"The fashionable ideology that 'artificial' lacks the inherent
goodness of 'natural' is an appealing, but hopelessly simplistic
notion of the intellectually chic. Artifice is the result of a deliberate
intent to make. Nature also 'makes' things, using a set of basic
building blocks common throughout the universe. Exchanging infinite
time for deliberate design, nature has ingeniously built plants,
planets, galaxies and unimaginable constructs which seem to structure
the universe itself. What we call 'natura' is simply the result
of whatever set of rules nature has followed in fashioning our observable
reality. On planet Earth, nature has manipulated the common elements
to fashion everything from bacteria to the molten core of the planet.
Discoveries in the 'nano' technologies
of bio, molecular, and micro engineering will re-edit the nomenclature
of 'natural' versus 'unnatural', blurring if not erasing the line
of distinction between 'machine' and 'organism', 'natural' and 'unnatural',
'God-given' and 'man-made'."
- Syd
Mead, Visual
Futurist
When the first living synthetic cell was born
in 2010 the creator, geneticist Craig Vente,r announces that "the
parent of this cell is a computer". Synthetic Biology, once
thought to be science fiction, is now a part of our natural history. [Craig
Venter TV interview]. Artist Catherine Chalmers has revealed other
living constructions of our time in her photographs of Genetically
Engineered Mice. Artist Richard Pell extends this idea
by cataloging
new organisms at the Center for
Postnatural History.
We live in the Anthropocene
Era, "the time
of man"; a time in which concrete will be found in the geological
strata. What else will be found by our predecesors? Who will our
predecesors be?
You can use any material you like for this project. You could create
a performance, a video, animation, drawings, prints, photographs,
installation, etc... The important thing is to engage the concepts
discussed here. Due
for class critique on Thursday, OCT 13.
