[spectre] Engineering Life: Virtual Futures Salon debate in London, 25.04.16
Joanna Zylinska
jo.zylinska at gmail.com
Tue Apr 19 11:35:32 CEST 2016
Engineering Life | Virtual Futures Salon
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 at 18:30 - London, United Kingdom
Event information and tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/engineering-life-virtual-futures-salon-tickets-24663336704
Life is being altered and designed by artists, scientists and
technologists. Through applying engineering principles to living
systems, biology has become a new material for creativity. But these
practices and manipulations now challenge our understanding of life and
what it means to be alive. There are various ways in which life is being
engineered: Techniques such as tissue culture allow for the growth of
cells and organism in an artificial environments. Meanwhile synthetic
biology allows for designers to programme material, creating new
organisms that might be used for radical purposes such as in
architecture, conducting electricity or emitting light. In addition,
platforms such as CRISPR/Cas9 provide an increasingly inexpensive and
versatile way to make changes to the genome.
Many of these biotechnologies have captured the imagination of the
public and have led to assertions that we might soon be able to build or
grow replacement organs. As such new emphasis has been placed on
definitions of ‘life’ that emerges through the lens of science, which
requires us to questions what might be done to life through the use of
these new technologies. What does it mean to be able to build with life?
What are the philosophical and ethical issues that arise from these new
approaches? What boundaries are crossed between science and design when
we engage with these forms of manipulation? What are the implications of
presenting living-art in this context? Where are the new boundaries
between life and non-life? How are these technologies changing our
understanding what it means to be alive and living?
This panel discussion will explore who gets to use life as material and
to what end.
Panelists
Oron Catts, Director of SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia
(@OronCatts)
An artist, researcher and curator whose pioneering work with the Tissue
Culture and Art Project which he established in 1996 is considered a
leading biological art project. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA, an
artistic research centre housed within the School of Anatomy, Physiology
and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. Under Catts’
leadership SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars Electronica Golden
Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) the WA Premier Science Award (2008) and became
a Centre for Excellence in 2008. In 2009 Catts was recognised by Thames
& Hudson’s “60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future” book in the
category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of the top 20
Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”.
Lucy McRae, Body Architect (@LucyMcRae)
Lucy McRae is a Body Architect exploring the relationship between the
body, technology and the grey areas of synthetic and organic materials.
She invents playful, imaginary worlds steered by complex scientific
challenges to create portals of possibility that provoke the way people
embody the future.
Edward Perello, Chief Business Officer & Founder, Desktop Genetics
(@EdwardPerello)
A molecular biologist passionate about synthetic biology and its impact
on the world, Edward looks to build a world where biology is widely, and
responsibly, used as technology. At Desktop Genetics, he leads the user
outreach, content and experience testing strategies. He is a 2015 SynBio
LEAP fellow and has formerly worked with the European Union on science
policy and VERTIC on arms control.
Prof. Joanna Zylinska, Professor of New Media and Communications at
Goldsmiths (@MediaComGold)
A writer, lecturer, artist and curator, working in the areas of new
technologies and new media, ethics, photography and art. She is
Professor of New Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of
London. The author of five books - most recently, Minimal Ethics for the
Anthropocene (Open Humanities Press, 2014; e-version freely available),
Life after New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process (with Sarah Kember;
MIT Press, 2012) and Bioethics in the Age of New Media (MIT Press, 2009)
- she is also the editor of The Cyborg Experiments: the Extensions of
the Body in the Media Age, a collection of essays on the work of
performance artists Stelarc and Orlan (Continuum, 2002) and co-editor of
Imaginary Neighbors: Mediating Polish-Jewish Relations after the
Holocaust (University of Nebraska Press, 2007). Her translation of
Stanislaw Lem's major philosophical treatise, Summa Technologiae, came
out from the University of Minnesota's Electronic Mediations series in 2013.
Luke Robert Mason, Director of Virtual Futures (Moderator)
(@LukeRobertMason)
Plus, a special performance from Virtual Futures' Near-Future Fiction
Author in Residence:
Stephen Oram, Near-Future Fiction Author (@OramStephen)
About the Venue
The Lights of Soho, London’s newest art gallery and member’s lounge, is
now open, operating as a cultural hub for Soho’s creative community and
the global home of creative neon and light art formats.
Find out more: http://lightsofsoho.com
Follow the Debate
Follow the debate on Twitter here:
#VFSalon
@VirtualFutures
More Information
Virtual Futures is a Community Interest Company (CIC). Tickets sales
help to cover costs of speaker travel, filming and documentation.
Discount Codes
100% Discount available for Lights of Soho Members & Press.
Contact info at virtualfutures.co.uk for Codes.
When
Monday, 25 April 2016 from 18:30 to 21:00 (BST) -
Where
Lights of Soho - 35 Brewer Street, London W1F 0RX, United Kingdom
Event information and tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/engineering-life-virtual-futures-salon-tickets-24663336704
--
Professor Joanna Zylinska
Department of Media and Communications
Goldsmiths, University of London
http://www.joannazylinska.net
NEW BOOK, Photomediations: A Reader, available open access:
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/photomediations/
More information about the SPECTRE
mailing list