viral experiment #3
Curious Animals
Synthetic biology promises a 21st century biotechnology revolution: developing genetically altered micro-organisms for use within healthcare, medicine and energy. It is an inter-disciplinary field engaging the sciences, engineering, art and design to automate biological processes, with aspirations to create living machines and offer hope of ending world poverty and hunger.
In this context, my practice-based research explores the use of DNA and the micro-organism as medium through art practice. I speculate on our relationship with the unseen organism through an embodied understanding of living matter at the microscopic level. The research is situated in the context of Martin Heidegger’s ‘The Question Concerning Technology’and the writings of Jacques Derrida and Donna Haraway and speculates upon the unknowable evolutionary trajectory of life as techné, when life is a vibrant, messy multiplicity.
As I manipulate life in the laboratory, I consider the evolutionary consequences of my actions in the present and question whether my future (multi-species-micro-biome) self can forgive the curious animals that I am/we are.