Symposium – Art’s Work the Age of Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures
October 18, 2019 @ 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Free
Symposium – Art’s Work the Age of Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures
Date: Friday, October 18, 2019
Location: Gregg Museum of Art & Design 8:30-12:00 pm
D.H. Hill Library Auditorium 2:00-5:30 pm (Register)
The Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center, NC State University Libraries, and Gregg Museum of Art & Design will host a full-day symposium to discuss the Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology exhibition. The symposium will bring together artists, humanists, and social/natural scientists, using the exhibition as a departure point for conversations about the future of biotechnology and genetics.
The exhibition provokes questions about who has the standing to comment on or even create our genetic futures. It shows how artists and designers can contribute materially, rhetorically, and conceptually to biotechnology’s development. The selected works question the all-too-common assumption that scientists and engineers hold the power to create new futures that will come to pass without the input of other people. By highlighting artists’ contributions in these areas and bringing the public into the conversation as a partner rather than a recipient of technical knowledge, visitors will be encouraged to consider the contributions artists and scientists are making toward shaping our genetic futures, the effects these innovations and ideas will have on their own lives, and their own roles in this process.
The symposium places art at the center of discussions about the future of biotechnology by presenting works in which artists appropriate tools and techniques of modern biotechnology that have until recently been the exclusive purview of scientists. The event will use the exhibition as a departure point for conversations about the future of biotechnology and genetics. The morning session will be held at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design from 8:30-12:00 pm and continue at the NC State’s D.H. Hill Library Auditorium in the afternoon beginning at 2:00 pm. The morning session will consist of responses from scientists, humanities scholars, artists, and members of the public to specific artworks in the show.
Register for afternoon sessionsIn the afternoon, three panels of artists will convene to discuss:
2—3 pm: Biotechnology as Culture
Moderator: Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English, Duke University
Artist Panel: Joe Davis, Jennifer Willet, Ciara Redmond, Kirsten Stolle, Maria McKinney, and Rich Pell
3—4 pm: Genetic Arts Intervening in the Anthropocene: Climate, Geoengineering, and Ecosystems
Moderator: Jason Delborne, Professor of Science, Technology, & Society, NC State
Artist Panel: Aaron Ellison, David Buckley Borden, Jon Davis, Joel Ong, Erin Kirchner, and Rachel Rusk
4—5 pm: Art and Identities: From Surveillance and Privacy to Collective Identities and Personal Choices
Moderator: Patsy Sibley, Professor of Women’s Studies, NC State
Artist Panel: Charlotte Jarvis, Paul Vanouse, Adam Zaretsky, and Emeka Ikebude
The symposium will conclude with an open conversation on how we develop richer interfaces between artists and scientists in determining our genetic futures.
For more on the artworks go to: go.ncsu.edu/artswork