Exploring the edge of design and biology with Arduino: inside the “Parasites and Robotics” workshop

This summer in Berlin, a group of artists, designers, and curious minds gathered around a creative question: What can parasites teach us about robotics?

Led by Salvador Marino, a transdisciplinary artist with a PhD in biology, the workshop “Parasites and Robotics” invited participants to explore the intersection of biology, sci-fi, and open-source hardware – all powered by the Arduino platform. Over five days of hands-on experimentation, attendees imagined and prototyped robotic bodies inspired by the strange and brilliant adaptations of the natural world.

From organic systems to robotic creatures

Marino designed the workshop to explore how parasites evolve and adapt to survive – and how we can turn those evolutionary strategies into robotic prototypes. Each day focused on a different aspect of life at the margins: perception, host bodies, environments, hybrid identities.

Participants used UNO R4 WiFi boards, Motor Shields, and the Arduino Soldering Kit, combining them with digital tools like Pure Data, TouchDesigner, and Ableton Live. The result? A series of unique, experimental robots, each with its own speculative logic and behavior. All this from students and artists, many of whom were using Arduino for the very first time.

“The participants were fascinated by the intersection of parasitic biology and robotics,” Marino told us. “For many, this was their very first step with Arduino, and they were incredibly excited to work with it.”

Building beyond expectations

The workshop was hosted at Sybil in Berlin, running for 20 hours across five days. Each session blended conceptual discussion with practical application: soldering, wiring, programming, and testing prototypes that questioned the boundaries between organic and artificial life.

As Marino explains, the choice of platform was key: “The UNO R4 WiFi is perfect for beginners. It doesn’t need external libraries, has excellent documentation, and a huge community behind it. The Wi-Fi feature is a bonus – especially when you want to interface with other programs and create interactive environments.”

This is exactly the kind of project that reflects our roots. Arduino was born in an educational context, and continues to thrive as a bridge between technology and creativity – for students, teachers, makers, and of course transdisciplinary artists like Marino.

A growing ecosystem of ideas

The Berlin workshop was just the beginning. Inspired by the positive feedback and creative energy, Marino is now working on new editions of “Parasites and Robotics” in other major cities such as London and Barcelona. The growing interest is proof that open-source tools like Arduino are not just for traditional engineering classrooms: they’re a canvas for anyone who wants to explore, express, or challenge the way we interact with technology.

“It was inspiring to see the participants so quickly building projects and ideas with Arduino,” Marino says.

Keep exploring

Want to see more of Marino’s work, or find out when the next edition of the workshop is happening?Follow along at salvadormarino.com and on his Instagram account. You can also check out the dedicated page for the workshop here.

Images credit: Camila Pozner