[-empyre-] Mediated Matters

[Oron Catts]

Thanks Adam and Johannes
Yes, this silence of the ear, a symbolic object. An ear that is made for the eye; whether it is on a back of a mouse or on Stelarc's arm when the sleeve is rolled over. In both cases the ears call us to imagine "extended operational architectures of bodies", perhaps, as Johannes suggest, not as powerful (for some) as words/lectures that are vocalisation of images made for the ear. 
As mentioned, it is hard to imagine anything outside the "pervasive capitalism", in particular when it comes to design, capitalism's not much of a bastard kid, and the servant of neoliberalism. However, would the rule of design be disturbed when it comes to designing living systems? When we choose to embark on pseudo-utilitarian series of works, In-Vitro Meat (Disembodied Cuisine) and In-Vitro Leather (the ironically named Victimless Leather), we thought that by doing it as art works we will be able to bring into focus the disruptive potential of biological design. I think that this is something that Tony Dunne recognised when he started to use our work as provocations for his design interaction students, and got me to work with these students for many years. However, the seduction I referred to before is the one that Catherine Waldby and Robert Mitchell made in their prophetic book form 2006, Tissue Economies. This is a logic that plays so easily to the TED congregations, such as this very bizarre talk by a biotech venture capitalist from February 2009 responding to the GFC by saying (and I somewhat paraphrase) that lesson from the GFC is that it is now time to invest in the real growth industry of regenerative biology. See   http://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_shares_mindboggling_new_science?language=en 
But of interest for me is what happens when the designed product is non-human and the purpose is not medical. The new allure of regenerative biology consumer products is no longer confined to artists who want to be critical or designers who want to be speculative.  Google is investing in in-vitro meat development, and revealed their first prototype in a TV cook show style press conference. A Hong Kong based investment firm is putting 10 million dollars into a company that tries to 3D print leather. In this case the credential of the company as presented by their own press release are that "Early prototypes of the products have been unveiled at forums such as TEDGlobal, TEDMED and Solve for X." In both cases we see that seductive powers of designed life as a spectacle. Who needs peer-review and scrutiny when you have TED and TV cook shows?

Oron