On June 17, 2025, the lobby of VTT in Espoo, Finland, hosted a new live presentation of BioAssemblage, the artistic product developed as part of the BIOASSEMBLER research project. Resident artist Andrea Inocêncio returned to one of the key locations that inspired her during her 2024 residency to share the results of that experience with the scientific community and invited guests.
BioAssemblage is part of the BIOASSEMBLER project’s art-based communication strategy, coordinated by the Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra and led by VTT as project coordinator. This initiative aims to strengthen the connection between science and society by using artistic processes to enhance the visibility and public understanding of biosensor research.
The performance culminated an artistic-scientific residency held in 2024 at two of BIOASSEMBLER’s Finnish partners: VTT in Espoo, and Biomensio in Tampere. It brought attention to the often-invisible routines of laboratory research, particularly the intricate process of developing acoustic microresonators, a type of sensor essential to the project’s biosensor innovations.
Through projected images and audiovisual composition, BioAssemblage invites the audience to reflect on the biosensor not only as a technical object but also as an assemblage – a convergence of diverse scientific disciplines, expertise, materials, techniques, and applications. The performance draws attention to the collaborative and layered nature of innovation, where biology, engineering, chemistry, data, and human effort intersect in and out of the laboratory.
Audiences experienced visual elements created from materials and environments used in scientific work, displayed on a panel built on chips embedded with 64 acoustic bioreceptors. One of the central poetic questions explored through the work was: If acoustic resonance were audible, what would it sound like?
We warmly thank everyone who attended and supported this thoughtful and evocative performance!
(More) Photos and videos from the event are now available on the BIOASSEMBLER social media accounts, and the final artistic product – the performance itself – can also be viewed on the Outputs section on our website, along with the full set of photographs featured in the piece.
