CIAC's Electronic Magazine:::::::art and bio(techno)logy

CIAC's Electronic Magazine
art and bio(techno)logy

The CIAC's Electronic Magazine is an online and bilingual (French and
English) publication, devoted to cyberculture and art in all its connections
with new technologies. Every issue is organized around a particular theme.
The Fall 2005 issue is about art and bio(techno)logy.

³Is our ecosphere being altered by Genetically Modified Organisms built for
profit margins without authentic oversight or risk assessment? If the
technology for genome sculpting of new style humans is a possibility, what,
if any, effect will imagination play in our future kindred? What can we know
about animal sentience and non-human awareness? How are artists taking these
factors into account as they try to express themselves through living
collage? As new biological comprehension sprouts new technological
processes, what are the overt and covert roles of creativity on the
decisions of which traits get embedded into whose new bodies? These are
today's major issues emanating from the intersection of Art and Biology.²
(Adam ZARETSKY, THE MUTAGENIC ARTS)

In this issue:

FEATURE :
THE MUTAGENIC ARTS, by American artist and researcher Adam ZARETSKY;

INTERVIEW :
BIOART IN QUESTION : Adam ZARETSKY talks with Shannon BELL, Sam BOWER,
Dmitry BULATOV, George GESSERT, Kathy HIGH, Ellen K. LEVY, Oron CATTS &
Ionat ZURR and Jennifer WILLET ;

PERSPECTIVE : CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE :
ARTISTIC RESISTANCE IN THE AGE OF TERROR,
by Shawn BAILEY (Concordia University);

FIVE REVIEWS :
-BIOTEKNICA (Canada / Quebec, 2000-present), by Anne-Marie BOISVERT; NATURAL
REALITY SUPERWEED KIT 1.0, by Heath BUNTING (United Kingdom, 1999), by
Xavier MALBREIL; EMBRACING ANIMAL, by Kathy HIGH (USA, 2005), by Jennifer
WILLET; GFP BUNNY, by Eduardo KAC (Brazil / USA, 2000), by Ernestine
DAUBNER; DISEMBODIED CUISINE, by THE TISSUE CULTURE & ART PROJECT
(Australia, 2003), by Jens HAUSER

Anne-Marie Boisvert, Editor in Chief
CIAC¹s Electronic Magazine
magazine[at]ciac.ca
Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal

contact / abonnement / subscribe : magazine[at]ciac.ca

Evolution show title

let's brainstorm!

so far:

the evolution show
the evolution forces
self-making system
te e factors
evolutionary biology as process

help!

A&D life organization

PR: print materialss, website, email, call, intrauniversity relations
funding: get money
food:
curation:
installation:
catalog/digital catalog:

any others?

sources of money:

Life sciences and values et cetera: max 1000
student activities: ?
A&D: ?
Rackham interdisciplinary workshops: max 6000 (I'm on it)

any others?

Call for participation (draft)

"we need a title"

A&DLife in conjunction with the University of Michigan School of Art & Design invites submissions for the upcoming show entitled, "something." The show coincides with the Exploring Evolution theme semester in collaboration with the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.--so far this intro is awkward.

The theme of the show will revolve around the five commonly observed forces or categories of organic biological evolution. (preliminary definitions from answers.com) We are interested in the confluence of contemporary art and biological evolution as object and/or as process. We have a particular interest in works that examine the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, competing ideas or hypotheses that have contributed to our current understanding of evolutionary mechanisms, and the burdgeoning role of organismal development in our conceptions of genetic evolution. Works should focus on one or more of the following:

Natural Selection: The process in nature by which only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.

Sexual Selection: Selection driven by the competition for mates, considered an adjunct to natural selection.

Mutation: A change of the DNA sequence within a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not found in the parental type.

Migration: The act or an instance of migrating (that leads to changes in the gene frequencies within populations).

Genetic Drift: Random fluctuations in the frequency of the appearance of a gene in a small isolated population, presumably owing to chance rather than natural selection.

Submissions should be sent via email to...

Submissions should include up to five images for each work to be considered or a link to online video if time-based work is to be comsidered. The category or categories that the work falls into should be specified along with its dimensions, medium(s), and a 150-200 word biography of the artist.

evolution show planning update

Timeline:

Feb 20-24th: show installed
March 10th: reception

GLOBAL

Oct 1: international call for participation (via rhizome, asci, diatrope, evolution directory, etc.)
--anyone have other suggestions for places to send the call?

November 1: images due

November 28: acceptances mailed out


LOCAL (A&D/umich community)

October 15 (pending funding): call for collaborations

Nov. 2: general call for participation and, pending funding, invited works

Jan 15: images due

Jan 30: acceptances mailed

Feb 10: all work in for setup

Questions of Inclusion

One of the major questions raised at last week's meeting was how to include the work of scientists from the university community. The most contention arose around the area of presentation (Would we accept posters???).

