ARTIST IN LABORATORIES
by Lolo Ostia
Lolo Ostia
New York based Artist. Her interest in kinetic design and audience engagement inspires her to create environments that reflect playfulness she envisions in the world. Her main goal is to engulf the viewer to a place where perception, sensation and emotion meet. Her work has been exhibited in New York since 2012 . She's been awarded for her Documentary Series on Fashion Week and her work has been published in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair,among many others.
Currently she is leading workshops about BioArt across NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering and Tisch School of Arts while conducting research for her upcoming project at Genspace, a community Biology laboratory.
Contact info
Email: lolo [at] nyu [dot] edu
Social: @loloostia
Website loloostia.com
During covid I did some BioArt experiments but felt that I was lacking the scientific technical skills to move forward with my ideas.
I started growing multiple sheets of Bacterial Cellulose which are a byproduct of Kombucha Brewing. After taking care of microbes my life was utterly changed.
When I first came to Genspace, I had not heard the word mitochondria in over 20 years. For the past year I had the chance to collaborate with an incredible group of people at Genspace. I started taking classes such as BioHacking Bootcamp and this helped me develop a stronger scientific knowledge. Currently I’m working on an immersive installation with Genetically modified Kombucha with GFP protein. My hope is to bring awareness of the importance of science literacy. Creativity is a key force in future experimentation.
Special Thanks to Zijay Tang, Beth Tuck, the Executive Director at Genspace,who introduced me to Arden Feil, a molecular biologist from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory/DNA learning center. Arden has been instrumental in the development of my projects and I am infinitely grateful to the magical space that Genspace fosters that allows people to connect, collaborate and create.
