Yimei(Emair) Zhu
SlimeVolt
- 2022
- Bio art, sound, performance
- Yimei Zhu, Yousif Alzayed, Ben Glass
SlimeVolt challenges our relationship with technology by incorporating biological components into our systems to foster a caring relationship with electronics. We feel that the trajectory of computer systems is highly consumptive and energy-dependent; we promote physical systems with biological components to look towards nature on a small and personal scale.
SlimeVolt is a new kind of collaborative organization that calls upon artists and makers to disrupt the contemporary technology paradigm by fusing biology with DIY electronics. We started experimenting with Physarum polycephalum, a slime mold used commonly in laboratory settings, to create a collaborative musical instrument that requires care to function. We created a system that plugged our slime mold cultures into existing electronic instruments that are accessible and recognizable within the DIY electronics and sound communities. Our mission is to spread ideas around fusing electronics with nature to artists, makers, and technologists, creating a new relationship with technology centered around care and symbiosis.
Official:
Experiment Process
Team
Yousif is pursuing a Master’s of Art and Technology Studies at SAIC. His research spans across physics, chemistry and biology, and focuses on the integration of analog and digital electronics as an art material.
Yimei holds a Master’s degree in Art and Technology Studies from SAIC. She is an experience-oriented creator who focuses on Art, Disability and Posthuman Bodies. Her artworks discuss deficiencies and imperfections seen through an unconventional perspective and resist stereotypes that accompany disability.
Ben is pursuing a Master’s of Art and Technology Studies at SAIC. He is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the convergence of technology, biology, and the post-human body, delving into the essence of humanity and living organisms in a world inherently intertwined with technology and embodied virtuality.
Ryan is a composer and performer who uses improvisation, transcription, electronics, and rhythmic grids to create music that asks the listener to expect the unexpected. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Chicago and his research takes form by way of extended techniques, exploration of color through the medium of electronics, and the phenomenology of perception.
Activity
04.2023 - Lecture: Mutualisms - Bio & Art
Support: Art and Technology Studies, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, US
The School of Transmedia Art, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, China
04.2023 - SlimeVolt, “International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art”, Navy Pier, Chicago, U.S
03.2023 - SlimeVolt, “GUI/GOOEY”, Online Exhibition, Plexus Projects, U.S
10.2022 - SlimeVolt, “Transience”, LL2-20, SAIC Galleries, School of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, U.S
09.2022 - SlimeVolt, Art and Technology Studies Department Displaycases, SAIC, Chicago, U.S
06.2022 - Slime Volt, Top 6 project at Biodesign Challenge (BDC) Summit 2022, US