ABOUT
Life is technology. Now with DNA in the toolkit for artists and engineers alike, we need a culture engine for biology that moves beyond the speculative and into the material.
Soft Genes is a research community that connects overlapping worlds in art, academia, and industry to enable creative practice that centers biology via interdisciplinary collaboration. Through sharing materials and skills, we aim to enable work that eschews the boundaries of "art" and "science”.
Our broader mission is to educate and inspire advocacy for humanist biological futures outside of the lab and contribute to their societal potential.
We host events and workshops that provide creative exchange for scientists and artists, with eyes towards curating genre-bending projects.
We are so excited to see what grows from this primordial soup.
Curious about the kinds of artwork we at Soft Genes find inspiring? Check out our curated archive.
Soft Genes was founded in Los Angeles in 2024 by Lera Niemackl & Olivia Stearn.
Lera Niemackl is a Los Angeles/Austin-based artist and scientist primarily working with bioengineered systems in the lab and studio.
She is a former research fellow at Metabolic Studio where she worked on soil remediation via engineered insect gut microbiomes. She is the former resident biologist at the Open Discovery Institute (The ODIN), a biohacker and genetic engineering community hub that is committed to education via open source and DIY gene editing.
Her academic background is in 3D arts and linguistics, which she has applied to her work in biotech for the better part of a decade.
Olivia Stearn is a researcher and gatherings organizer, working at the intersection of electronic music and biology. She is in process with a PhD proposal to create musical installations powered by biology and research interdisciplinary methods between robotics interaction, sonification, and biochemistry.
She has been a small part of exciting “firsts” in the synbio sphere - participating in early stage gene therapy research at the National Eye Institute (NIH). Since 2018, she has worked in industry across hardware, software, and wetware, focusing on scaling bioengineering with analytical tools.
She also DJs and runs the leftfield electronic party Wormhole, and plays in the band Sivil3.
She has a quote from Brave New World tattooed down her left arm and lives in Los Angeles.
hello@softgenes.love