Old Email Archive

digest 2006-04-17 #001.txt

litsci-l-digest         Monday, April 17 2006         Volume 01 : Number
171



In this issue:

     SLSA submission
     SUB 06 Boundedness, relationality and evolution in biological
systems
     Re: SUB 06: Darwinism and its Discontents: Three Panels/Papers
     SUB 06 - BIOTEKNICA: Soft Experiments from the Laboratory

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Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 16:51:13 -0500
From: 
Subject: SLSA submission

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- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls 

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Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:24:28 +1000
From: Lindy Orthia 
Subject: SUB 06 Boundedness, relationality and evolution in biological
systems

Hi all,

Sorry about the tardiness of my submission

Cheers,

Lindy Orthia


BOUNDEDNESS, RELATIONALITY AND EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

The study of biology in its current form is largely premised on a 
classificatory way of seeing that breaks the biological world into 
bounded entities ranked in one or more hierarchies: taxonomic, 
ecological, genealogical, structural, and so on.  It is increasingly 
apparent that this way of seeing the world does not fully reflect its 
reality: eg, mycologist Alan Rayner considers it more useful (and 
more accurate) to characterise biological systems as having dynamic 
boundaries, and as constantly shifting between determinate and 
indeterminate ways of being.  In this paper I would like to discuss 
the literature questioning the thingification (Barad) of the 
biological world, and to discuss how this might affect some of the 
basic premises of contemporary evolutionary theory.  In particular, I 
want to discuss the idea that relationality is a more primary 
characteristic for living systems than is reproduction.  This implies 
the necessity of disrupting the centrality of adaptationist 
approaches to explaining biological phenomena.  Relationality may be 
an important organising idea for understanding diverse biological 
phenomena from animal behaviour (including the 'selection anomalies' 
of altruism and homosexuality) to autoimmune diseases to the 
maintenance of sexual reproduction.

Keywords: evolutionary theory, natural selection, relationality, 
boundedness, classification

- -- 
*******************************

Lindy Orthia
PhD Candidate
Centre for the Public Awareness of Science
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia

W: http://www.cpas.anu.edu.au/ 

CRICOS Provider #00120C

*******************************

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Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:56:12 +0700
From: "Edward Vargo" 
Subject: Re: SUB 06: Darwinism and its Discontents: Three Panels/Papers

Please remove evargo@loxinfo.co.th from your list. The inundation of
abstracts is more than my ancient machine and brain can handle
gracefully.
Thanks.

-------------------------------

Jennifer Willet  
4/17/2006 4:19:21 AM
SUB 06 - BIOTEKNICA: Soft Experiments from the Laboratory

SUB 06 - Paper Abstract

BIOTEKNICA: Soft Experiments from the Laboratory

Jennifer Willet | Shawn Bailey



BIOTEKNICA is an umbrella art/research project posing as a
fictitious biotech corporation in which designer organisms are
generated to meet consumer demand.  However, the organisms
produced by BIOTEKNICA, do not adhere to the structures and
functionality normally manifest in nature.  They are irrational
and grotesque.  They are modeled on the Teratoma, an unusual
cancerous growth containing multiple tissues like hair, skin, and
vascular systems.  Monstrous as this may seem, scientists today
see the Teratoma as an instance of spontaneous cloning, and are
conducting research on the Teratoma with the goal of developing
future technologies.



In the past, BIOTEKNICA has manifest as a purely multimedia
production.  However, we are now bringing our theoretical
specimens out of their virtual environment and into the
laboratory.  In summer of 2004 we worked as Research Fellows at
the SymbioticA Art/Science Laboratories at The University of
Western Australia, where we began preliminary investigations into
growing tissue culture prototypes to serve as representations of
our product line. In 2006, we have returned to SymbioticA to work
in Collaboration with Tissue Culture and Art Project (TC&A) to
complete our Teratological Prototypes.



Our paper will investigate the deterioration of legitimacy in
instances of interdisciplinary production with an emphasis on our
experience as non-scientists working in the SymbioticA
laboratories, and our status as pseudo-specialists in peer based
ethics review procedures for scientific research involving the
use of animal and human research subjects.  We will explore
models of ?�soft experimentation?? that highlight our liminal
status as critic/practitioners working in contemporary biological
art practices and the realm of scientific technologies and
discourses ?� and the methodological foundation of BIOTEKNICA.








Jennifer Willet is an artist, a part-time faculty member in
Studio Arts at Concordia University, and a PhD student in the
Interdisciplinary Humanities program at the same institution. Her
work explores notions of self and subjectivity in relation to
biomedical, bioinformatics, and digital technologies with an
emphasis on social and political criticism. She has exhibited,
and presented her research extensively across Canada and
internationally.  Since 2002, she has collaborated with Shawn
Bailey on an innovative computational, biological, artistic,
project called BIOTEKNICA.  www.bioteknica.org



Shawn Bailey is a practicing artist working with digital print
media, video and installation. .  His current research explores
notions of authority, control structures, media and international
biotech and pharmaceutical policies.  He is an Associate
Professor at Concordia University in Studio Arts (Print Media)
and an artist-researcher with the Hexagram Institute.  He
embraces a professional art practice rooted in interdisciplinary
considerations manifest in exhibitions, publications, public
lectures and multi-media/web projects across Canada and
internationally. Since 2002, he has collaborated with Jennifer
Willet on an innovative computational, biological, artistic,
project called BIOTEKNICA.  www.bioteknica.org



Technical Requirements



LCD Projector

We will bring our own MAC laptop