Laboratory Life (for Oryx and Crake)

Both laboratories and gardens are artificially created. They are constructed spaces, framed with either pastoral delight in mind, or as a site where nature is scrutinized, expecting to surrender its secrets. Gardens can be playful but also accommodate roving bands of plant and animal life: seeds, insects, birds, moles, and even turtles. There is no possible containment for a garden. Fences cannot keep airborne substances out of its sanctioned space. Gardens function as a slice of arcadia where nature on the surface seems to be cultivated. Laboratories require stricter controls so as not to contaminate research results and are equipped with sealed doors, sterilization units and filtered air.

These open and closed practices, being in the nature/culture nexus, represent current osmotic flow as each side inches towards the other’s domain. As nature becomes “culturized”, that is, manipulated and transformed, culture absorbs and expands upon these changes. “Laboratory Life (for Oryx and Crake)” is an ode to Margaret Atwood’s novel in which nature and technology are absorbed in dystopian ways.

–

Back to top

Lucky Mice

Lucky Mice was inspired by Larry Niven’s fictional Ringworld series where aliens carry on secret experiments to enhance good luck through human breeding. While serendipity might be ascribed to chance, closer examination suggests it is chance coupled with coincidence. Both judgment to recognize, and ability to accommodate unexpected events underlie all serendipitous discovery. History recounts many unexpected accidents that, through reasoning and deduction become transformed into opportunity. Investigations of luck have been undertaken in psychology, cognitive science, information science and economics, but correlations of serendipity and genetics have never been studied. Production of enhanced traits in Homo sapiens would take centuries, but a single generation of mice can be produced in only about 12 weeks. Proposed experiments will observe serendipitous behaviors with mouse-operated dice-throwing apparatus and pursue in vivo selective breeding of “lucky mice.” This scientifically rigorous approach will abide with protocols for ethical research and humane treatment of laboratory animals. No performance-enhancing drugs or genetic modifications will be administered to mice. Use of live mice highlights human-animal relationships in art and science and examines protocols underlying use and care of laboratory animals.

Back to top

From Teosinte to Tomorrow: Teosinte “time-lapse” animation

As they reach the end of the virtual corn maze in the From Teosinte to Tomorrow VR experience, the visitor sees a teosinte plant emerge and grow to maturity in a few seconds. This computer-generated 3D animation was created using time-lapse videos of real plants as guides and inspiration. Each leaf blade is animated independently, reflecting the daily and seasonal movements plants make as they track the sun during growth. The compression of an entire growing season into less than a minute references our perception of time, intersecting with the theme of how we understand the passage of time in the historical context of the development (via human intervention) of corn from teosinte, and currently, as new technologies are applied in agriculture and other aspects of human experience.

Back to top

Stranger Visions

Stranger Visions artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg creates portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material collected in public places. Working with the traces strangers unwittingly leave behind, Dewey-Hagborg calls attention to the developing technology of forensic DNA phenotyping, the impulse toward genetic determinism and the potential for a culture of genetic surveillance.

To create the sculptures, Dewey-Hagborg collected hairs, chewed up gum, and cigarette butts from the streets, public bathrooms and waiting rooms of New York City. She extracted and analyzed each sample’s DNA to computationally generate 3d printed life-size full color portraits representing what those individuals might look like, based on genomic research. The artist has devoted critical efforts to discussing the limitations and bias in phenotyping technology, which she (and many scientists) do not consider accurate or impartial enough for use in criminal investigations.

Stranger Visions was created with the support of Eyebeam and the mentorship of Genspace and NYU’s Advanced Media Studio. It is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou and private collections worldwide.

Back to top

Novel Ecosystem Generator

The Novel Ecosystem Generator is a playful kinetic public art installation designed to represent a process engine that takes in existing genes, organisms, or entire ecosystems, restructures and rearranges them, and outputs new biological systems. Before and after conditions represented in the artwork challenge viewers to consider profound examples of this Anthropocene phenomena.

