02 — An Afternoon at BioBAT Art Space

This event is part of Sensing Change, a citywide festival presented by Art/Switch Foundation and Transparent Eyeball. This year’s edition turns its attention to how humans and non-humans sense and inhabit transformation — from ecological systems and geological upheavals to embodied forms of knowledge and cultural evolution.

Rooted in process philosophy, dynamic systems theory, and resilience thinking, Sensing Change proposes a shift in perspective: to experience the world not as a fixed condition, but as a continuous, living flux — an unfolding of change in which we all take part.

At BioBAT Art Space, we enter the botanical and fungal worlds — territories where life listens, responds, and reconfigures itself. How do plants and mushrooms perceive rhythm and disturbance? How do they adapt, regenerate, and signal transformation? And how might we, as humans, learn to sense the pulse of the more-than-human world that surrounds and inhabits us? Through architecture, music, science, and visual art, this event invites us to tune into the intelligence of living systems.

The afternoon opens with a panel discussion led by Remina Greenfield, featuring Elizabeth Hénaff, Mitchell Joachim, and Tarun Nayar, exploring intersections between biology, design, and technology. It continues with a live performance by Sabina Hyoju Ahn, who will present DIY Bionoise — an instrument that transforms the body’s own bio-signals into waves of sound and noise.

The event will feature a screening program curated for Sensing Change, presenting video works by Kryštof Brůha (Czech Republic), Joshua Dawson (USA), Kordae Jatafa Henry (USA), Jonah King (Ireland/USA), and Julieta Tarraubella (Argentina/Peru).

This event is supported by the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Teiger Foundation, and 1014.

MODERATOR

Remina Greenfield (Studio Anicka Yi) is a New York–based artist and creative producer working across contemporary art, technology, and the life sciences. As Studio Manager at Anicka Yi Studio, she has spent over seven years collaborating on major international projects such as In Love With the World (Tate Modern), Metaspore (Pirelli HangarBicocca), and Yi’s installations for the Venice Biennale. Formerly Director of Research at the studio, she led cross-disciplinary R&D initiatives uniting scientists, engineers, and fabricators to create works ranging from kelp-based sculptures to autonomous floating machines. Greenfield’s own artistic practice explores the intersections of living systems and computational processes. She holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, where she also taught courses in creative research and design, and has curated programs such as the Creative Science Showcase for NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator.

SPEAKERS

Dr. Elizabeth Hénaff (NYU) is a computational biologist with an art practice. Her academic trajectory started with a Bachelors in Computer Science, followed by a Master’s in Plant Biology (both from UT Austin) and a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of Barcelona.
At the center of her work is a fascination with the way living beings interact with their environment. This inquiry has produced a body of work that ranges from scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, to projects with landscape architects, to working as an artist in environments from SVA to the MIT Media Lab. She has made contributions to understanding how plants respond to the force of gravity, how genome structure changes in response to stress, and most recently has turned her attention to the ubiquitous and invisible microbial component of our environment.

Mitchell Joachim (Terreform ONE, NYU), PhD, Assoc. AIA, is Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and Professor of Practice at NYU, where he also served as University Senator and Co-Chair of Global Design NYU. A TED Senior Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, he has worked with Frank Gehry, Moshe Safdie, and I.M. Pei, and received major honors including the NEA Grant for Arts Projects, AIA New York Urban Design Award, LafargeHolcim Prize, Architizer A+ Award, and Time Magazine Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities. Named in Rolling Stone’s “100 People Changing America” and Wired’s “Smart List,” his work has been exhibited internationally at MoMA, MASS MoCA, DAZ Berlin, and the Venice Biennale. He is the author of Design with Life: Biotech Architecture and Resilient Cities and three other books, and has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Pratt, Cornell, and as the Frank Gehry Chair at the University of Toronto. Joachim holds degrees from MIT, Harvard, Columbia, and Buffalo.

