Did you ever want to go to Mars but you didn’t know what to pack in your lunch box? What about snacking on spirulina, a biomass of cyanobacteria rich in nutrients, vitamins and minerals? Spirulina will in fact be included in astronauts’ diet during extended space travel.

Welcome to Cyano Automaton’s workshop, where you will get a glimpse on how to grow your own spirulina and use it to prepare delicious space food recipes, right here on Earth! It is also the background for a critical discussion on terrestrial and interplanetary colonization, of which cyanobacteria –as the first photosynthetic organisms on the planet – have been key players.

The workshop is built around the Cyano Automaton, an interactive bioreactor that cultivates spirulina and gives voice to this species to tell a story about past, present, and future colonizations. The reactor takes data from space explorations and terrestrial conquests to intertwine a multifaceted narrative, dictated by the bacteria’s own growing cycles.

The bioreactor is physically located in Helsinki, Finland, but available to the public online during the Uroboros Festival 2021 at www.cyano-automaton.monster.

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Participants are encouraged to bring dry spirulina (available in most shops with healthy food). Easy access to basic kitchen utensils is also encouraged. However, people without access to these resources are welcome to participate in the workshop (without hands-on activities).

✨ Please note that Aga’s Cyano Automaton workshop is part of a research work organised in collaboration with the CreaTures project. We will send details about the research to all registered participants but if you have any questions already now, please contact us at festival@uroboros.design ✨