Thursday, September 21, 2006
Why Should We Care About Genetics?
Another attempt by cultural organizations to both exploit and get involved in the "genetic revolution", an upcoming event in Chicago, hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art there and the Illinois Humanities Council challenges the public to ask the "big questions". The thinking is that the humanities can access the imagination and critical faculties in ways that, I guess, science and politics can't.I don't have a problem with trying to engage the developments of genetics through cultural conversations, obviously (that's what YOUgenics is about afterall), but if any kind of consequential discussion is to take place, those of us with concerns have to focus those concerns much more directly than the concept of "ethics" and "big picture" philosophical questions allow.
Those conversations need to happen, yes. Yes, it's important to discuss the implications of biotech on reproduction and evolution. But, while we're busy looking 25-50 years down the road, immediate impacts are being neglected and the ideology driving these developments left unchallenged. For better or worse, the food supply and farmable land of the US have been completely taken over by a very small group of interested corporations that are actively changing our relationship to food and medicine on a scale comparable to the industrial revolution, but with most of us completely unaware that it's even happening. This technological shift may prove to be necessary in the face of climate change, but it seems dangerous to leave the discussion behind board room doors.
If art and the humanities have something to offer here, I think it's in the ability to make these immediate details and concerns palpable, visible, audible. Something that we can experience before it's history.
Archives
June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007
