[ISEA2016] Artist Talk: Louise Mackenzie — (Forgive Me for I Am) A Curious Animal

Artist Statement

This artist’s talk presents two works-in-progress as part of my ongoing art science research collaboration with the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University. Pithos (working title) is a live bio art research project and audiovisual installation. In this work I practice transgenic art in the tradition of Joe Davis [1], Christian Bök [2] and Eduardo Kac [3] by comparing the genetic code to language and constructing a cypher that enables me to place a sentence, in the form of synthetic DNA, within the body of the organism E. coli as vessel. Reflecting the Pandora myth [4], the synthetic DNA construct (a question to the microbial other) is worked into a physical clay vessel and it’s predicted evolution within E. coli is sonified as an audio work. As an ongoing live element, generations of the living organism containing the synthetic DNA construct are nurtured and monitored for actual evolutionary change.

The second work-in-progress, Wishful Thinking or Velleity, With(out) Volition (working title) is a live bio art project that explores the unknown implications of using living matter as material, with my (extended) body as site of practice. Synthetic information: a thought from my mind will be placed within my own (biopsied) skin cells. The thought is translated into DNA, the language of the body and will be transcribed within my cells through a viral host. This thought is volition, a will to act: held external to my mind, yet internal to my body (cells) as synthetic other. This externalization of my body will then be observed and analysed to determine whether it accepts, rejects or alters this synthetic will. Just as synthetic biology is the imposition of human will onto living systems, I choose to impose my will, literally, on the living system of my body.
The field of synthetic biology develops genetically altered micro-organisms for use within healthcare, medicine and energy. The industry has become a lucrative one with both private and public sector investment and increased funding within the technology and defence sectors [5] [6]. 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 the context of a predicted biotechnological revolution [7] [8] [9] [10], my practice- ased research explores the use of DNA and the microorganism as medium within 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’ [11] and the writings of Jacques Derrida [12] [13] [14] and speculates upon the unknowable evolutionary trajectory of life as techné.
As I manipulate life, I consider the evolutionary consequences of my actions in the present and ask whether my future self can forgive me for what I am: a curious animal.

Pithos: loumackenzie.com/pithos-2018

References

  1. Davis, J. (1996) Microvenus. Art J. 55, 70–74
  2. C Bök, “The Xenotext Experiment”, (2008) 5:2 SCRIPTed 227
  3. Kac, E. (2000) Genesis: a transgenic artwork. In Art, Technology, Consciousness
  4. (Ascott, R., ed.), pp. 17–19, Intellect Books
  5. Hesiod, Works and Days, transl. Hugh G Evelyn-White (1914), http://www.sacredtexts.hcom/cla/hesiod/works.htm, accessed 12 February 2016
  6. “Over £60 million for synthetic biology”, Gov.uk, press release, July 2013,
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-60-million-for-synthetic-biology; “midven to Manage Synthetic Biology Enterprise Fund”, Midven website, accessed 11 November 2013
  7. Synthetic Biology Special Interest Group, Funding web page,
    https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/syntheticbiology-
    special-interest-group/fundingcompetitions, accessed 11 November 2013
  8. Gardner, T S, and K Hawkins. 2013. “Synthetic Biology: Evolution or Revolution? A Co-Founder’s Perspective.” Curr Opin Chem Biol. doi:10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.09.013.
  9. Savulescu, Julian, and Craig Venter. 2012. “Master the New Loom before Life’s Tapestry Unravels at Our Hands.” Times Higher Education Supplement, accessed 20 October 2014
  10. Schmidt, Markus. 2009. “Synthetic Biology: The Technoscience and Its Societal Consequences,” no. Idc. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2678-1.
  11. Shukman, David. 2012. “Early Days in a DIY Biological Revolution.” BBC News, accessed 15 October 2014
  12. Heidegger, Martin. 1977. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Technology and Values: Essential Readings. doi:10.1007/BF01252376.
  13. Derrida, Jacques. 1967. “Structure, Sign & Play.” In Writing & Difference, 351–70.
    Routledge.
  14. Derrida, Jacques, and David Wills. 2002. “The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow).” Critical Inquiry 28 (2): 369. doi:10.1086/449046.
  15. Derrida, Jacques, Of Grammatology, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak trans. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1976)

