1. Name of organization
Associazione Kin - kinlab.it (Nonprofit organization)
2. Email address
info [at] kinlab.it
3. Tell us about your organization
KIN is an interdisciplinary laboratory recently open in the San Siro neighborhood in Milan (Italy) - located in one of the largest public housing areas of the city with a migrant population twice the Milano average. The space - owned by Aler, the regional institution managing public buildings in the area - is managed in collaboration with other local associations. Kin’s experimental approach actively engages people in generating knowledge about their own living conditions and offers innovative participation processes. The first project born within KINlab is called Obot (OurBodiesOurTech) and uses a synergic perspective and a set of creative methodologies in order to foster a richer and deeper social and spatial understanding, necessary for the activation of transformative interventions with the involvement of diversified target groups in a series of research and action processes.
We developed a series of workshops during and artistic residency at Hangar.org in Barcelona, selected by Biofriction project.
4. Does your organization have representation for a marginalized demographic due to factors such as, but not limited to, race, ability, place of birth, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class situation or other identification? If so, how?
The recent pandemic and lockdown measures disrupted the education and training of an entire generation in Italy, especially of vocational education and training learners from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, migrants and from ethnic minorities and with special education needs. In order to tap these urgencies our project aims at fostering artistic expression starting from science practice, involving new subjectivities and pilot a community of practice as described in the work of Lave and Wenger (1991) who studied the social context, or ‘situatedness’, of learning in informal groups. The event is based on a learning-by-doing experience deeply connected with disciplines like participatory design and experimental media art focused on free software, open hardware and digital fabrication tools in order to engage young people, especially women, in unexplored areas.
5. What is the event about, and what do you want to achieve with it?
Thinking-with trans feminist and queer Science and Technology Studies, OBOT addresses methods to lower the barriers of scientific knowledge production by making tools, protocols and data accessible and by promoting collaborative inquiry practices which enact forms of epistemic inclusion. Within OBOT’s workshops, the study of the bodies’ micro world comes by focusing all gazes on participatory action research, and with experimenting the material aspects of being without removing the symbolic and the magic of its procedures. The practice of socialising science knowledge and production creates potential alternative’s imaginary and literacy.
OBOT project objective is to implement the citizen science approach in the investigation of the female body identifying a toolbox of processes and practices to design a replicable blueprint for a neighbourhood wetlab able to engage youth and womxn in the unknown place of a laboratory to build awareness on our own bodies and health, making the first steps of building collective intelligence through DIT analysis in a networked way.
The 4-day event is the occasion to kickoff Obot Wetlab and engage citizens of the neighborhood to discover open hardware and science with the support of foreign mentors from a wetlab outside of Italy.
Day 1 and Day 2
The workshop is a research on tears, or on the fluid that we expel from the eyes for emotion, reaction or simply through some biology laboratory tools such as sponges and tweezers. Participants are introduced to different types of microscope (DiY and professional), 3d printing and lasercut to manufacture open-hardware adaptors to attach a mobile phone to the microscopes. We are then preparing together the slides, experimenting on different ferning patterns according to the classification of tears. Play with this, making pictures, video, giving space to participants to learn by practicing with the essential bio lab tools (pipettes, slides, sponges, centrifuge) and compare tears from different emotional sources.
Day-3
Setting up of the exhibition and zine together with participants and artist mentors
Day-4
Exhibition and presentation of the output and processes (pictures, videos and laser engraving of the tears ferning) to a broader public.
6. Which of the three levels of funding would you like to apply for?
USD $9910
7. What is the funding for? Describe your budget. List what you are going to spend it on and how.
- Coordination&Admin: $1500
- Communication&Documentation (Flyer/Poster, Photographer, Social Media, Press, Stickers, Zine): $1500
- Makers and educators for (Tue-Thu-Fri-Sat): $1500
- Travel and hospitality for mentors: $1500
- Additional hardware & consumables (microscopes/projector/pc) : $2410
- Snacks and beverages: $500
- Indirect cost (expenses for use of space, cleaning, etc)t: $1000
8. How will you share the outcomes of this event. What documentation will result that will this project benefit the community as a whole? (videos? photos? a how-to? innovative hardware designs?)
We’re going to publish all the documentation of the exhibition, processes and open hardware on the project website and social media.
9. How would your event address GOSH’s values of diversity and inclusion?
The event will be the starting point to create degrees of union by developing common interests through learning and practice and especially with the creation of repertories of science-knowledge. The target group we identified (new Italians and women) is often struggling with the lack of space for listening, research and expression and the focus on science and open hardware is the starting point to spark interest in topics which are not covered in secondary education.
10. Are there any conflicts of interest that you wish to declare?
None