Upcoming: Art & Animals in the Age of CRISPR, Cloning and Cellular Agriculture

July 13, 2020 0 Comments

Public announcement!

In July, I’ll be giving online world-class on the theme of Art& Animals in the Age of CRISPR, Cloning and Cellular Agriculture with the School of Machines, Making& Make-Believe. A first edition of the class rolled back in April. This one will be a bit different. First, because I learnt so much better from the incredible group of participants in April that I’d like to feed all their doctrines, relates and feedback into the new class. Second, because I is ready to slightly adjust the content of the course. OUT are the plants( they’ll get their revenge in the future) and IN are the marine swine and the birds that I had forgotten in Spring.

Brandon Ballengee, DFA1 36: Procrustes, cleared and stained Pacific tree frog collected in Aptos, California in technical collaboration with Stanley K. Discussions( from the sequence Malamp Reliquaries ), 2013

Agnes Villette and Emmanuelle Foussat, Alien of the Category

For the respite, the class will keep on reflecting what I care about: socially-engaged inventive patterns but with a stronger focus on non-human life. Microscopic and big. Extinct, endangered, wild, familiar, lab-grown or “tech-augmented”. And because -as we are dreadfully learning right now- everything is connected, the castes will likewise be looking at the world that swine colonize and where they encounter fungi, viruses, bacteria.

During the grades, we’ll be looking at taxidermy, de-extinction programmes, genome editing, bestiaries, raising, “invasive” species but we will also discuss the ethics of working with animals( including dead ones) and more generally of exhibiting life inside museums and halls. The main objectives will be to investigate the shifting paradigms of the living world and to reflect on the possibility of co-evolving in a more supportive and mutually beneficial way with other living entities.

The full description of the categories is here.

The online years will be taking place over the course of five weeks, two hours each week. The first discussion will be an informal “getting to know each other” episode during which i will also be taking notes of any special curiosity and interests members might have.

If you feel extra studious, extra self-isolated or if you prefer to learn about something else, I’d likewise recommend having a look at Marisa Satsia‘s online world-class on Medical Bodies; Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan, Lorenzo Pilia and Bahiyya Khan‘s Hands-on guide to making personal sports; Ela Kagel‘s Tools for reimagining. Better lives through cooperation.

Classes are live meaning that you can immediately interact with the instructor as well as with the other participants from around the world. First-class will too be recorded for playback if you are unable to attend that day.

The school is offering a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets to take part in this class. Preference given to women, POC, LGBTQ+ and persons from underrepresented communities who would otherwise be unable to attend.

This way to join!

Image on the homepage: Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir and Mark Wilson, Nanoq: Fat Out and Bluesome, 2001 -2 006.