Bibliography
Bailey, JI. 2014. “Enframing the Flesh: Heidegger, Transhumanism, and the Body as ‘Standing Reserve.’” Journal of Evolution &
Technology 24 (2): 44–62. http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/rel_fac/81/
Bök, C, “The Xenotext Experiment”, (2008) 5:2 SCRIPTed 227
Bureaud, A. et al. (2014) Meta-Life: Biotechnologies, Synthetic Biology, ALife and the Arts, MIT Press
Davis, J. (1996) Microvenus. Art J. 55, 70–74 Derrida, Jacques. 1967. “Structure, Sign & Play”. In Writing & Difference, 351–70. Routledge.
Derrida, Jacques. 1972. “Signature, Event, Context.” In Limited Inc., 1–24. Northwestern University Press.
Derrida, Jacques, Of Grammatology, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak trans. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1976)
Derrida, Jacques, and David Wills. 2002. “The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow)”. Critical Inquiry 28 (2): 369. doi:10.1086/449046.
Dick, Kirby, and Amy Ziering Kofman. 2002. Derrida. USA: Eurozoom, Zeitgeist Films.
Gardner, T S, and K Hawkins. 2013. “Synthetic Biology: Evolution or Revolution? A Co-Founder’s Perspective.” Curr Opin Chem Biol.doi:10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.09.013.
Haraway, Donna J., Cyborg Manifesto (in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Donna J. Haraway, Routledge, 1991)
Heidegger, Martin. 1977. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Technology and Values: Essential Readings. doi:10.1007/BF01252376.
Hesiod, Works and Days, transl. Hugh G Evelyn-White (1914), http://www.sacredtexts. com/cla/hesiod/works.htm, accessed 12 February 2016
Kac, E. (2000) Genesis: a transgenic artwork. In Art, Technology, Consciousness (Ascott, R., ed.), pp. 17–19, Intellect Books
Kac, Eduardo (ed.). 2007. “Signs of Life: BioArt and Beyond” (MIT Press)
Latour, Bruno, We Have Never Been Modern (transl. Catherine Porter, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993)
Rae, G. 2013. “Heidegger’s Influence on Posthumanism: The Destruction of Metaphysics, Technology and the Overcoming of Anthropocentrism.” History of the Human Sciences 27 (1): 51–69. doi:10.1177/0952695113500973.
Savulescu, Julian, and Craig Venter. 2012. “Master the New Loom before Life’s Tapestry Unravels at Our Hands.” Times Higher Education Supplement, accessed 20 October 2014
Schmidt, Markus. 2009. “Synthetic Biology: The Technoscience and Its Societal Consequences”, no. Idc. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2678-1.
Shukman, David. 2012. “Early Days in a DIY Biological Revolution.” BBC News, accessed 15 October 2014
Next Steps for European Synthetic Biology: A Strategic Vision from ERASynBio, April 2014, http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/documents/1404-erasynbio-strategic-vision-pdf/, accessed 07 February 2016
A Synthetic Biology Roadmap for the UK, UK Synthetic Biology Roadmap Coordination Group, July 2012, http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUKprod/assets/documents/publications/SyntheticBiologyRoadmap.pdf, accessed 12 November 2013
“Over £60 million for synthetic biology”, Gov.uk, press release, July 2013, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-60-million-for-synthetic-biology; “midven to Manage Synthetic Biology Enterprise Fund”, Midevn website, accessed 11 November 2013
Synthetic Biology Special Interest Group, Funding web page, https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/syntheticbiology-special-interest-group/fundingcompetitions, accessed 11 November 2013

  • Louise Mackenzie, Northumbria University, Newcastle University, UK loumackenzie.com