People are disassembling, rearranging, and restructuring genes, organisms, ecosystems, and the environment that supports them and us. This process of creating novel ecosystems occurs both deliberately and unintentionally. For example, deliberate cross-breeding, production of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), introduction of “gene-drives” for mosquito control, or gene splicing using CRISPR-CAS9 result in the introduction of new kinds of plants and animals. These intentional introductions engender new interactions in ecosystems that have been in place for millennia. Similarly, people transport species from state to state and between countries, leading to the arrival and spread of “invasive” species in new places. These movements of species and their interaction with “native” ones, coupled with ongoing, human-caused changes to the land, sea, and climate, together lead to unexpected and unintended consequences. Such “unintentional genetic engineering” is happening continuously and, like its intentional counterpart, has great potential to cause dramatic environmental change.

Back to top

Fragments

In ‘Fragments’, I have used hundreds of thousands of re-purposed toothpicks which I collected from mainly restaurants where they were used for picking teeth and discarded. I then dyed them with organic dyes that are harmless to the environment.

Essentially, they still retain human DNAs and microbiomes through the saliva, blood, and food particles on the toothpicks, that imbue them with a life of their own. Thus, the current condition of the toothpicks as microbial forms raises questions about the sanitary conditions of the food we eat and the environments in which they are processed. All these locate ‘Fragments’ at an intersection of art and biotechnology, where our understanding of the complex relationship with the microbial community would help inform a better understanding of the human body, better health and improved well-being.

Collecting the toothpicks raised critical questions about the unsanitary condition of the food we eat and the conditions in which they are prepared. Thus, each toothpick in this composition represents a human being – a contributor and unwitting participant in this project of rethinking the bacterial and viral genomes of the human body.

Back to top

In Posse

Chromosomes

In Posse

Throughout history, semen has been revered as a magical substance – a totem of literal and symbolic potency. Patriarchal societies have described semen as life force, a drop of the brain, and that which sows the seeds of virtue in the female soul. In Posse aims to rewrite this cultural narrative; to use art and science to disrupt the hierarchy.

Artist Charlotte Jarvis is collaborating with Prof Susana Chuva de Sousal Lopes and Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova Institute to make semen from her (“female”) stem cells. To do this they are using stem cells derived from Charlotte’s blood, altering their gender and differentiating them into the sperm producing cells found in male testicles.

The project is presented as part of a contemporary reenactment of the ancient Greek festival of Thesmophoria – a women-only fertility ceremony in honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Charlotte has used her female sperm as a starting point for reimagining Thesmophoria: for populating a history without patriarchy and a future in which the gender/genital power balance is redressed.

Back to top

KERASYNTH poster

Kerasynth

Kerasynth is a synthetically grown biological material that can replace all keratin-based animal fibers. It takes the approach of using tissue engineering to grow wool Hair Follicle Germ (HFG) cells on microfluidic devices designed to provide the cells with nutrients and to remove waste. The subsequent wool could then be harvested and further processed or remain attached to the microfluidic device.

Eventually, using non-animal derived growth media for cell culturing and more biodegradable alternatives for the PDMS used to make the microfluidic devices could make creating a completely vegan wool from a biodegradable support possible in the near future.

Another component of our project is to propose ways for making tissue engineering a more accessible technology through community-based educational models in schools and vocational training programs. In order to realize this goal, we have created a speculative company named DermaWool that would develop and patent this method of production before licensing other companies to use their technology in other ventures. By democratizing the knowledge and resources used in creating Kerasynth, we hope to provide a material solution that not only addresses human consumer needs and protects animal welfare, but is also inclusive in its production.

Back to top

Sire

In pre-Christian Europe, people annually performed customs in relation to the reaping and sewing of the harvest. These rituals have since been popularly interpreted as an attempt to influence the future behaviour of nature.

