“…Thus, the child/monster relationship is not as clear‐cut innocent/horrific as it may appear, and the combination of form/formlessness creates uncertainty of what affects that are invited: However, this cannot withstand the fact that the sculpture clearly shows that it is not so much the monsters that are abhorrent, but the children, who are looking on with such wide‐eyed innocence, oblivious to the fact that the situation should seem abhorrent. (Smith and Dreyer, : 27)…”
Section: The Wonder Of the Grotesquementioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, this cannot withstand the fact that the sculpture clearly shows that it is not so much the monsters that are abhorrent, but the children, who are looking on with such wide-eyed innocence, oblivious to the fact that the situation should seem abhorrent. (Smith and Dreyer, 2009: 27)…”
Section: The Wonder Of the Grotesquementioning
confidence: 99%
“…These bio-objects disrupt modern categories and thus have similarities with Haraway's cyborg figure. However, Still Life with Stem Cells can be understood in terms of a genetically created product of techno-natural practices and materials, it is created out of imagined human parts, ‘a being that is augmented or changed by science into something that can be perceived as better than the original subject (most often from multiple genetic parents)’ (Smith and Dreyer, 2009: 24). Thus, the piece is not ‘purely’ human, but rather a ‘more-than-human’ (Whatmore, 2006) creation.…”
Public engagement in biotechnology has declined as cloning, genetic engineering and regenerative medicine have become socially and culturally normalized. Zooming in on existing bio-technological debates, this article turns to contemporary genetic art as sites for ethical reflections. Art can be viewed as an "imagination laboratory", a space through which un-framing and rupturing of contemporary rationalities are facilitated, and, in addition, enabling sense-making and offering fantastic connections otherwise not articulated. In this article, the framework of "bio-objectification" is enriched with Bennett's (2001) notion of enchantment and the importance of wonder and openness to the unusual, in order to highlight alternative matters of concern than articulated through conventional politico-moral discourse.Drawing on a cultural sociological analysis of Eduardo Kac's "Edunia", Lucy Glendinning's "Feather child", Patricia Piccinini's "Still life with stem cells" and Heather Dewey-Hagborg's "Stranger visions", we discuss how the intermingling of art, science, critics, art historians, science fiction, internet, and physical space, produce a variety of attachments that this article will unpack. The article demonstrates that while some modern boundaries and rationalities are highlighted and challenged through the "imagination laboratory" of the art process, others are left untouched.
“…Thus, the child/monster relationship is not as clear‐cut innocent/horrific as it may appear, and the combination of form/formlessness creates uncertainty of what affects that are invited: However, this cannot withstand the fact that the sculpture clearly shows that it is not so much the monsters that are abhorrent, but the children, who are looking on with such wide‐eyed innocence, oblivious to the fact that the situation should seem abhorrent. (Smith and Dreyer, : 27)…”
Section: The Wonder Of the Grotesquementioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, this cannot withstand the fact that the sculpture clearly shows that it is not so much the monsters that are abhorrent, but the children, who are looking on with such wide-eyed innocence, oblivious to the fact that the situation should seem abhorrent. (Smith and Dreyer, 2009: 27)…”
Section: The Wonder Of the Grotesquementioning
confidence: 99%
“…These bio-objects disrupt modern categories and thus have similarities with Haraway's cyborg figure. However, Still Life with Stem Cells can be understood in terms of a genetically created product of techno-natural practices and materials, it is created out of imagined human parts, ‘a being that is augmented or changed by science into something that can be perceived as better than the original subject (most often from multiple genetic parents)’ (Smith and Dreyer, 2009: 24). Thus, the piece is not ‘purely’ human, but rather a ‘more-than-human’ (Whatmore, 2006) creation.…”
Public engagement in biotechnology has declined as cloning, genetic engineering and regenerative medicine have become socially and culturally normalized. Zooming in on existing bio-technological debates, this article turns to contemporary genetic art as sites for ethical reflections. Art can be viewed as an "imagination laboratory", a space through which un-framing and rupturing of contemporary rationalities are facilitated, and, in addition, enabling sense-making and offering fantastic connections otherwise not articulated. In this article, the framework of "bio-objectification" is enriched with Bennett's (2001) notion of enchantment and the importance of wonder and openness to the unusual, in order to highlight alternative matters of concern than articulated through conventional politico-moral discourse.Drawing on a cultural sociological analysis of Eduardo Kac's "Edunia", Lucy Glendinning's "Feather child", Patricia Piccinini's "Still life with stem cells" and Heather Dewey-Hagborg's "Stranger visions", we discuss how the intermingling of art, science, critics, art historians, science fiction, internet, and physical space, produce a variety of attachments that this article will unpack. The article demonstrates that while some modern boundaries and rationalities are highlighted and challenged through the "imagination laboratory" of the art process, others are left untouched.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
