View Source: Preliminary DANM250 A Page

<?plugin RawHtml
  <style type="text/css">
.headline {
    font-size: 36pt;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #262825;
 }
</style>
<p class="headline" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:0px; text-align:center">UnNatural Selection<br><img src="http://danm.ucsc.edu/media/DANM250A_images/plat_framed.jpg" style="padding-top:20px; padding-bottom:20px; text-align:center"><br>
<span style="text-align:center; line-height:24px; font-size:16px; font-weight:bold; text-align:center">Collaborative project with DANM graduate students:
<br>
<a href ="phreakhead">Tyler Freeman</a>,
Adam Jerugim,
<a href ="JamesKhazar">James Khazar</a>,
<a href ="nici">Nichole Smith</a>, <a href ="Synthia">Synthia Payne</a>,
<a href ="no.e">no.e sunflowrfish</a>, and
<a href ="ubik">Alan Tollefson.</a></span></p>
?>
----
----
!! UC Darnet [Presentation Proposal|PreliminaryDANM250-A_DARNET_Proposal]
!! UC Darnet [Resources|PreliminaryDANM250-A_DARNET_Resources]
----
----
!!!GRANTS & FUNDING SOURCES
!!Deadlines
*ARI Major Grant - Deadline Feb 15th
*UCARI - Deadline March 1st
*UC Darnet - Feb 6rd, for a talk on research. Informational PDF [here|http://ucdarnet.org/callforpresent.pdf]
*How to write an abstract: [here|http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html]
<br>
----
----
!First Preliminary Session [Notes|KhazarDANM250A]
!Fourth Preliminary Session [Notes|KhazarDANM250AFourthPreliminarySessionNotes]
<br>
----
----
!Second Preliminary Session
!!!The Mission Statement
_Take these ideas and please edit them! Our goal is to come up with a successful mission statement. Copy and paste and name and date your version._
----
Cynthia 2/5/06 1:09 a.m.
How about a projected landscape movie that morphs with user input. Users enter keywords into a 'gene splicer' and then the words assemble some "thing" that gets incorporated into the ever mutating scene.<br>
<br>
James 1/30 9:30pm
!Headline:
*Unnatural Selection
!Group Name:
*The Digital Art/New Media 2006 Cohort Genetic Aestheticians
!Slogan:
*Sculpting nature to make the world a better place to see
*Making the world the way we want it
*Better living through bio-transversity (kinda a cross between transgressive and bio diversty)
*Better living through Crucigenic ™ Transmogrification
!Brief Description (One Paragraph):
*The world of rational exploration in the fields of science has often gone either unexamined or dismissed by the world of artistic discourse. By co-opting the dialectic of contemporary and historical transgenic research and development in gene splicing, gene modeling, robotics, eugenics, and animal husbandry, we intend to explore these potentially transmogrifying investigations and re-frame them for their potential as a medium of aesthetic expression.
!Longer Description (2-3 paragraphs) _final copy as submitted to UC DARNET_ :
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.

!Some catchy phrases:
*The Transgenic Sublime
*We are the Monets of Genetics
*Platonic Plants - Plato posited the existence ideal forms from which all earthly replicas were generated.  We can create Ideal Plants genetically from which all plants will be generated.  Thus we can create Ideal Landscapes of these plants based on our conception of the beautiful in landscape.  -- Elliot
<br>
----

!!!_Please add to these lists:_
!!What realizable projects do we want to do:
Synthia 012806a:
* put it all inside a traveling box for easy transportation
* an algorithmic calculator - see what results one might get with various recipes applied to various hosts: a kind of crossing ground.
<br>
James 1/30 9:30pm (based on meeting notes):
*Create our own Tree of Life
*Create fighting plants (Tyler)
*Create landscapes of transgenic lifeforms based on 19th century landscape paintings
*Create models and dioramas of our transgenic lifeforms
*Create a Genetic Wiki - one where you can wiki-edit lifeforms
<br>
Elliot(email 2/2)
*Computer based:
  *A legos-like virtual building blocks of genes toward creating aesthetically driven life forms.
  *In relation to the above - a gene building block database.
    *not real genes - too much science.
    *we create the genes
  *Evolutionary algorithmic design system: see Golem Project
*Real artificial life:
  *Transgenic landscapes
    *Raise 'em and shoot (photograph) 'em
    *Based on 19th century landscape painting.
*Conceptual:
  *Realign the tree of life with a new transgenic kingdom (needs a better name than transgenic)
  *All this landscape has got me thinking: In Texas (of course) there are a number of safari shooting ranges; exotic animals collected in parks and bred for rich people to play Teddy Roosevelt and shoot them down.  What if we created a transgenic animal shooting park?  Very Blade Runner....

!!What materials/supplies/tools do we need?
James 1/30 9:30pm (based on meeting notes)
*Transgenic Seeds
*Program engineering time
*Growing lab (lights, hydroponics, greenhouse?)

