[spectre] "Cellular Propeller", Howard Boland and Lucas Evers at Transmediale

[Annick2]

Dear Friends

Going to Transmediale ?
Join the "Trust Me, I'm An Artist" team for the ethics panel 
regarding the "Cellular Propeller" project by Howard Boland 
(of London-based C-Lab), which explores the fourth domain of 
synthetic biology where bio-matter is mobilized to perform 
novel behaviors.
(more info below)

Transmediale, Berlin 
[http://2016.transmediale.de/content/trust-me-i-m-an-artist-cellular-propeller#301]
Panel discussion: February 5th 2016 – 17:30 – 20:00
Organised by Lucas Evers, Waag Society

Best
Annick



The proposed work Cellular Propeller makes use of synthetic 
biology that combines modern biology and engineering 
practices in a computational manner through modelling, 
prediction and implementation. Conceptualised as part of an 
awarded Art & Synthetic Biology residency at the German 
Cancer Research Center, it involves the fourth-domain of 
synthetic biology that hybridises synthetic and biological 
matter to form novel biological or biologically inspired 
systems stretching into the realm of pseudo-organisms.

To realise this idea, it involves experiments with heart 
cells from newborn rats to make motile scaffolds. Due to 
limited availability of such material and ethical issues, it 
also takes the significant leap of using sperm cells to spin 
a coin-size wheel made from synthetic material. Availability 
of sperm cells and its potential for circumventing ethical 
ownership makes it appropriate for the project.

Cellular Propeller brings together art, science, technology, 
ethics and humour.

Still today, with all advances of molecular biology, motion 
remains a key attribute used to characterise something as 
living. Cellular Propeller partakes in rethinking what is 
living by producing a new hybrid living system or a 
bio-hybrid actuator. The project employs traditional 
quantitative engineering approaches to build a coin-size 
construct from living sperm cells and synthetic material 
that emulates a propeller motion. Morphologically, I am 
building a wheel or a functional propeller - genetically the 
propeller is human. Scientifically, the creation of Cellular 
Propeller is about understanding how sperm cells function in 
an artificial environment and the fundamental laws of forces 
and motion that govern this scale.

Obtaining biological material can problematic due to legal 
restrictions and ethical frameworks especially critical in 
artistic scenarios. Using sperm cells opens debates about 
ownership of our body, its components and what we may 
harvest for art making. Beyond this, the cultural and 
biological condition of sperm cells involves a myriad of 
ideas including sex, pleasure, reproduction, IVF and health.


Ethical Committee Members
Prof. dr. Bobbie Farsides  (Brighton Sussex Medical School 
(UK), Prof. Dr. Sabine Roeser, Technical University Delft 
(NL), Prof. Ursula Damm, Bauhaus University, Weimar (D), 
Stephen G. Gray, MIT Boston, Imperial College, London (UK), 
Philipp Mayer BS, Heidelberg University, Moderator Lucas 
Evers (Waag Society, Netherlands)