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Synthetic Biology in Fine Art Practice. Doctoral Thesis, Northumbria University Citation: Mackenzie, Louise (2017) Evolution of the Subject – Synthetic Biology in Fine Art Practice. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/38387/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. 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The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html EVOLUTION OF THE SUBJECT SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY IN FINE ART PRACTICE LOUISE MACKENZIE PhD 2017 EVOLUTION OF THE SUBJECT SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY IN FINE ART PRACTICE LOUISE MACKENZIE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaKen in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences in collaboration with the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University December 2017 ABSTRACT AcKnowledging a rise in the use of synthetic biology in art practice, this doctoral project draws from vital materialist discourse on biotechnology and biological materials in the worKs of Donna Haraway, Jane Bennett, Rosi Braidotti and Marietta Radomska to consider the liveliness of molecular biological material through art research and practice. In doing so, it reframes DNA and the micro-organism through anthropomorphic performative practice that draws on myth and metaphor to allow readings of material that account for liveliness rather than use as resource. As such it contributes to environmental and ecological art practices that question our cultural entanglement with material and performative art practice that considers the nonhuman by artists such as Eduardo Kac, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, Špela Petrič and Maja Smrekar. The thesis does not recount a bioart practice, but a fine art practice that uses performative strategies to think with the act of using life as material. Amid the highly technical, accelerated pace of synthetic biology, the research slowly reconsiders methods and materials over an extended timeframe where liveliness, rather than use of the organism, takes precedent. By specifically acting as performative vector situated within synthetic biology practice, the relationship between meaning and materiality is brought under close scrutiny in attempts to infectiously transmit Knowledge rather than generate lively commodities. As such, the thesis questions existing histories of scientific Knowledge and proposes alternative stories that reframe aspects of laboratory practice through an aesthetics of care. The core of the research resides in artistic practice situated within the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University, where I store my thought physically within the body of the living organism, Escherichia coli. The worK follows a close reading of scientific protocols whilst exploring the affect of working with laboratory life as medium. This leads to the development of anthropomorphic performative works and sculptural works that draw on myth and ritual to reframe genetic material as lively material. Further, practice-based aspects of the research sit within and contribute to the expanded field of sound and sonic art, including artists such as Alvin Lucier and Chris Watson, to develop technologically embodied approaches for listening to laboratory life (audification of Atomic Force Microscopy data, sonification of DNA through synthetic speech neural networKs) and for experiencing life at the nano-scale within the context of immersive audio-visual installations. TABLE OF CONTENTS 0 WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I STORE THIS THOUGHT SAFE WITHIN YOU? 19 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 19 1.1 Now I Know WhAt I Don’t Know ........................................................................ 20 1.2 GlossAry ................................................................................................................. 22 1.2.1 Laboratory Life ................................................................................................ 22 1.2.2 Lively Material ................................................................................................ 22 1.2.2.1 DNA, Viruses and Plasmids ..................................................................... 23 1.2.2.2 Bioassemblage .......................................................................................... 24 1.2.2.3 Organism / Living Material ...................................................................... 24 1.2.3 Alchemical Sensing ......................................................................................... 25 1.2.4 Genophone ....................................................................................................... 25 1.2.5 Psychotransgenics ............................................................................................ 26 1.2.6 Scientific Terms ............................................................................................... 26 1.3 Summary of Chapters .......................................................................................... 26 2 SHIFTING BOUNDARIES ........................................................................................ 31 2.1 ReAding Life As MAteriAl through Art PrActice ................................................. 31 2.1.1 Behind Glass .................................................................................................... 34 2.1.2 On a Pedestal ................................................................................................... 39 2.2 PrActicAl And EthicAl EngAgement with Lively MAteriAl .................................. 44 2.2.1 Human Ethics ................................................................................................... 44 2.2.1.1 Plasmid DNA ............................................................................................ 44 2.2.1.2 E. coli, GM activity class 1 ....................................................................... 46 2.2.2 Nonhuman Ethics ............................................................................................. 47 3 MOIST MATERIALS, DRY CODES ....................................................................... 53 3.1 Early Encounters with Lively MAteriAls ............................................................. 53 3.1.1 Performing with Lively Material ..................................................................... 53 3.1.2 Observing Communication in Lively Material ................................................ 57 3.2 Endlessly UnrAvelling Code ................................................................................. 60 3.2.1 Using My Head ................................................................................................ 60 3.2.2 Playing with Language .................................................................................... 62 3.2.2.1 Viral Virus ................................................................................................ 63 3.2.2.2 Ouroboros ................................................................................................. 64 4 TECHNOLOGICALLY EMBODIED RELATIONS .............................................. 69 4.1 Extending Perception Through Technology ....................................................... 70 4.1.1 Extending Visual Perception ........................................................................... 70 4.1.2 LooKing Without Seeing .................................................................................. 74 4.1.3 Extending Auditory Perception ....................................................................... 75 4.1.4 How to Listen to the Organism ........................................................................ 75 4.1.4.1 Sound Recording ....................................................................................... 75 4.1.4.2 Sonification and Audification ................................................................... 77 4.1.4.3 Atomic Force Microscopy as a technique for ‘Listening’ ........................ 79 4.1.5 Listening without Hearing ............................................................................... 81 4.2 AlchemicAl Sensing ............................................................................................... 82 4.2.1 Performing with the Organism ........................................................................ 83 4.3 ParAsitic Imposition Between Code And Life ..................................................... 85 4.4 Constructing LanguAge through TrAnslAtion .................................................... 86 4.5 Forms of TrAnslAtion / Constructing Codes ....................................................... 89 4.5.1 Precedents for Translation of Genetic Code .................................................... 89 4.5.2
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