So I've had pretty much the same conversation with a few people now - they hear about living transgenic creatures created as art, and first reaction is horror: the potential environmental impact (what if it escapes?), the ethics of creating a novel lifeform without a 'purpose' other than to be an art piece, and in general the ethics of inserting genes from one species into another and how we really shouldn't be messing with this at all.
But my gut reaction is awe and wonder. It's wonderful to see artists coopting techniques that are currently being used on mammals for increasing profits, and have been used on plants & bacteria that have already been released into the environment, and techniques that have been around for decades and relatively well-understood at this point.
Your gut reaction?
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SF Bay Area
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Re: gut reactions
Tue, October 12, 2004 - 1:21 AMI certainly think transgenic art demands serious consideration, if only for the ethical assumptions it challenges, leaving aside the "forbidden fruit" line of thinking that seems to inform the reactions of puritanical mainstream American culture. I don't subscribe to the doom and gloom perspective on messing with genetic materials, creating new species, etc. I actually find that perspective entertaining and rather revealing, which may be one of the reasons artists began breeding florescent bunnies to begin with.
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Re: gut reactions
Tue, October 12, 2004 - 5:22 PMi've heard some people compare this to dog breeding
others have said it increases awareness of throwaway/consumer culture. if things are made of living or semi-living tissue, discarding them should require more thought. i can see this becoming as heated as pro-life/choice.
