Angelo Vermeulen

Artist, Change Agent, Connector, Designer, Explorer, Idea generator, Photographer, Scientist, Technologist, World traveler

Angelo Vermeulen is an artist, biologist, space systems researcher, and community organizer. In his work he ties together technological, ecological, and social systems through group engagement and collaboration. Biomodd is one of his most well-known art projects and consists of a worldwide series of interactive art installations in which computers and ecosystems coexist. In 2009 he launched Space Ecologies Art and Design (SEAD), a platform for artistic research on architectures and ethics of space colonization. Seeker is one of the resulting projects involving co-created starship sculptures that evolve over time. Since 2011 he is member of the European Space Agency Topical Team Arts & Science (ETTAS), and in 2013 he was crew commander of the NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars mission simulation in Hawai'i. His space-related work led him to start a new PhD at Delft University of Technology, developing paradigm-shifting concepts for evolvable starships. He co-authored the book 'Baudelaire in Cyberspace: Dialogues on Art, Science and Digital Culture' with philosopher Antoon Van den Braembussche, and gives talks about his work around the world. In 2012 he was a Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design Fellow at Parsons in New York. Currently, Vermeulen is a TED Senior Fellow, and holds positions at LUCA School of Visual Arts in Ghent, Belgium, and Die Angewandte in Vienna, Austria.

Rethinking our future with communities all over the planet. And deep space.

Self-reproducing starships

Art, Biology, Community & Public Art, Community Organization, Crosscultural Commmunication, Leadership, Lecturing, Photography, Science, Space Exploration

"For Angelo, starship design concepts are more than just talk. He's made a career of designing, building and operating complex projects that combine the trifecta of the technical, social and biological. As installation artist, he spearheads a community art project called Biomodd in which groups of electronics hackers build plant-computer hybrids out of e-waste. In these systems, endothermic algae circulate through tubes to cool over-clocked computer processors running video games. Each Biomodd project reflects the culture in which it was created, from Ohio to the Philippines to New York City." http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/fieldnotes/2013/08/09/designing-spaceships-to-take-us-to-distant-solar-systems