Research

Research – Synthetic Function

Taking forward this idea of the transformation of the synthetic human, whereby the prosthetic elements have a developed functionality that can either be positive or detrimental. I researched into the expansion of biology through engineering and came across an article on Motherboard called ‘A Bioethicist Argues for Engineering Babies That Will Have an Easy Life‘ by Richard Wordsworth. This centres around an argument by Professor of Practical Ethics Julien Savulescu that parents should be allowed to undertake a process of ‘procreative beneficence’, which essentially is the idea in reproductive ethics that asks the question what can we do to ensure each child has the best chance in life? In doing so parents would be able to select the genetic traits that would ensure this, i.e. intelligence, gender, level of impulse control. The article quite rightly returns the question what would happen to diversity? Within the content of the article interesting ideas are brought up that can be related to my project themes, particularly the engineering of the human in order to improve it. Along this line the article brings up the idea of the ‘inhumanity of posthumanity’ and the fact this process of procreative beneficence could create humans that only exist as emotionless drones and decent into a series of doppelgängers. This level of inhumanity is interesting to explore and to confront people with this in order to make them consider the ethics of our continued merging with both the machinic and the synthetic. Also the idea of the doppelgänger fits into the form of my project, with the synthetic human I have been creating so far derived from myself. Perhaps the project could then centre around the engineering of the self?

When applied in an art context the ideas above can produce very contrasting results, one example of this I found particularly interesting in their exploration and realisation of this is Ohlsson/ Dit-Cilinn’s exhibition Tadpole at Cinnamon gallery in Rotterdam. Here the artists explore the synthetic body as being a continuation of nature and not separate, through this they showcase the human body evolution as a space for the potential of transformation and the metamorphosis of self-realisation. The objects themselves, here called sculptures in the classical sense, are essentially existing objects that have been re-built and re-arranged in such a way that they have lost their original function. The objects take on a transformed function that exists more in the realm of biology and the living, showing a confrontation of the flesh with the artificial materials used to create the objects. One of the notions that stood out for me was the discussion of metanarratives that underpin their work, here they take the idea of transcendence of the mind by means of mediation and confront it with the separation of the body by means of the skin. The objects themselves have a vacuum like quality to them, appearing as if suspended in the transformation process. However I don’t feel they go far enough and at times appear more like tools that have been given a biological function, rather than biological functioning that has been transformed into tools.

Again along a similar line of enquiry Bjork’s continued exploration of new technology in combination with her music has produced an experiment in multi-material 3D printing in collaboration with artist Neri Oxman. Here Bjork and Oxman have created Rottlace, its name derived from the Icelandic for skinless. This is a mask that has been designed to reflect the complex human musculoskeletal system based on Bjork’s own facial structure. The production of the mask has such utilised a development in 3D printing that allows you to print different materials at once, this as such allowed Bjork and Oxman to mimic the contrasting materials of the face including soft tissue, muscle and rigid bone to create a synthetic whole without parts. Not only does the mask work on an aesthetic level to produce a sense of otherness that comes with the synthetic, but it exposes and employs a process of the complex layering of structures that would be found in the human biological make-up. These layers are then fused together and work in collaboration to give form to something entirely different. The human here is extended beyond itself with the merging together with the synthetic, where the human is still rooted in the biology that formed it but goes further to enhance its limited capabilities. Ultimately the mask may be useless, but this transformation of function at least opens up the discussion on the topic.

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