| Contemporary discourse surrounding biotechnology places great emphasis on digital metaphors in describing the biological sciences. In these discourses it is as if mankind's 'cumulative' technology - computation - performs the ultimate science, the dominion of man over nature through the application of numeric code to living organism. This general application of computational models to instances of biotechnology provides a sterilizing affect, removing all that is wet, bloody, unruly, and animal, from mass imaginations of the biotech future. As I argue this vision of biotechnology (as it is presented to non-specialists) may serve to nullify public engagement in the complex ethical dilemmas that arise from engaging in technologies of the body.;(RE)embodying Biotechnology focuses on reuniting notions of embodiment with the language, analysis, practice, and representation of contemporary biotechnologies. With a social and political mandate that advocates informed public discourse, (RE)embodying Biotechnology complicates, rather than simplify our understanding of the biotech field. Methodologically, I propose artistic means for non-specialists to engage in biotechnology as an embodied practice through the mobilization of a 'critical participatory methodology'. (RE)embodying Biotechnology is a research I creation thesis; comprised of the documentation of a body of work and a text that reflects on how artistic engagement in the biotechnological field may allow for non-specialists to engage critically with evolving biotechnologies. |
