[-empyre-] Mediated Matters

[Oron Catts]

Dear all - it is good to be here again and thanks Adam for inviting me back. 
Unfortunately I didn't follow all of the conversation last week, as I was in China, experiencing first hand some of the extremes of urban spatial organisation... seeing the out of control urbanisation (read:  forests of high rising apartment blocks)  in what was until very recently rural farming areas.  One story I have heard about this (true or not) that might link what I want to talk about (designing life) and the problem of forcing "urban design solutions" (which I'm less interested in) is that of the lone Chinese framer forced out of his land and traditional way of living into one of these apartments. To the dismay of his neighbours he moved in with his water buffalo; been both his only companion and property that was only logical for framer to bring the buffalo along.  The story ends with the authorities called in to remove the "nuisance". Hint- it was not the apartment block...
Anyway, one of the main reasons from my trip to China was to continue my research towards an exhibition I'm staging next year, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first public appearance of (what is for me, at least) one of the most striking example of designed life-  the mouse with the human ear on its back.  This example of the plasticity of bodies and human abilities to sculpt with living material was what lad me on the path I'm still following. The Ear mouse was also the framing "poster boy" of the field now known as regenerative medicine. What is interesting in our context, which is something that I would like to explore and unpack in the next few days, is that as unsuccessful as this field is in delivering its medical promises, it holds a great symbolic and seductive power as to our fantasies of controlling and designing life forms and forms of life. 
In the last couple of years we have seen how this mode of thinking and the actual technology of regenerative biology are entering the mainstream discourse of consumer products.  In the next posts I will give some concrete examples, but in the meantime it will be interesting  as to what imaginaries will be conjured...

Soon
Oron  

-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Adam Nocek
Sent: Tuesday, 16 September 2014 12:12 PM
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: [-empyre-] Mediated Matters

----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------