IN PROGRESS… | COLLOQUIUM

Art Laboratory Berlin is delighted to invite you to take part in our next Colloquium session (this time online only!), a discursive format on research in art, science and humanities, conceptualized and curated by Regine Rapp.

The colloquium addresses an international interdisciplinary research audience to present and discuss past, present, or future projects by artists and scholars, curators, or editors from the fields of art, science and the humanities. The topics could refer to an art project, a book, text or chapter, a research or exhibition project, a lab experiment, a lecture series, a conference concept, or other.

The presentations and exchange will focus on the work-in-progress. Methodological approaches – theoretical or practical – are also of great interest here. While researching, we often tend to shift between practical inquiry and theoretical research, browsing various disciplines. Following the original meaning of colloquium as “speaking together”, we want to provide a platform for exchange and embrace various kinds of work processes which are often not seen or talked about.

Structure of the sessions: Each session will include two presentations followed by discussions, altogether around 90 min. The colloquium welcomes informal conversations amongst the participants.

Topic of the 15 September 2026 Session

Bodies of Value: Reproductive Biomaterials Between Art, Biotech, and Biocapital

Human reproductive biomaterials, especially those sourced from AFAB (assigned female at birth) bodies are increasingly becoming hotbeds of scientific innovation, economic value, and political contestation. This colloquium will discuss how materials including human eggs, embryos, and menstrual stem cells have become entangled with biomedical research, commercial enterprise, and cultural narratives. In the colloquium session, artist and researcher Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter and artist and researcher Helen Yung, in conversation with Regine Rapp, will unpack how these biomaterials are simultaneously exploited and contested on social media, where viral feminist discourse, venture capital, biotechnology, and influencer culture converge to shape public understanding and the commercial desire fueling emerging bio economies. Through contemporary bio art and the complexities of IVF (In-vitro-fertilisation), Hunter and Yung will consider how they use artistic practice to challenge extractive narratives while instigating more socially conscious and nuanced futures for reproductive biotechnology.

Portrait of WhiteFeather Hunter

Portrait of Helen Yung

Speakers of 15 September 2026 Session

Dr WhiteFeather Hunter, artist and researcher | Bodies of Value: Reproductive Biomaterials Between Art, Biotech, and Biocapital

Dr WhiteFeather Hunter is an internationally recognized Canadian artist and researcher. WhiteFeather holds a PhD in Biological Art through SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia, and an MFA in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. Her doctoral thesis, The Witch in the Lab Coat was a TechnoFeminist negotiation of science bio cultures by using ‘taboo’ materials such as menstrual fluid in tissue engineering protocols and producing DIY lab hardware; this included witchcraft as performed resistance to medicalized control over women’s bodies. Dr Hunter’s recent projects include Sentient Clit – The Pussification of Biotech, an exploration of 3D-bioprinting clitorises embedded with her menstrual stem cells differentiated to neuronal types, in order to produce a synthetic organ that responds to stimuli. The project was awarded an Ars Electronica 2024 S+T+ARTS Prize jury nomination. Hunter was part of the exhibition project Matter of Flux and the festival of the same title at Art Laboratory Berlin in 2023 and presented her artistic research a previous Colloquium session at Art Laboratory Berlin in 2022.

In the Colloquium session on 15 September 2026 (as mentioned above), WhiteFeather Hunter will present highlights from her work with menstrual stem cells, and her experiences with Big Tech and ‘blood farms’ as a biomedical researcher.

Helen Yung, artist and researcher | Bodies of Value: Reproductive Biomaterials Between Art, Biotech, and Biocapital

Helen Yung leads the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence, and is an inter/transdisciplinary artist researcher. Her practice ranges from bold experiments in What Art Knows, to creating, designing, and curating installations, interactions, interventions, exhibitions, and award-winning performances. What Art Has To Offer Immigration has successfully helped new immigrants and refugees become employed full-time in their fields of interest in Canada. What Art Has To Offer Astronomical Thinking is an ongoing collaboration with theoretical astrophysicist Dr. Gurtina Besla and New York-based artist Samita Sinha. What Art Has To Offer ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies) began with a collaboration with medical director Dr. Chaula Mehta, and has had select outputs premiere in New York and Zurich. 

In the Colloquium session (as mentioned above), Helen Yung will share her experience of creating and caring for human gametes within the assisted reproductive industry as a patient, family member, and artist-researcher.