Blog 7: DNA Sequencing: Unlocking the Code

Blog 7: DNA Sequencing: Unlocking the Code

With biotechnology and biomedical technology playing a larger and larger role in society each day, the importance of maintaining a safe and open dialogue between the scientists who discover and invent the new drugs or tools and the people who use them becomes more and more vital. The Critical Art Ensemble in my mind tries to make that discussion more tangible though the use of the biotechnology in artistic exhibits. Some of the exhibits are more obvious pleas of change while others are more subtle critiques of the new technology.

For example, the Marching Plague exhibit, showed the failure of biological and chemical warfare. It dug out an old study that was vastly overlooked after WWII about how a contaminated building could not be the worse case scenario after an attack and how the report wrongfully concluded that if an entire building was contaminated the entire population would be contaminated as well. They also did an experiment to prove the point that government spending on biological/chemical warfare is not justified as it is not an easy or accurate weapon to detonate or use properly. They set up two floating barges one mile apart. One had a group of guinea pigs while the other had a traceable though harmless chemical compound. The experiment proved, as only one in the 34 guinea pigs was found infected, that germ warfare is not practical in similar combat situations.

In other exhibits, such as Free Range Grain, more of an expository style is used to educate the viewer. In this exhibit the artists tries to display the viewpoint against genetically modified (GM) food, in particular corn, and the consequences of a new EU law that would require GM good to be marked, and the subsequent consequences on US farmers and the international grain trade. In this sense the exhibit stands on its own as a testament to the artists own beliefs and biases. It incorporates both photos that the viewer can relate to as well as comprehendible text to convey the message.

Other projects such as Cult of the New Eve are more controversial. In Cult of the New Eve the artists take the viewpoint that as the understanding of genetics becomes more and more complete the need for the traditional mother and father to create new life is no longer needed. The New Eve is a woman who can conceive a child of her desire without another partner. In fact, there is already a movement to create GM children. Why? For instance there is talk to make a younger sibling’s kidneys and livers perfect donors for an older sibling’s should the need ever arise, or the ability to remove hereditary diseases from a child’s DNA before he or she is ever even born.

As the science of genetics becomes more and more complex the need to for a maintained dialogue between the scientists and the rest of the society becomes more and more crucial as the boundaries of ethics are pushed to a level never before possible. The need for the conversation to be clear and without the confusing scientific jargon becomes quintessential as the science transforms from fantasy to reality.