Dear friends and readers living in New York, i'm going to hit your turf soon for a panel rhizome has kindly asked me to set up at the New Museum in Manhattan. If you know me a tiny bit you might have guessed that my first thought was for biotech art. I wasn't sure my proposal would be accepted as the topic is far less popular than interactive screens in public spaces or "sustainable" gadgetry. It's a bit more risky as well. But they said yes and i'd love to meet you on Friday 14, at the New Museum theater, 235 Bowery (map).

The Media Art in the Age of Transgenics, Cloning, and Genomics panel is scheduled at 7,30 pm. There will be the cream of biotech art: Caitlin Berrigan, Adam Zaretsky, Brandon Ballengee, and Kathy High.

If Caitlin doesn't bring her chocolates, i will bring some yummy chocolate cat tongues from Belgium because we're having a party after the panel (details about that will follow.)

Image on top left by Brandon Ballengee: Cleared and Stained Multi-limbed Pacific Tree frog, Aptos, California. Digital imaging courtesy The Institute for Electronic Arts, School of Art and Design NYSCC at Alfred University, Alfred, New York.

Bonjour les amis. For those of you who lament the fact that design has almost disappeared from these pages, i have good news: i'm now participating to The Great Tate Mod Blog together with Fiona Sibley, Features Editor of Design Week and guests who talk about their favourite places. They include Tate’s director Nicholas Serota, James Purnell, Jacques Herzog, of the architects Herzog & de Meuron who are in charge of the expansion of the Tate Modern gallery. Actually the aim of the blog is to allow the public to have their say on what the museum experience will be like.

So you are all invited to photograph examples of your favourite spaces and add the images to a ‘Mood Board’ featuring the kinds of interiors spaces, ambiance and design that you would like to see in the new development of Tate Modern. Favourite spaces might include a café or bar, chill-out space, lounge, domestic interior or public space. Herzog & de Meuron and Tate staff will also be contributing pictures of their own favourite interior spaces and source material.

There's more news design-wise! I'll be participating to the Interaction08, the first annual conference thrown by the Interaction Design Association. Ray Charles is to blame for that. Because of him, i dream of seeing Georgia and the event takes place there, at The Savannah College of Art and Design, on February 8-10, 2008. Well... there's also an amazing line-up of speakers. Early registration ends December 15.

Talking about interaction and design, on Friday there's the Open Day of Design Interactions at RCA in London and on Jan 9, it is the turn of Industrial Design Engineering (in case you missed today.)

I think that you will never be rewarded enough for being wmmna readers. Picnic is a conference + art show + playground + eventfull... euh event that takes place in Amsterdam each year.

We have guests Picnic day passes for 3 of you. They will give you access to the Make session, FabLab workshops and anything interesting happening on September 28.
UPDATE: tickets already assigned. Thanks for your interest, it just confirmed that i should offer more free tickets for festivals and conferences in the future.

Now the tickets are valid only September 28 because it is the day of the "Body wet hacking" session. I've asked 2 guys whose work i admire a lot, artist Adam Zaretsky and designer Michael Burton to come and talk about the way our life will be intimately transformed by the advances of biotechnology. Which scenarios will emerge? What will be the ethical, cultural or even political consequences of the bio-revolution?

Send me an email at reg at wmmna dot com if you fancy to join us for free. Fyi, A day pass is € 495 (507 euro with lunch), exclusive of VAT.

Adam Zaretsky is also setting up a hands-on workshop on the 28. I'll get back with more details later. Just be sure that whether he decides to have you get your hands dirty with extraction and isolation of Hybrid DNA or lead you to some BioPorn session, it is going to be fun and brain stimulating.

In the meantime, i'm heading to The Hague for the Mastermundo conference. Looks like it´s the city to be right now because it is also hosting Today´s Art festival.

After that i'll be in Milan and Turin to check out some yummy-sounding exhibitions.

Related: Adam Zaretsky on Future Body (part 1 and part 2); VivoArts Lab documentary.
Michael's projects: The Race and Future Farm.

