SYMPOSIUM: SymbioticA Symposium> Body/Art Bioethics

A symposium exploring the culture and ethics of the use and ownership of living material, from the cell to the whole body, in art, science, law and philosophy.

The body is increasingly being transformed into commodity and media, put on display, fragmented, manipulated, preserved and rearranged. Scientists, artists, lawyers, historians and social scientists will come together to trace the radical shifts in our understanding of the body - and life itself - and investigate how these emergent realities influence our notion of being human while simultaneously challenging the relationship to the ‘Other’ that is living or semi-living.

The notion as well as the practical use of the “body” is increasingly changing and transforming in the light of new knowledge and new technological capabilities. The body is no longer perceived strictly as a unified whole let alone as solely human and bodies and parts of bodies are being traded and manipulated as part of the global economy. “New” bodies are being formed and assembled; from the cellular body; the chimeric body; the transgenic body – to the extent of creating “new kinds of bodies”, technological and synthetic, - as hinted by the case of Synthia – the first cell with a, so called, artificial genome.

Discussions will include •Patenting and copy right laws of biological materials and processes and the effects on global distribution and biodiversity, presented by Luigi Palombi •A feminist-Marxist critique of the distribution and use of parts of bodies, classified as “gift” or “waste,” offered by Catherine Waldby as one of her areas of research •Renown writer Elizabeth Costello speaks about poetry, philosophy, cruelty and animal welfare; •The notion of the Other – in its broadest sense –investigated from multifaceted perspectives: oEthan Blue is a historian who has previously investigated power and race relations within the American prison system. oKathy High is an artist who explores the Other animal and interspecies intimate relations. oIonat Zurr presents the Semi-Living point of view. •Research scientist Stuart Hodgetts discusses his experience working with animals and artists in the labs •The use of the body in artistic expression is explored by Darren Jorgensen •And some of the interdisciplinary hands-on research of SymbioticA residents’ who address ethics and biology will be dissected by Oron Catts.

These perspectives explore the current phenomenon in which life (consisting of varied, diverse and contested bodies) is increasingly treated as malleable raw material to be engineered. At the same time, new and recurring mindsets regarding what a body is and in what ways and by whom it can be put into use, compete for consensus. This transformation should be observed and debated critically; especially in relation to the objectification and instrumentalism of life and the transformation of its different gradients into currency. . However this same transformation can create a niche for fresh perceptions of life in which a more post-anthropocentric view of life can flourish.

The Body/Art/Bioethics symposium aspires to explore, from multidisciplinary perspectives, the emerging ethical perplexes and understandings of scientific and artistic uses of bodies as media. Discussions will investigate and problematise the social, legal, philosophical, and aesthetical issues that arise from the concept of a “Body”.