The groWorld initiative brings together three ‘forces’ capable of transforming the world on human and ecological scales: culture, gardening and technology. These three strands of inquiry inform and support each other, aiming to forge new symbiotic relationships between the post-industrial human societies and the rest of the Earth.

The 'bio' strand of groworld is about gardening. About revegetation of urban environments, growing your own food, reconnecting rural and urban situations in ways that replenish, rather than deplete their environments.

bio projects: seedballing workshops, urban permaculture, the institute for augmented ecology

'sys' stands for systems in groworld. In this strand, we focus on the role of that technology can play in developing the greener side of our cultures. sys aims to move away from making complicated machines towards growing complex systems.

sys projects: metabolicity

Reflecting on the role of the arts, design and technology in an environment of turbulence

Biologists, artists and Sanctuary supporters are among the participants in the Spiegelaer event at Foamlab. They are hurtled head-first into the rain-forest canopy during this research report by Theun Karelse on a fieldtrip to the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary. A incomplete but detailed introduction of the workings of the rain-forest, plants and parts of plants is paralleled by the hypnogotic vision of the forest in the work of cineast Werner Herzog and his work with a navigable balloon in South America.

Filmmaker Jan Cornelis Mol (1891-1954) was a pioneer of time-lapse photography, using it to record the tiny lives of micro-organisms. He wanted to show in film what otherwise would be visible only to the most tenacious gaze through a microscope. In this way the public was plunged into the life inside a droplet of water or sucked-up into the bloodstream of a frog. A highlight in his work are the images of crystallisation. Using common photographic chemicals his recordings under great magnification of the crystallisation processes revealed wonderful abstract patterns.

This first show at Foamlab is probably a world premiere. From the collection of the Dutch artist Jan Dietvorst a group of six mask costumes known as Jipae and Doroe are shown together. In any anthropological collection shown world wide in museums you might see one or two of these Asmat artifacts, but a group of six is unheard of. A group like this would come together in an ‘Adoption feast’ where the relationships in family life are restored after the death of a family member.

On Saturday the 5th of May 2007, at 5PM, we opened the doors of our lab to everyone who wanted to have a final taste of the first Luminous Green series.

PhoEf is a research project led by Bart Vandeput, exploring the essence, use and abuse of the photovoltaic effect - the conversion of light into electrical energy - within the realms of science, industry, technology and the arts.

In a time when energy use and electronic waste production should be rapidly decreasing, can media artists comfortably use arsenals of computers and their peripherals in the name of art?

Hands-on Change. An evening of discussions and presentations by Suprabha Seshan, Maja Kuzmanovic, Maria Blaisse and Cocky Eek. Hosted by Shibumi Friends International.

Deep in the forest beside a muddy little path stands a colorful sign which says 'Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary'.

The Dialogue on Art, Culture & Climate Change is an investigation into the role of culture and the arts in the cross-cultural dialogue on climate change between and in Asia and Europe. The project gathers 50 Asian and European artists, designers, architects, cultural practitioners, environmentalists and scientists.

Maggie Buxton will be representing FoAM as one of the event's facilitators.

More information: http://www.culture360.org/artandclimatechange/

A Luminous Green satellite event, organised by Time's Up and the Guild for Reality Integrators and Generators:

Dates: 23rd | 24th | 25th October 2008

Luminous Green is an attempt to become more aware of our own ecological and human responsibilities. A moment’s pause, deceleration and self-reflection are a common core.

The simulation-led workshop cluster presents constructive approaches to measurement, description and modelling of real world systems ranging across urban and ecological interventions. The world can be described by way of maps, diagrams, fiction, circuits and software. Desciptions, or representations, take on their own life as autopoetic systems, creating complex ecologies; describing becomes constructing (growing your own world).

"Culture|Futures creates an enabling environment for those cultural actors who are moved to express their perspectives about creating an Ecological Age, by recognising, encouraging and supporting them.

The Culture|Futures expanding spiral of engagement begins its journey at the launch symposium on 7th December. Participants are invited to explore the Culture|Futures proposition and to grow the spiral of engagement supporting the COP climate change negotiations.

Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachl of Loop.ph conduct an exploratory workshop on lightweight structures and hydroponic techniques for vertical gardening.

http://www.loop.ph/bin/view/Loop/MetaboliCity

FoAM will take part in the TippingPoint event held at the EESC.

"TippingPoint aims to ‘harness the power of the imagination to help stabilise the climate’. We offer a range of activities centred on exposing creative artists to the enormous challenges of climate change; at the heart of this lies a series of meetings involving very high quality, intense dialogue between artists, scientists and others close to the heart of the issue. These encounters provide a chance to explore the broader cultural challenges precipitated by climate change."

http://www.tippingpoint.org.uk/

CITIES Foundation together with the Municipality of Amsterdam, is co-organizing an exhibition/workshop about Urban Agriculture. This event will take place during the Week of Sustainability, a 9 days program made by the city of Amsterdam to support and promote sustainable projects in the city.

CITIES, a platform for urban research based in Amsterdam, is currently researching and promoting alternative approaches for the development of temporary urban agriculture practice. The exhibition is part of the 'Farming the City' project.

As autumn ripens, nature and its resources are slowly turning inwards, preparing for the seasonal rest.

This is a good time for various works in the city gardens - preparing plants and soil for the winter, harvesting the yield of the year and planning next steps for the coming spring.

