Gene editing, sexual reproduction and the arts - Panel + exhibition

ArtSci salon is proud to present two events to explore the entangled issues of sex and sexual fantasy, sexual reproduction and sexual regulation, fertility and sexual technologies. We invited artists and scholars to address these themes using their preferred approach: the result is a thought provoking series which interrogates and imagines these issues through human/non-human sexual fantasies, interrogates them by means of modified gynaecological instruments, rewrites potential scenarios as enhanced and/or elderly humans, or offers unexpected ways to hack sex right here, right now.

for Part 1 of the event click here

PART 2

- Exhibition

Edited
Reimagining sexual reproduction, fertility and the future. In the present…

Join us at the Opening
Saturday, October 27,
4:00 pm
The SciArt Cabinets Gallery,
Koffler Student Centre,
214 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 2Z9

The potentials of genome editing techniques have brought us predictions and critiques that couldn’t look any different: shiny, beautiful, perfect and disease-free prospects of life on the one hand, and a bleak, problematic, segregated, and battled future on the other. These are all projections that look at a maybe-not-so-distant future. But what about the present?
In the exhibition “edited”, four artists rethink the future by critically reflecting on the present. Focusing on themes revolving around sexual reproduction, fertility and sexual technologies, their artworks question unresolved issues in the present that we should address before launching ourselves into the future. Can we find interesting ways to draw attention to them and re-dress how they are currently treated through creative interventions? In addition to raising awareness about sexism, sexual rigidity and the medicalization of the body, each of these artworks suggests ways in which we might address, redress, hack and reimagine gynecological practice, hormonal management, human enhancement and sexual and cultural identity through the arts.

Artists:

Andrew Carnie, UnFolding Sheets

Samira Daneshvar, The Armamentarium of (Counter) Creation

Byron Rich & Liz Flyntz Epicurean Endocrinology, Cooking Sex

Adam Zaretsky centiSperm, mutaFelch and biPolar Flowers

Curated by the ArtSci Salon

The SciArt Cabinets Gallery is open
Mon-Fri 9:00 am-7:00pm
Sat-Sun 12:00-pm- 5:00pm

-Panel discussion

Gene editing, sexual reproduction and the arts:
the present, the future and the imagined

October 27th
6:00-7:30 pm
Location:
Lennox Hall - First Canadian Place
77 Adelaide Street W.
Toronto, ON M5X 1C1

ArtSci Salon will participate in the scientific conference GeNeDis (Genetics, Geriatrics and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research) with a special panel addressing the topic of gene editing and sexual reproduction from a sciart perspective. The discussion will be preceded by the official opening of an exhibition illustrating how present issues in gynaecology and sexual regulation, hormonal management, human enhancement and sexual and cultural identity may be addressed, redressed, hacked and reimagined through the arts.

Speakers:

Byron Rich, Allegheny College, USA

Samira Daneshvar, Artist and Designer, Toronto, University of Miami, USA

Adam Zaretsky, Marist College, USA

Dolores Steinman, University of Toronto, Canada

Chair: Roberta Buiani, ArtSci Salon, Fields Institute & Centre for Feminist Research, York University, Canada

Detailed Description

In recent years, popular culture has been graced with countless news announcing new developments in genome editing. While many experiments are still in their early stages, media seem to be already very excited about the potentials that genome editing could bring. Often betraying a sensationalist and triumphant tone, news often focuses on the potentials that these developments will have for the betterment of the human species: the eradication of disease; the extension of life; the improvement of the body and its appearance etc.. the future looks hopeful and unproblematic according to these accounts. On the opposite end of the spectrum, pessimists see in these developments a potential worsening of the human condition: are these developments safe? What are the ethical implications? Who will these developments benefit? Given today’s social divisions and cultural conflicts, these voices predict a rather bleak future and warn against the pursuit of innovation at any cost.
What these radically opposed positions share is that they all tend to make predictions and look at the future: a shiny, beautiful, perfect future on the one hand, and a bleak, problematic and battled future on the other. With this panel, it is proposed to take a step back: before we look at what genome editing will bring us in the future, how about we look at the present? In particular, it is asked: what are the unresolved issues in the present that we should address before launching ourselves into the future? Can we find interesting ways to draw attention to them and re-dress how they are currently treated through creative interventions? More specifically, we would like to explore issues regarding sexual reproduction, fertility, and sexual technologies: we argue that artistic interventions pertaining to these topics, in addition to raising awareness about sexism, sexual rigidity and the medicalization of the body, may be suggestive of ways in which we might rethink the role of human enhancement and genome editing in the sciences as well as everyday life.

Bios
Roberta Buiani is an interdisciplinary artist, media scholar and curator based in Toronto. She is the co-founder of the ArtSci Salon at the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences (Toronto) and a Research Associate at the Centre for Feminist Research, York University. Her recent SSHRC-funded research creation project draws on feminist technoscience and on collaborative encounters across the sciences and the arts to investigate emerging life forms that exceed the categories defined by traditional methods of classification. She received her PhD in Communication and Culture from York University

Andrew Carnie studied chemistry and painting at Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, then zoology and psychology at Durham University, before starting and finishing a degree in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London. Andrew then completed his Masters degree in the Painting School, at the Royal College of Art. He has continued as a practicing artist ever since. In 2003 he was the Picker Fellow at Kingston University. His artistic practice often involves a meaningful interaction with scientists in different fields as an early stage in the development of his work.

Samira Daneshvar is a lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Miami. She holds a Master of Science from University of Michigan and Master of Architecture from University of Toronto. She joined the realm of architecture after five years of medical studies. Her research and design work is directed towards an interdisciplinary field of architecture and medical sciences.

Liz Flyntz is a curator, writer, and cook based in Brooklyn, NY. Her special area of focus is media and systems-based art. Currently, she’s researching the potential effects of food on sex hormone expression in humans. She is working with scientists, artists, holistic practitioners, and physicians to investigate the myriad ways that food culture and agricultural technology can alter the human endocrine system. Her writings on technology and art, media art history, and interviews with contemporary media artists have been published by Afterimage, The Creators Project, and Intercourse. She has a BA from Antioch College, an MFA in Media Study from SUNY Buffalo, and studied Media Art and Culture at the Bauhaus University. www.lizflyntz.net

Byron Rich is an artist, professor and lecturer born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His work exploring speculative design, biology futures and tactical media ecology has been widely shown and spoken about internationally. His work recently received an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica. He pursued a degree in New-Media at The University of Calgary before finding himself in Buffalo, New York where he obtained an MFA in Emerging Practices at The University at Buffalo. He now teaches Electronic Art & Intermedia at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. www.byronrich.com

Dolores Steinman
Dr. Steinman’s involvement with the Biomedical Simulation Laboratory (BSL), at the University of Toronto, is based on her experience as an MD (Romania) and PhD in Cell Biology (Canada) that led her to contribute in situating the BSL’s “patient-specific” computer-based simulations in the socio-historical, ethical and aesthetic context of medical imaging and imagery.

Adam Zaretsky, Ph.D. stages lively, hands-on bioart production labs based on topics such as: foreign species invasion (pure/impure), radical food science (edible/inedible), jazz bioinformatics (code/flesh), tissue culture (undead/semi-alive), transgenic design issues (traits/desires), interactive ethology (person/machine/non-human) and physiology (performance/stress). His art practice focuses on an array of legal, ethical, social and libidinal implications of biotechnological materials and methods with a focus on transgenic humans.