How do we meet scientist (students/professors) where they are at to make them feel most engaged? Do we set up collaborations between them and A&D students? How do we prevent the participants of these collaborations from falling into the traditional roles? We must also remember that there are many solutions to these problems. Which ones do people feel comfortable with? Should we feel comfortable?

Colleen Cox said...
I am currently reeling in some more Undergrads for A & D Life. Gabe mentioned a meeting at Central, which is probably the best happy medium for Grads and Undergrads. If an actual meeting area in a building can't be secured, we could always meet at Rendevous Cafe or the like (the promise of coffee might entice more people).

Let's meet this week at 4pm- at the Union, zingerman 's upstairs, rendezvous cafe?

As far as show subject matter, was the idea of how humans might evolve in response to our current and changing enivornment suggested? How would our physical make-up change to adapt to an urban lifestyle or how will we change in response to changing technology? It's a simple, standard theme, but it can be caricaturized or treated seriously - it's pretty versitile.

It was suggested and it's good that you brought it up again. Perhaps this can be taken on using specific evolutionary forces as motivators. For example, is there an absence of natural selection now with medical technology?

question about development

do you know if somewhere there is a list of which genes correspond with the
development of which body parts in the human?



in general, there is a certain class of genes that stimulate body plans. they are called the homeotic loci (loci is a general location that maps to the genes) or hox genes. These are some of the most interesting sequences in genetics because they have basically the same sequence across most taxa. What differs is their expression pattern. They are some of the best examples of how development and not genes affects growth and development.

Two books:

The Shape of Life (Rudy Raff) is a classic.
Endless forms most beautiful (Sean Carroll) is new but written by a leader in the field of developmental gene expression.

Development appears to happen as the result of the timing and location of gene expression. For example, cellular signals cause gene x to activate in the posterior part of the embryo while it is suppressed in the anterior. The head forms in the posterior and the tail in the anterior. This continues during development to form the body plan.

Any good biology textbook will have a comprehensive description. I have one you can borrow. Brad also does this for a living and is thus a better expert than me.

To answer your question, genbank (google: ncbi) keeps lists of these things. So if you are interested in the precise location on the chromosome or what diseases are associated, you can check there.

Evolution Show focus and scope

As many of you know, A&D Life is organizing to present a show around the theme of biological evolution at WORK (hey, there's a title, maybe). The dates are Feb 24th-March 24. Note: the first day coincides with the start of spring break. Perhaps we can push the opening back two weeks.

Zack, Chris, Elona, and Gabe discussed the focus and scope of the show as we prepare to issue a call for participation.
Possible participants include the local (School Of A&D, students, fac, staff), the scientific community (e.g. evolutionary biologists), and the global (via diatrope, rhizome, and asci mailing lists). We discussed ideas for targeting specific individuals that we thought could contribute specifically to the missson of the show as well as putting in place catalysts for collaboration between evolutionary biologists (for example) and our own student community.

The focus was discussed, and it was agreed on (generally) that it should revolve around biological evolution. More specifically, rather than making the focus about evolution in the general sense, we agreed that it could be unpacked into its constituent forces- mutation, natural selection, sexual selection, migration, and genetic drift. This way, visual (and other modalities) metaphors are generated for the specifics of evolution- rather than most generally "change over time." History, philosophy, and competing ideas can easily find a home in this focus.

Please share your comments and ideas too.

We neglected to discuss the role of development- as it is increasingly important to any discussion of biological evolution.
Any thoughts about ow it could be tied in?

A&D Life members present poster at LSI

A&D Life members will present the poster "Organelle View: A Dynamic Visualization of Protein Localization" at the annual Life Sciences Institute poster session, TODAY, Thursday, Sept. 15th from 4-5:30pm. I think it takes place in the atrium at LSI.

A&D life continues MSA student organization registration process

We are almost registered!

next steps:

There are several additional steps to complete your registration process.

Completed Online Registration
Pending Attend a Student Organization Workshop (register online at: http://uuis.umich.edu/workshop/)
Pending Have your Treasurer attend a Treasurer Workshop (register online at: http://uuis.umich.edu/workshop/)
Pending Submit your Signature Card to SOAS (2400 Michigan Union).

I have registered for the first available workshop (oct 4 at 5pm) If somebody else wants to take this over, please contact gabe.

I will attend the treasurer workshop.

I'll be going around to get the appropriate signatures for the (new) registration card.

Evolution background

http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Theory_of_Evolution

although ... Evolution is about as much of a "theory" as gravity ...

also useful- especially for more nuanced descriptions of competing hypotheses and what-not
The Encyclopedia of Life Sciences is written by recognized experts on each topic.

http://www.els.net