Part of this practice involved making a corn dolly, an object made through the intricate handcraft of binding straw with the final sheaf of that year’s crop. This doll has since become a symbol of fertility, both of the land and the living creatures that feed off it. In contemporary society however, the branch of knowledge known as genomics has given humans the ability to truly influence how nature behaves in future generations of animal and plant species.

Having gained an understanding of the complex structure of genes and their functionality, the emergence of bioinformatics has allowed scientists to direct breeding strategies with the objective of achieving more physically healthy and commercially productive animals. The body of work Sire is proposed as a rephrasing of what was once intangible. Now we not only understand these formerly mysterious processes of propagation, but also manipulate them to our own ends.

Back to top

Terra Et Venti by Joel Ong (2019), artist rendering of Pseudomonas syringae ice-nucleation process, digital prints | Computer visualization by Natalie Plociennik

Terra Et Venti

Terra Et Venti is a research-creation project that explores the role synthetic biology may play in planetary scale geoengineering and weather modification practices in the near future. The work exists in a triptych of forms – in vivo, in vitro and in silico, providing a microbial mise-en-scene within which multi-scalar and multi-dimensional activities can be composed. Shown in the gallery are visual documentations of laboratory and field work, a simulation of cloud formation and a generative spatial sound composition.

The main research focus of the project is the transgenic modification of P.syringae with genetic poetry. In speculating future laboratory practices in synthetic biology that enhance or modify our atmosphere, the non-utilitarian nature of this mutation is poignant because it presents a genetic future beyond the function/dysfunction polemic of genetic modification by beginning with an aesthetic catalyst.

The computational system presented in the gallery generates text for insertion into the bacteria’s genome. It then predicts the new molecule’s 3D morphology and ice nucleation ability and generates a digital cloud in real time. Extending this experientially is an array of parametric speakers that punctuate the space with short bursts of noise, providing the metaphor of disruption in an otherwise buoyant and atmospheric soundscape.

Back to top

The Mermaid De-Extinction Project by Richard Pell (2019), DNA sequence, taxidermy, software

The Mermaid De-Extinction Project

The Mermaid De-Extinction Project examines historical and recent developments with respect to our scientific relationship to mythological mermaids. Beginning with early modern scientists descriptions of mermaid sightings, proceeding through 19th century “Feejee” mermaid specimens and culminating with the ongoing effort to understand or falsify mermaid-like genomic data originating from the Siren Genomics revelations.

Back to top

We Make Our Own Luck Here

We Make Our Own Luck Here investigates the relationship between biotechnology and culture using four leaf clovers, a symbol for luck. Using traditional selective breeding methods (mating two plants with desirable traits and planting the seeds) I have created white clover (Trifolium repens) plants with high numbers of four-leaf clovers. These specially created clover plants are shown along with notes explaining the science of the four-leaf trait. Are lucky four-leaf clovers still lucky if we use science to make them common? Scientists use biotechnology to transform our societies but we can quickly take these innovations for granted. Even antibiotics have gone from being the saviour of humanity to being overused to the point of creating new problems in less than a century. Can we that find joy from biotechnology outside of traditional research? Or should we be critical of how humanity might frivolously use its power?

This project is developed with support from Waseda University.

Back to top

EUDAIMONIA – Biotechnologization of the Soul?

Eudaimonia is a philosophical-speculative future scenario where human psyche and character has become a matter of molecular biology and can be altered with personalized genome editing device. Today scientists claim to have found that specific genes fundamentally determinate human behaviour. Explicit features of character and psychological qualities, such as empathy and creativity, are traced even to a single allele of a gene. These claims open up the question of whether the “optimization” of the human psyche would become an issue of genome editing and biotechnology. The work raises questions about possible impacts of the novel genome editing technology CRISPR through a critical near future scenario. The art work is realized as a fictional genome editing device, as a desirable consumer product and as a short film imagining the possible societal impacts of the technology: a dark poetic story of three individuals seeking help from mysterious gene editing technology in their quest to find happiness in contemporary western capitalistic world. The near future scenario thematizes the phantasmatic drive towards happiness as the ultimate goal of human existence.

