heather dewey-hagborg told me about artificial life.
three definitions of bioart:
- medium specific: that they use materials of “life”. different from using biology as a topic in such a way that the medium itself is living or semi-living. this was done to separate bioart from other art disciplines.
- biopolitics: inherent to the medium.
focault defined biopolitics with these pillars:
- visibility (quantifiable, visible — to whom?)
- classification (segment people; make them powerless or powerful)
- internalization (scared of being judged against the norms)
- power (truth → power structures → creation or control of desire; conditions desire).
learned about epigenetics.
spoke about the dirty dozen & clean 15.
“predictable population” by focault when talking about the power in biopolitics. used to control; so as to maintain status quo.
- using art to find vulnerabilities, as a kind of 'fuck-you' to big companies.
amphibians as bioindicators of the state of the world.
saw embracing animal, by kathy high, and read the manifesto.
heather dewey-hagborg mentioned feminist method of making art.
from heather dewey-hagborg’s slides:
• “bioart literally is art using the materials of life,
hence living and semi-living organisms, as the art object on display.” - Ionat Zurr
• “the artists… engage with biotechnology on a material level. In this lies the specificity… For them biotechnology is not just a topic but their very medium.” - Eduardo Kac