Following its first three weeks of creative activities and jungle adventures, this year’s Dinacon camp exhibited a cross-section of experimental projects in progress by its participants in Gamboa, Panama.
Gamboa, special report (words and photos)
After its first iteration last year in Thailand, the second edition of the “Digital Naturalism” summer camp (a.k.a. Dinacon) took place in the post-colonial town of Gamboa on the Panama Canal, attracting over a hundred participants with overlapping stays during the four weeks of August. It was a chance for these artists and researchers, most coming from North America and Western Europe, to explore and interact with the fauna and flora that surround them at the doorstep of the Cental American jungle: hikes along birding-famous Pipeline Road, kayaking up the Chagres river just around the corner from the Panama canal, nature walks through the residential village and the wild forest.
Dinalab, a traditional colonial house in Gamboa bought and converted into a makerspace laboratory by Andy Quitmeyer, founder of Dinacon.
Every Saturday evening, on-site “Dinasaurs” have the opportunity to exhibit and share their projects and works-in-progress at the Dinalab open house, which welcomes visitors from the local community, including neighbors and researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa.
“Rust Garden” by Rob Faludi. Side project based on found metal objects collected along the railway. Their initial rusting process was accelerated over the course of two weeks.Outside the house next to the boots, Albert makes a solar print from a local branch, before translating the paper 2D print into a plastic 3D model that he can paint.Rabia builds a DIY transistor radio from recycled objects to broadcast a program on Gamboa’s local AM radio. The copper wires are wound around the medicine container that belonged to her grandmother, whose parents came from Trinidad to work on building the Panama Canal at the beginning of the 20th century.“Emotiscent” by Ramy. The bioartist invited visitors to write down their emotional reactions to scents from various objects found on site. Her work-in-progress aims to explore the quality of life of people who have lost their sense of smell, for example by wearing a face mask to protect them from air pollution during wildfires.Joetta presents her nouveau cuisine for humans, directly inspired by the favorite foods of a few local animals (hummingbird and anteater).3D models of leaves of Gamboa, by Tomas. He scanned selected leaves and plants from around the village to place their avatars in surrealist digital landscapes.Tinted bioplastics by Tiare. The bioartist concocted a 100% biodegradable malleable material, while experimenting with food coloring. Later that week, she gave a workshop to brew your own.Tully shows a robot butterfly that he built using real butterfly wings.“Firefly Fornication Foyer” by Elliott. Fun project to reproduce the light patterns and signals of male and female fireflies, in order to lure these vulnerable insects into a safe space for mating, protected from predators.Andy Quitmeyer wears his cyborg coconut fiber glasses, fabricated at the first Dinacon in Thailand, during the Dinalab open house in Gamboa.
