European Hybrid Intelligence Network (EHIN) explores bio-computation as a sustainable alternative to energy-intensive, silicon-based technologies. Inspired by plants and other organisms as “green computers,” the project brings together artists, scientists, and local practitioners to rethink how intelligence, technology, and ecosystems interact. Through experimental Dirty Labs, EHIN combines artistic research, sensor technologies, machine learning, and traditional ecological knowledge to explore interspecies communication and symbiotic relationships. The project produces new artworks, exhibitions, and educational activities that raise ecological awareness, support the green transition, and imagine post-anthropocentric, energy-neutral futures for human and non-human coexistence across Europe.
Project Information
Source of funding: EU Programme Creative Europe
Project duration: 03/2026 - 02/2029
Project Website: /
Contact: Jovana Jankov – jjankov@cpn.rs
Coordinator
Kersnikova Institute, Slovenia
Partners
GLUON, Belgium
LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, Spain
KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis, Croatia
The ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany
Center for the Promotion of Science, Serbia
Project Description
Europe, as a shared natural environment, is facing significant environmental challenges. The territory of the Western Balkans, being one of the areas particularly exposed to pollution, becomes a focal point for positive change to which the project aims to contribute. In collaboration with partners from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Croatia, the project seeks to explore environmental protection issues by engaging a broader professional, artistic, and activist community. Advocating for sustainable development through participatory bio art installations, Bio Awaking aims to raise awareness of the role art can play in sustainability processes.
The main activities of the project include the Bio Art Forum, two "do-it-yourself" online bio art workshops, two study visits to Ljubljana and Dubrovnik, a mobile laboratory science-art programme, and two bio art exhibitions at festivals in Serbia (Novi Sad) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Pecka).
The specific objectives of the project include developing a network of bio artists across Europe, strengthening the capacities of European artists in utilizing biomaterials, and creating bio art installations using environmental samples. Additionally, the project will strive to involve decision-makers in all phases of the process, fostering an audience for bio art that supports environmental conservation, and nurturing cultural, artistic, and educational collaboration in addressing environmental challenges in Europe and the Balkans.
The Role of CPN:
The Center for the Promotion of Science (CPN) leads Work Package 2 – Unite, within which we aim to map out potential scientific and expert institutions in partner countries related to biocomputation (bioinformatics, computational biology, DNA computing, etc.) and related disciplines (systems theory, cognitive science, AI, robotics, etc.), enabling exchange with them. At the same time, we seek to deepen partners' and stakeholders’ understanding of biocomputation topics and explore how insights from information exchange and processing in non-human organisms can inspire human computational methods. Furthermore, the work focuses on adapting and reshaping the methodologies of expert institutions for art investigation within EHIN, and informing the final publication and policy recommendations about these methodologies, with the aim of fostering cross-pollination of science, land practices, and art.