In December 2013, researchers at Agro Paris Tech (Morgan Meyer) and CNRS (Perig Pitrou) in collaboration with LaPaillase organized a one day workshop entitled “What can do-it-yourself biology do?”. The workshop included approaches from anthropology, history and sociology as well as art to explore the ontological, epistemological, political and economic aspects and prospects of DIYbio. Rather than focusing only on the future and the promises of DIYbio, discussions were about how DIYbio communities are organizing themselves, the ‘different’ ways in which they are practicing biology and the values that come together with those practices. Presentations were followed by lively discussions with a highly active and engaged audience, many of them young scientists. Three groups of discussions were made up, with focus on the different scales and political impacts of DIYbio, the educational potentials and the new ways of imagining life (or the relation between the natural and the artificial) that DIYbio may be proposing. Intense discussions were followed by a great cocktail and exciting informal talks! See more here: https://domesticationetfabricationduvivant.wordpress.com

Author: Ana Maria Delgado Aleman (University of Bergen/SYNENERGENE)