You are bringing up very interesting points in the discussion.
Already few times have been mentioned the questions on political, economic and (most of all) ethical issues what the crossing of boundaries (human/non-human, living/non-living) will possibly impact. Lot of the bioart/art&science is commonly seen as the initiator for public discussion concerning these issues. Sometimes it seems to be presented as one of the primary aims of the works. In art history there are many events and discussions on What is Art? Even if the current initiated discussions within art&science seem to concern other issues; is in the bottom of the discussion still this same question?
My question concerning this kind of art is simply: what else it could do? How else it could be?
On another issue:
At the very end of Howard's post he said: "some of the ethical dilemmas thrown up by synthetic biology (e.g. instrumentation and industrialisation of life)."
The notion of "instrumentation of life" is interesting. But wondering what does it actually mean? Howard, can you elaborate a bit what is in your mind?
I think the same notion also relates to other areas, not solely synthetic biology, but also to AL, and areas dealing with the combination of organic-technological such as body enhancement.
Best,
Laura Beloff
-artist, researcher currently based in Finland.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~off/off/
richard brown [rb@mimetics.com]:
> Never mind the shifting boundaries between living and non living systems
> - what are the motivations behind this development and what are the
> political, ethical and economic implications?!
>
> And the motives and ambitions behind his company Synthetic Genomics?
>
> "Synthetic Genomics has a $600m agreement
> <http://cleantech.com/news/4711/exxonmobil-devotes-600m-algal-biofu>
> with ExxonMobil to obtain fuel from algae"
>
> Craig Venter was also responsible for attempting to privatise the human
> genome:
>
> "Dr Venter became a controversial figure in the 1990s when he pitted his
> former company, Celera Genomics <https://www.celera.com/>, against the
> publicly funded effort to sequence the human genome, the Human Genome
> Project <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml>.
> Venter had already applied for patents on more than 300 genes, raising
> concerns that the company might claim intellectual rights to the
> building blocks of life."
>
> Finally to dampen the wow amazing sci-fi madmangod PR slant that he has
> created synthetic life from scratch - what he had done is modified an
> existing cell by injecting an artifical synthesised DNA, signed with
> markers pointing to his website and even a James Joyce quote, how arty
> is that ;).
> "To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life."
>
> "The new bacterium, nicknamed "Synthia," replicates and produces
> proteins. By any reasonable definition, it is alive. Although it is very
> similar to a natural bacterium from which it was largely copied, the
> creators put distinctive strings of DNA into its genome to prove that it
> is not a natural object. These strings spell out, in code, a website
> address, the names of the researchers, and apt quotations such as one
> from Richard Feynman: "What I cannot build, I cannot understand.""
>
> Corporate science fuelled by a maverick ego driven genius - Dr.
> Strangelove anyone?
>
> For more on the man behind the experiment, seen from a UK leftish/centre
> PR newsmag persepctive:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/13/science-playing-god-climate-change
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/may/23/observer-profile-craig-venter?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-genome?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
>
>
> On 08/05/2011 00:55, Molly Hankwitz wrote:
> > hi roger,
> > this topic leaves me wordless, but
> > a question or comment...is there any
> > direction developing or where might one develop to integrate this new non living species manufacture with, say, Bateson's notions of blind person and cane...that they form a third entity, non binary system and human patterning?
> >
> >
> > On May 7, 2011, at 1:08 PM, roger malina<rmalina@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> yasminers
> >>
> >> no one seems to have picked up on my previous topic\
> >> on the shifting boundary between living and non living
> >> systems
> >>
> >> until now the only forms of life on this planete are those
> >> that are derived via darwinian evolution for the primordial
> >> soup as they say
> >>
> >> in 2010 a new life form was perhaps created, the first
> >> in 5 billion years
> >>
> >> Updated: Oct 18, 2010
> >>
> >> http://www.optimalfunctioning.com/science/creation-first-artificial-life-form-synthetic-cell-craig-venter.html#Q&A%20on%20What%20Synthetic%20Life%20Actually%20Means
> >>
> >> A brand new living cell and the beginning of an era for artificial
> >> life forms! Its official, J. Craig
> >> Venter and his team have created the first self-replicating synthetic
> >> cell with a completely man-made
> >> set of genetic instructionsa never before existing bacteria species
> >> has joined the ranks of the living.
> >>
> >> http://www.optimalfunctioning.com/research/gibson-et-al-2010-creation-of-bacterial-cell-controlled-by-chemically-synthesized-genome.html
> >>
> >> The cultural implcations of this new step will no doubt take decades
> >> if not centuries to be integrated
> >> into our deep views on living systems.
> >>
> >> Roger
> >>
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> --
> Richard Brown
>
> art&design: mimetics.com
> i-lighting: mimelight.com
>
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