Back to top

America Project

The “America Project” is a biological art installation centered around a process called “DNA gel electrophoresis”, AKA “DNA Fingerprinting”, a process I’ve appropriated to produce recognizable images. Audiences first encounter what resembles a human-scale fountain or decanter, which is actually a spittoon to collect their spit.

Prior to the opening, I extract the DNA from hundreds of spit samples, containing cheek cells and the cells’ DNA all mixed together. The DNA was not individuated nor retained: it was processed as a composite to make iconic DNA Fingerprint images of power—such as a crown and a flag—which are visible as video projections of the electrophoresis gels throughout the exhibition.

These images form because DNA of different lengths move at different speeds in a polarized electrophoresis gel. While in typical DNA images these appear like rows of abstract barcodes, I use methods which allow me to amplify DNA to exact lengths, which when run in the gel create planned, recognizable images. Since our DNA is 99.9% the same between individuals, one can easily make DNA images that don’t actually differentiate humans. What is visualized from the promiscuously co-mingled DNA in the “America Project” is our shared identity, our collectivity.

–

Back to top

Baroque Biology (Paper Theatre) by Jennifer Willet (2019), petri dishes, agar, GMO bacteria, collage materials | Mixed-media collages photographed by Justin Elliott

credits: papertheatre – J.Willet; other images – Josh Babcock

Baroque Biology (Paper Theatre)

Baroque Biology (Paper Theatre) is a series of large (25 cm x 25 cm square) LB Agar petri dishes containing imaginary biological vignettes where non-human organisms teach humans complex biotechnological processes within the context of a paper theatre show. Reminiscent of William Hogarth’s serial engravings or fairy tales from a biotech future – each allegory focuses on a fox, or a microbe, a plant or fungi, who tries to communicate with humans in a helpful manner about the biological processes they employ for survival, for reproduction, and/or aesthetic pleasure.

Sometimes the human characters are open to receiving the communicated information, and sometimes they are hostile, or ignorant to the messages they are receiving across species. Each petri dish contains paper cut outs, gold leaf, temporary tattoos, and 3D sculptural agar forms seeded with genetically modified rainbow-colored bacteria. This is a durational artwork where the Petri dishes slowly become confluent with microbes interacting with the collage elements in the dish.

Back to top

Bipolar Flowers, an “Errorarium” by Adam Zaretsky in the Gregg’s “Art’s Work” exhibit

Errorarias: Bipolar Flower Enrichment

Meet the Bipolar Flower, Bipolar (manic-depressive), Double Dipped, Zinc Fingered (ZF), GMO Arabidopsis Thaliana plants. These are plants have been ‘whole genome fracked’ in a bipolar duet of two artificial transcription factors (activating and repressing) competing for the 524 GTA GAG GAG binding places on the arabisopsis genome. These genes are regulated up and down according to the chance play of falling activation and repression domain inserts, claiming limited space in the plant’s resultant bipolar disordered: mood (behavior), energy (physiology), and ability (development) to function. This mixed-episode gene expression aims to activate decanalization swinger response mechanisms epigenetically.

The Bipolar Flowers are grown, displayed and publically entertained in the Errorarium (pictured). The Errorarium is an audio-photonic, environmental organismic personality, behavioral enrichment and integrity testing terrarium meant to house mutant organisms and subject them to tests for photosynthetic and sonic engagement. The light and sound synthesizer has many dials that you can turn to alter the environment of the growing organisms. By changing the variables on the Errorarium, you are making the experiment non-repeatable and hard to utilize. Do you think you are enriching or stressing the organisms in the Errorarium with your mediated entertainment? What is the difference between enrichment and stress?

Bipolar Flower Plants designed and Inserted and bred in the lab of Dr. Ir. Bert van der Zaal (in collaboration with David Lourier and Neils van Tol)

Back to top