<br>
----
----
!!!Recommended Readings
*"The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World" by Michael Pollan - The Ur-Text of this project, everyone must read this...
*"Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms" by Stephen J. Gould.
*"Scenes from Deep Time : Early Pictorial Representations of the Prehistoric World" by Martin J.S. Rudwick.
*["The Age of the World Picture" by Martin Heidegger.|http://www.culturaleconomics.atfreeweb.com/Anno/Heidegger%20The%20Age%20of%20the%20World%20Picture.htm]
* ["Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" by Bill Joy|http://www.primitivism.com/future.htm]

!!!New Additions:
* ["The Tradition Invented: The Theory of the Sublime"|http://media.dickinson.edu/landscapes/Ib_Landscape_America.html]
*["THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE & TRANSCENDENTALISM"|http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/transcend.html]
*["Hudson River School artists find inspiration in those hills"|http://cityguide.pojonews.com/fe/Arts/stories/art_hudson_river_school.asp]
*["Nature and the Nation"|http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/art/story/A7E88BCC1917DD58862570390053F367?OpenDocument]
*["DISCOVERING THE WEST: THE ART OF SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURE"|http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa269a.htm]
*["Landscape & Place"|http://www.pbs.org/art21/education/naturalworld/lesson2.html]
*["Cleaning Up Arsenic"|http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/10_02/plant_arsenic.php]
*["Ruskin's Theories of the Sublime and Picturesque"|http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ruskin/atheories/3.1.html]
*["Ruskin's Theory of the Sublime"|http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/ruskin/empi/3rdedition/3b040.htm]
*["John Muir's Image of the West"|http://www.colorado.edu/geography/giw/leighly-j/1958_miw/1958_miw_body.html]
*["Emerson's article - Thoughts on Art"|http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/art.html]
----
!!!Relevant/Interesting links

!!Invasives (man's inhumanity to landscape...)
*[Pampas in the Landscape|http://www.nps.gov/redw/pampas.htm]
*[Landscape with Kudzu | http://www.cptr.ua.edu/kudzu/]
<br>
!!Other Interventions
*Human-Rabbit [Chimera|http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0125_050125_chimeras.html]
*[Synthetic Biology @ MIT|http://syntheticbiology.org/]
*[Jim Kent @ UCSC|http://www.cbse.ucsc.edu/staff/kent.shtml]
*[Bill Sullivan @ UCSC|http://bio.research.ucsc.edu/people/sullivan/]
*[Tree of Life|http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html]
*[Linnaeus Classification|http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/classify/classify.html]
*[Linnaean Taxonomy @ wikiPedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnaean_taxonomy]
*[Greek and Latin roots|http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/courses.hp/zool250/Roots/RootsMain.htm]
*[Genetics and Society.org's listing of genetics in art and popular culture|http://www.genetics-and-society.org/analysis/popular.html]
*[Deep Ecology|http://www.deepecology.org/directory.html]
*[Biotechnology II: Transgenic Organisms|http://web.bio.utk.edu/guffey/101/Oct15.html]
*[Alexis Rockman Images|http://images.google.com/images?q=alexis+rockman&hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest]
*[Biotech Firms Transforming Animals Into Drug-Producing Machines|http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/17/BU101956.DTL]
*[Pharm animals|http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/genetic/genetic.shtml]
*[John Ruskin|http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ruskin/ruskinov.html]
*[Sperm Cells Turned to Eggs|http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060207/sc_space/spermcellsturnedintoeggs]

!Links of Paintings:
*http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/albert_bierstadt_1830.htm
*http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/artmuseum/images/pages/bierstadt.html
<br>
----

!Possible Images
<?plugin RawHtml
<img src="http://danm.ucsc.edu/~nici/images/birch1.jpg">
<br>Which come from:
<img src="http://danm.ucsc.edu/~nici/images/hetch1.jpg">
?>
<br>From [Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite | http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/view.php?nr=1412 ] by Albert Bierstadt:<br>
<?plugin RawHtml
<img src="http://danm.ucsc.edu/~nici/images/BridalVailFallsTree.jpeg">
<br>
And a possible reintroduction of the tree:<br>

<img src="http://danm.ucsc.edu/~nici/images/briadalVeilCombo.jpg">
<br>
?>

<br><br>
Thomas Moran (American, 1837–1926)<br>
[On the Catawissa Creek, 1862 | http://www.virginia.edu/artmuseum/WE2002/art/pages/PIC06_jpg.htm ]<br>
<?plugin RawHtml
<img src="http://danm.ucsc.edu/~nici/images/catawissaTree.jpg"><br>
?>
<br>
!Really large images:
*[Bierstadt, In the Mountains, 1867 | BierstadtInTheMountains ]
*[Church, Rapids of the Susquehanna, 1846 | ChurchRapidsSusquehanna]
*[Cole, View in the White Mountains, 1827 | ColeViewWhiteMountains]
View Source: Preliminary DANM250 A Page

Page Details

Page Actions

Back Links

UserId:
Password: