recordings to build a common sample bank (shared online) using free, open source tools. We will experiment with sonification of ocean data and assemble musical instruments from scavenged plastic: potentially work with Andy’s plastic processing method for 3D printing. We were involved in the Thaalam Riddim Reapers music production workshop at Dinacon 2022, Batticaloa. In March 2024 we developed this project into a ten day “bootcamp”, Dham Dham Riddim, at DreamSpace Academy’s Music Lab and released an album of the participants’ results on Bandcamp in August 2024.

Bio Lucinda Dayhew investigates relationships between social, ecological, historical, and psychological phenomena with a percussive bent. She sculpts words and moulds sounds and materials into pulsing narratives and rhythmic objects, which shift shape as they grapple with the conflicting ethics of daily life and global spin. Her works materialise as installations, performances, texts, films, photographs, sound works, and sculptures that are shown locally and internationally. Collaboration is the key to her beating heart.

Bio Sumugan Sivanesan is an artist, researcher and writer whose interests include music, minority politics, activist media, artist infrastructures and more-than-human rights. His artistic research project fugitive radio (2020-ongoing) develops live collectively-realised modes of “performance-radio” alongside a monthly podcast, music, zines and texts.

Bio Dinoj M is an artist and music producer who blends music with nature while celebrating the culture of his hometown, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. He runs DreamSpace Records, a creative hub where local artists can record and produce their tracks. When he’s not making music, he’s upcycling old stuff into musical instruments because sustainability is his jam. His songs reflect the rich traditions and stories of Batticaloa, while also highlighting why we need to protect the planet. Dinoj is all about empowering artists and creating music that’s meaningful, fresh, and rooted in heritage.

July 12, 2022January 13, 2025

Saad Chinoy

BioPlastics and Kombucha SCOBY Leather – experiments in kitchen science.

Fermentation brings people together on a microbial level. Using pro-biotic projects to talk methods, flavour, art, and tech all at once in a hands-on and constructive manner lends itself to a shared understanding of the science and indigenous knowledge of the microbiome through storytelling.

I’ll be working with the DreamSpace team and folks from Sri Lanka to learn about their famed Ceylon Tea and the culture that surrounds it. With hands-on workshops on making Kombucha Starter, SCOBY, and vegan leather I hope to initiate an exchange of stories, recipes, practical ideas, and creative expression. This, together with cooking up bioplastics from rice-starch to address the constantly growing challenge of single-use plastics I hope to use kitchen science and informal education to link awareness, outreach, and solution prototyping through hands-on activity.

With the current economic crisis and a need for revenue from Tourism, I feel an influx of creative and collaborative international travelers offers a sign of positive support. With the Intention of building resilient systems, and helping to build resilience into systems I trust the open-sourced maker / hacker / DIY approach will inspire innovative progress through a “perfect storm” of challenges.

#MakersGonnaMake #WeAreWhatWeCreateTogether
@saadCaffeine
edibleMakerspace.com
salvageGarden.com
spudnikLab.com

Mr & Mrs Mayor of Batticaloa visit the BioLab

Other projects: conversations with Dinasaurs and Dreamspace folks organically lead to many, many “side projects” some of which are documented here because, photos!

DinaCafe / Lounge w Tali and the Dinasaurs
– DIY filters
– Caffeinated contributions
– Lounge / after-dark toddy Shenanigans (Oh My Gourd)

Papaya sap based alternative to CivetCat Coffee w Marc and the BioLab
– see also a side-side-project using papain protease enzyme for vegan cheese w Ahac and BioLab

Papain rich sap just beneath the skin of the Papaya

ShroomMonitor w Cris, Pramo, Brian, and a hacked humidifier
– Introducing Microcontrollers with Arduino and reverse engineering to emulate a touch sensor

fully hacked humidifier to respond to environment sensors via arduino

BikingHacks w Andy and DreamspaceCollective
– Turning bicycles into horses using Coconuts and laser-cutting inspired by MontyPython and Trotify

Other other projects
– DIY Incubator w BioLab
– ButterChurn jar w 3D printed hand-crank inspired by visit to the museum
– Caffeinator redux – cold brew coffee to keep caffeinated in spite of power cuts

April 30, 2022April 30, 2022

libi rose striegl

close face shot, libi looks into the camera with a crooked smile. she is white with blue-green eyes and wearing a red hoodie, her brown hair sweeps across her face to the left.

Project (at the moment): Sculptural Solar Radio

Bio

By day, I am the managing director of the Media Archaeology Lab at CU Boulder. The rest of the time I am an artist and researcher, interested in collaborative engagement, performative chaos, archival impermanence and DIY defamiliarization. I am pro complication, imperfection and visibility. In pursuing these things, my media ranges from hardware hacking to hand-crafted zines. I completed my PhD in the Intermedia Arts Writing and Performance program at CU in 2020 with a dissertation titled Voluntary Deconvenience and my MFA in Experimental Documentary Arts at Duke in 2015 with a thesis titled thoroughly known. The former is a series of tech-education workshops geared towards exploration of “convenience” as it relates to technology and its role in the social, economic, political and environmental framework of the present world. The latter is a personal exploration of psychiatric diagnosis, specifically autism, and of the language used in diagnostic texts.

I also make stickers.