Preliminary DANM250-A_DARNET_Proposal

Elliot Anderson
Assistant Professor
UCSC
Art: Electronic Media & Digital Arts New Media Graduate Program

Category: Art & Science

UnNatural Selection

Collaborative project with DANM graduate students: Tyler Freedman, Adam Jerugim, James Khazar, Cynthia Payne, Nichole Smith, no.e (Jennifer) Parker, and Alan Tollefson.

The 21st Century presents us with expanded capability developed by science and technology to create new forms of life through genetic modification. We feel it is important to examine this new capability in alternative and unexpected ways as a method to create discourse on the potentials of this new power. By recognizing this future and commenting on its science and culture we hope to develop a critical and ethical response to what seems to be the inevitability of these technologies. In our field of research we choose to explore transgenic plants – plants crafted through gene splicing often combining animal with plant genes. Where do we place these plant/animal hybrids in the taxonomy of life? We answer this question by creating another kingdom that functions in the geno-liminal space between animal and plant. Our research explores this kingdom and its structures by creating new plant forms.

The methods by which we examine this new taxonomy are to adopt a new mode of Manifest Destiny – no longer do we explore and discover but we create from the ground up these new territories. In the style of 19th century photographers and painters working in the west we look to create transgenic landscapes and species. The first of our methods is to develop a transgenic paintbox. We see in the future new possibilities for artists’ materials in genes and the structuring of life forms. Our “paintbox” will consist of a computer program that accesses a database of genes and genetic information that we can then mold and shape into new transgenic plant-animals. The program will create genomes, chromosomes, and images of our new species.

Aesthetics are crucial to the realization of our project. We envision creating entire landscapes molded to our aesthetic criteria and judgments. Through our transgenic landscapes we will formulate a new aesthetic theory of man-made beauty. We will no longer reflect on the external and natural world that is received, but an internal human centered conception of natural beauty. As a ground for our investigation of beauty we return to the 19th painters; Bierstadt, the Hudson River School, et. al. These artists expressed the idea of boundless nature available to man for resources and pleasure. We see the realm of genetic engineering as an equal frontier. These artists created a mythical landscape of abundance that drove the move westward. We too look to create a new mythology of genomic space.

UnNatural Selection URL: http://danm.ucsc.edu/web/PreliminaryDANM250APage

Collaboration

We invite artists, geneticists, computer scientists, and naturalists to join us in our aesthetic search and exploration. Specifically, we are looking for individuals who can enlighten the range of genetic materials and the possibilities for manipulations and recombination toward new plant forms. Our modeling will initially be through artificial life and genetic algorithms. We hope then to extend our discoveries to the creation of new plant species that live up to our desires for the beautiful.