Lovely readers, both Sascha and i are looking for appartments.

Sascha is leaving Berlin to go and study in London. He is looking for a room or small flat with friendly people. Nice room, affordable, the usual. Not too far away (either by bus or metro) from the South Kensington area.

And as i am traveling more and more, i now spend a mere 5-day per month in Berlin so i decided to look for something smaller in either Prenzl' or Kreuzberg. It should only be quiet and have wifi.

So if you've heard of anything that could make us happy, just drop us a line (reg at wmmna.com and plugimi at gmail dot com)

Image is a screenshot from the video "Sleepers" by Francis Alÿs.

I'm officially going back to work today. I'm not sure i'd be able to define what i mean by "work" given that, as my brother would tell you, my life is "a constant holiday anyway". Well, i do not exactly agree with him and i have until tonight to figure out what to say about the issue as i'm flying back to Berlin to give a talk at 9 to 5, a festival camp for those who feel that working should be more like living – and not the other way around. The day after that i should be taking part to Pecha Kucha Berlin, if only i could remember what i said i would talk about.

On Monday, i will go to Beijing for Get It Louder, an exhibition traveling around China to show and discuss design and art, mostly by "young creators with Chinese background working in different places around the world."

I have to thank the organizers for the invitation but i suspect that it's Aaajiao who has orchestrated it. I got to know Aaajiao over a year ago when he asked me if it was ok to translate the bits he liked on wmmna in chinese. I keep being amazed that he (who's already super busy working on more personal projects such as EventStructure, COrnerSoUnd, dorkbot Beijing) and his team are still translating even the longest posts with regularity while adding more Chinese-focused stories on their blog, which their ironically called we-need-money-not-art.

I will spend one week in Beijing so if you have any tips of place to see art, eat vegetarian and buy funky cosmetics, do let me know.

After that it's back in Berlin for a few days then off to Linz for the Ars Electronica festival and symposium. Looking forward to see everyone.

Then more mad carbon footprinting as i'll go to New York for my favourite event ever: Conflux, a festival for contemporary psychogeography, the investigation of everyday urban life through emerging artistic, technological and social practice.

Image on above on the left is by the collective Alterazioni Video. While in China, Alterazioni Video used an anonymizer (a tool which guarantees anonymity while surfing), which enabled them to draw up a list of words and phrases prohibited on the main search engines and instant messenger programmes in use in China, with the aim of working out the semantic basis behind these filters. The artists then put these terms back "into circulation", by printing the offending phrases on plastic bags, in English and Chinese, and handing them out free of charge on the streets of Shanghai, with the intention of restoring their full communicative potential. Now that's just one little aspect of the project Night Talk of the Forbidden City #2. The Fabio Paris gallery in Brescia (close to Milan) is opening on September 29 a show dedicated to the works the Milan-based collective developed in China.

Off to Zürich for the Digital Art Weeks symposium and a very yummy-looking exhibition. After that i'll be in Huddersfield for We Love Technology, this year the event will focus on interactive architecture, sound and games.

Then back in Germany. First in Kassel for, Paper and Pixel Week, a series of workshops and debates on the relationship between online and offline press, as part of Documenta's Magazine Project. The event is curated by our friend and guru Alessandro Ludovico. Then hop on the train and off to Dortmund for the Satellite Voyeurism workshop at the HMKW. Looking forward to that one too.
Say hi if you're around.

After that i'll spend some time in the most boring country ever because i need to get some rest from the constant excitement that Berlin provides me with. I'll watch tv series, try some new blueberry face masks and read detective stories. That's called holidays and i won't be back in Berlin before the 9to5 festival-camp in August. I didn't exactly get what it is about (alternative forms of works maybe?) except that it takes place from 9 in the evening to 5 in the morning, that everyone will be talking german but me, and that it is organized by the lovely Holm Friebe and when that guy asks you to "relocate your whole business" on the banks of the river Spree, you just follow the advice.