Be part of mapping the energetic value of the Dutch urban landscape; how much energy does it take for semi-skilled contemporary foragers to gather wild foods and what energetic value is contained in nearby urban environments? On May 8th the Middle Kingdom of Weeds festival features a forage psychogeographic expedition that will starts at 10.30 from Station Sloterdijk, Amsterdam. Using .walk algorithms this foraging expedition will map and explore the caloric potential of the area.

Team members include:
- a geographer, who maps the edibles on Boskoi

Pop-up Park,

design your own park.

This festival is aimed at designing a public garden or park with local residents under guidance of 4 experts. The garden in question is located behind the Meester coupeur opleiding on one side and the Jan Evertsenstraat on the other side. (It is located at the same square as FoAM's edible garden.)

FoAM is organising and hosting a lecture by Suprabha Seshan. She is the spokesperson of the Gurukula Botanic Sanctuary in Kerala India. At the rainforest sanctuary local tribal women are trained to become parataxonomists and ecosystem gardeners. Through their work over 20 years Suprabha and the team have seen human pressure, demands and damage on the rainforest increase. She will speak on several topics including the failure of environmental education. The forest needs a particular type of support if it is to survive at all.

URL:

Current Events | calendar

200711 research gathering with Boo Chapple on Rat's Tales and Bodies of Water. 30 November 2007, 12:00 - 18:00, FoAM Lab, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, B-1080 Brussels, Belgium.

Current Events | calendar

None of the above. Open Lab, research gathering, performances, screenings, presentations, business as usual. 09-16 December 2006, Recyclart, Brussels, Belgium
http://www.altitude1000.be/festival2006/foam.php

Current Events | calendar

Alive or dead?, bite size lectures by biologically inspired artists Angelo Vermeulen and Catherine Watling. 01 December 2005, 20:00, FoAM Lab, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, B-1080 Brussels, Belgium

software: realtime animation, Master class and open lab lead by Dave Griffiths and Nik Gaffney. 13-17 December 2005, FoAM Lab, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, B-1080 Brussels, Belgium
http://x4.fo.am/xmedk/

Current Events | calendar

lunch-time lectures: choice, Danica Kuzmanovic on Psychological needs, behaviours and communicative co-existence, 17 December 2004, FoAM Lab, Brussels, Belgium

TRG open lab 02, presenting the latest developments in the TRG media systems and the results of the responsive environments workshop, November-December 2004, FoAM Lab, Brussels, Belgium
http://x4.fo.am/trg/

Current Events | calendar

evolve: Minutiae, exhibition of Catherine Walting on evolution of micro organisms on microscopic and holographic media, 18-21 December 2003, /foam/tmp/ on Kanaal 20, Brussels, Belgium
http://f0.am/evolve/

f0amfr0th04: KREV de-auguration of the Temporary Embassy 13 December 2003, /foam/tmp/ on Kanaal 20, Brussels, Belgium
http://f0.am/fr0th/

Current Events | calendar

WEAR ME, txOom presentation, Future Physical Network Exchange, 05 - 08 December 2002, Norwich, UK
http://www.futurephysical.org

txOom, responsive environment, 30 November - 08 December 2002, Great Yarmouth, UK
http://x4.fo.am/txoom

txOom public education project, txOom audience research, 25-29 November 2002, Great Yarmouth, UK
http://x4.fo.am/txoom

Current Events | calendar

Creative Research @ FoAM , RADICAL Conference, December 2001, Paris, France
http://www.get-radical.net/
[slides]

Le corps et son autre, CIVA, November 2001, Brussels, Belgium
http://www.imal.org/cobrac-workshop/

FoAM , Ways of Working Study Day, November 2001, London, UK

Current Events | calendar

Transforma[c]tion, FOAM presentation at the Starlab Event, December 2000, Brussels, Belgium

Future Moves - Time Tracking workshop, Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, November 2000, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.v2.nl/deaf/

T-Garden, Medi@terra Art Gallery, November 2000, Athens, Greece
http://www.fournos-culture.gr/festival/2000/Medi2000.html

PhoEf is a research project exploring the essence, use and abuse of the photovoltaic effect - the conversion of light in electrical energy - in the realms of science, industry, technology and the arts. PhoEf emerged from a personal, transversal flight through the interconnected worlds behind and around photovoltaics; a technology based on A.E. Becquerel's 1839 observation of the photovoltaic effect. PhoEf is embedded in a rich, multidisciplinary, historical context.

In progress: http://libarynth.org/luminous/phoef

The ever-growing Libarynth is exactly what its name implies – a hybrid between a library and a labyrinth, a maze of pages in various stages of completion. FoAM's collaborators and friends use the Libarynth as their research diary, sketch-book, or activity log. Some pages are valuable references, on a variety of topics; from visual programming, to inflatables and even vegetarian-friendly restaurants around the world. Others are fully-fledged research reports, or concept documents.

During 2008 and 2009 a small group of groworlders including members of FoAM and invited participants Tale of Tales and Six to Start worked on designs and prototypes for games that would strengthen the connection between plants and people.

Resilients are people of all ages preparing for uncertain futures, by experimenting with resilient forms living & working as a form of artistic practice. The Resilients project collects, creates, shares & supports these emergent practices, while grounding them in historic cultural roots.