The Politics of Empathy
These rats are named Matilda, Tara and Star. These are all transgenic (gene transfer) rats, HLAB27 transgenic rats to be precise, exhibiting a phenotype similar to humans suffering B27 related rheumatic disorders. They have been microinjected with human DNA that sets them up for a precondition to beautoimmune challenged. The injection of human genetic material occurs in the pronucleus of mouse embryo, and it is passed generation to generation ever after. They are prone to develop diseases like reactive arthritis, psoriasis inflammatory bowel disease, and other things. They are developed for pharmaceutical research studies in systemic inflammation. Matilda, Tara and Star are also retired breeders, meaning they were used to give birth to baby rats that carried their added gene. They came from a laboratory that breeds such rats (and mice too) and sells them to researchers. Their ears have holes and yellow markings on their fur as a kind of numbering system. These marks denoted their identification, their names, until they came to live with me.
http://embracinganimal.com
(via: we make money not art)
Via res-Qualia:
La instalacion presenta celulas HeLa (linea de celulas inmortal, utilizada en la investigacion medica)suspendidas en un nutriente y visionadas en un monitor a traves de un microscopio.
The installation presents HeLa cells (immortal cell lines used in medical investigations) suspended in a nutrient solution and displayed on a monitor attached to a microscope.
“I was introduced to the practical implications of the Human Genome Project when I was pregnant and was offered a routine test that could detect the probability of genetic abnormality in the fetus. This resulted in my participating in residency programs at several institutions, each of which dealt with a different aspect of genetics: The Medical Research Councilis Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow; the Institute of Medical Genetics, Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow; and the Wellcome Trust Building in Dundee, Scotland. The following text is an extract from an essay that accompanied the project, written by Dr. Lisa Schwarz, a lecturer in the Philosophy of Medicine at Glasgow University. iDetection of genes that cause or carry particular conditions implies labeling the gene as desirable or undesirable, good or bad. Undesirable conditions can now be located by genetic testing. Enormous screening programs and routine prenatal testing for Downis syndrome and spina bifida are set up to detect the probabilities of a community or individual perpetuating the undesirable gene. The condition is thereby red-flagged but with what intention? In the case of conditions that are not yet curable, the only other option is to eliminate them before they affect the community. This means either eliminating the gene or the gene carrier. Ultimately it has become a reason for termination of pregnancy, and more recently the option to prevent coupling between gene carriers where a condition requires two carriers to activate it. How far down the line we will go, as mapping of the genome progresses, is as yet undetermined.”
http://www.res-qualia.net/view_projecte.php?id=551
Via Regine at WMMNA:
[Yves Bernard's] installation Blue Shift [LOG. 1], introduced last Summer at Isea2006, aims to question the status of the utilitarian in art and science and push interactive installation art into Darwinian realms. A community of single-cell algae, water fleas, fish and water snails is set up in the exhibition space. Visitors induce a gradual microevolution of the – genetically determined – light-responsive behavior of the water fleas. When the system is in standby, yellow lights illuminate the aquaria from the top.
The water fleas are attracted to this light and swim towards it. Whenever a visitor is detected in proximity of the installation, blue spotlights are activated. Water fleas, repelled by this color, flee downwards and pass through holes in a false bottom in the aquaria… where fish are waiting to wipe them out.
What can be considered to be a survival strategy in natural circumstances – blue light indicates clear open water and hence potential detection by fish – has quite a different meaning in this set-up: it is exactly those water fleas that do not swim away from the blue light that survive and reproduce. In this way their genes will become dominant in the water flea populations and a “contra-natural” selection will occur.
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009350.php
Growable Media Design: Integrating Plants and Digital Media for Information Visualization is an ambient media project designed to visualize everyday communication.
Via: we make money not art (the source of lots of great bio-art links these days!)
“Six white mice reside among books on logic subjects inside a laboratory cabinet, nibbling on the pages.”
More at: we make money not art
The Very Important “Now” Network uses Phytomonitoring technology to monitor the flow of sap in trees and then makes that data directly available on the Internet for various interactive music and video projects.
Dunn’s compositions and performances sometimes involve animal or insect sounds from the environment. Mimus Polyglottos (with Ric Cupples) (1976) is described as “interspecies communication research with Mockingbirds.” The instuctions for Part Four of ORACLES: Ten Environmental Stimulus Compositions (1974) are: “Utilize the provided tape (7 1/2 ips) as a communication stimulus to occur in the outdoor environment of canines such as wolves or coyotes. Playback is halftrack mono through one or more loudspeakers with high amplification. Play the tape for a duration of one minute followed by a one minute duration of silence. Continue to repeat this activity for an extended period of time recording and documenting changes in the environment.” His Chaos & the Emergent Mind of the Pond is described here.
Lots of scores and info on Dunn’s work at: http://artscilab.org/~david
Human hair and skin, embryo, and bacteria are some of the materials used in Houben Tcherkelov’s work.
A dense bed of light-sensitive bacteria has been developed as a unique kind of photographic film. Although it takes 4 hours to take a picture and only works in red light, it also delivers extremely high resolution.
The living camera uses light to switch on genes in a genetically modified bacterium that then cause an image-recording chemical to darken. The bacteria are tiny, allowing the sensor to deliver a resolution of 100 megapixels per square inch.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8365&feedId=online-news_rss20
via We Make Money Not Art