Tarun Nayar (Modern Biology) is a musician and biologist whose ambient work bridges sound, ecology, and technology. Using modular and handmade synthesizers, he performs live with the bioelectric impulses of plants, mushrooms, and natural environments — translating the hidden vibrations of life into immersive, evolving soundscapes. Trained in Indian classical raga since childhood, he shapes his performances according to the time of day and season, tuning human perception to natural rhythms. His videos have reached over 100 million views and earned him more than a million followers, with features in The Guardian, LA Times, BBC, Vice, and DJ Mag. He has performed at Art Basel Miami, MOCA Los Angeles, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Through his Field Trip project, audiences gather in public spaces to forage and listen as the bioelectric signals of plants and fungi are transformed into music. In 2023, Modern Biology opened the Fungi Exhibition at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm.

PERFORMANCE by Sabina Hyoju Ahn

Sabina Hyoju Ahn is a media and sound artist whose work explores the multisensory relationships between humans and non-human systems. Using sound, tactile feedback, visual elements, and hybrid analog-digital technologies, she investigates imperceptible patterns in natural phenomena and translates them into perceptual experiences. Her practice often involves biological materials interfaced with machines, revealing hidden dynamics between organic life and technology. Rooted in post-digital aesthetics, her work has been presented internationally at venues including Ars Electronica, 18th WRO Biennial, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), and Sónar Festival. She has been recognized with fellowships from institutions such as Cité Internationale des Arts and Akademie Schloss Solitude.

VIDEO ARTWORKS by

Kryštof Brůha is a Czech transmedia artist exploring the intersection of material ontology and digital space. Through algorithmic networks, generative design, and post-industrial technologies such as machine learning and 3D printing, he visualizes the hidden dynamics of natural and data-driven systems. His kinetic objects and generative videos translate techno-ecological processes into multisensory experiences. His experimental films Prologue to Signum Supra and Resonare De INTER Solaris extend documentary into algorithmic form. A two-time Graphic Artist of the Year, he received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award and Signal Calling prize for Audire Fluctus, a data-sculptural interpretation of the city’s electromagnetic pulse. Drawing on posthumanist aesthetics, he constructs an archaeology of the future.

Joshua Dawson is a Los Angeles–based speculative designer and film director whose work The New York Times describes as “both slightly absurd and eminently believable.” Trained as an architect, he positions the built environment as a central character in his stories, exploring water politics, resource extraction, and the impacts of climate change on marginalized communities. His projects have been published widely and premiered internationally, earning recognition such as the Jury Prize for Best Science Fiction Film at Cinequest, a Core77 Design Award, and honors from the Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival for Best Worldbuilding and Sci-Fi Prototyping Screenplay. He is a Year 12 Creative Science member of the NEW INC.

Kordae Jatafa Henry is a Los Angeles–based filmmaker and visual artist whose work explores the intersections of biomythology, technology, and ecological memory. Rooted in his Jamaican-British heritage, he creates immersive speculative worlds through live-action, CGI, sound, and movement. His practice spans film, installation, game engine environments, and performance, using mythology, pop culture, and post-genre music to reimagine how stories of creation, labor, and the Black body are told. Henry holds master’s degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture and MA from SCI-Arc’s Fiction and Entertainment program, where he now teaches in the Visual Studies dep. His short film Earth Mother, Sky Father has been shown at the Venice Biennale, MAK Vienna, and Prix Ars Electronica.

Jonah King is an Irish media artist and filmmaker exploring human–nonhuman relations and speculative futures through immersive technologies. Based between Dublin and Brooklyn, their world-building creates narrative-driven installations, VR experiences, and video works that examine how ecological intimacies shape identity. King’s work has been shown at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of the Moving Image, EXPO Chicago, and the New Museum, and featured in festivals including SXSW. They hold an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from NCAD, and are Assistant Professor of Interactive Digital Media at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Julietta Tarraubella is an Argentine visual artist and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. A graduate of the University of Buenos Aires, she has exhibited at institutions such as MAMBA, Museo MAR, Pivô, and MUNAR. Her work blends cinematic language with poetic reflection, exploring memory, identity, and the blurred boundaries between fiction and reality. She received the Visual Arts Prize at the Buenos Aires Biennial of Young Art (2019) and a Creation Grant from the National Fund for the Arts (2021), and has held residencies at Pivô Pesquisa and MUNAR. Tarraubella previously served as Artistic Director of Rolf Art Gallery and curated the Audiovisual Program for ArteBA 2021.