Posthuman Designs

here’s one from a year back at Oxford University

Troubling Classifications: Categorizing Chimeras and Enacting Species Preservation (2009, Jun 11, London)

Troubling Classifications: Categorizing Chimeras and Enacting Species Preservation
Dr Carrie Friese
Lecturer in the Sociology of the Life Sciences and Biomedicine
LSE
11th June 2009 5pm – 7pm
H102 (First Floor, Connaught House)

This paper asks how chimeras, particularly puzzling biological organisms that have garnered significant attention as of late, are being officially classified in the specific situation of endangered species preservation.  Based on a qualitative study of endeavours to clone endangered animals in the United States, I contend that biology alone cannot determine the classification of these interspecies organisms.  Rather, categorizing chimeras requires metaphoric, schematic references to more familiar entities.  Here culture and biology are tools for classification.  Building on Adele Clarke’s method of positional mapping, I show that positions on classification represent an intermediary space between thought and action in elaborating a discourse of cloning endangered wildlife, which shapes the meaning of wildlife animals, the practices of preservation and zoos, and the materiality of endangered species.

All welcome, no ticket required. Seats allocated on a first-come, first served basis.
Map of LSE and surrounding area: http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/

This seminar will be followed by a drinks reception in the BIOS Centre, V1100 (11th floor, Tower 2).

Nanotechnology and Postmodern Culture (2009, Jun 9)

Giving talk at Sheffield Uni on 9 June – Nanotechnology and Postmodern Culture
What kind of future is nanotechnology creating for us? What will it mean to be human in the twenty-first century?Professor Richard Jones (Physics and Astronomy), Dr Alex Houen (English), and Professor Andy Miah (Media, Language and Music, University of the West of Scotland)

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/english/arts-science/events.html#June+2009

European Parliament Presentation – Reasoned Pro-Enhancement Case

Presentation given 15 mins ago on human enhancement technologies….

Human Enhancement in Brussels (2009, Feb 24)

February 24, 2009
Brussels, Belgium

IEET fellow Andy Miah will be speaking at the one day workshop for the European Parliament in Brussels, on Tuesday 24 February 2009

Sponsored by the Rathenau Institute

Human enhancement is the trend to improve the body & mind of human beings by technological means. Examples are the use of “smart pills” to improve concentration or cosmetic surgery. Other examples are selecting embryos that are genetically disease-free to use in an IVF procedure, mood brightening drugs or devices.

These and other technologies promise benefits for the individual using them, but what are the long-term effects? Will human enhancement enlarge social and economic differences? And will the health care remain affordable? Should research into such technologies be stimulated or not? We believe that there are three strategies that the EU could take in response to the challenges human enhancement will pose to the EU. We think that human enhancement raises serious challenges to the EU, and we have identified three strategies that the EU could take to respond to these.

These strategies will be presented by and discussed with experts during the workshop. Some more information on human enhancement, the challenges it poses, the three strategies, and the workshop can be found in the attached information folder.

The workshop is a part of our project on human enhancement. The goal of the project is to provide policy options on human enhancement to the European Parliament. This project is commissioned by the European Parliament and is carried out by ITAS and the Rathenau Institute. We will incorporate the debate during the workshop in the final report.

The workshop will be held on 24 February 2009 in the European Parliament (Rue Wiertz 60, 1047 Brussels). The first part of the workshop will be from 12.45 to 14.15 in room ASP 5F385 and will explore which of the three strategies will be most suitable for the EU. During this part of the workshop, a sandwich lunch will be provided.

The second part of the workshop will be held in room ASP 5G2 from 14.45 to 16.30. In this part, the strategies will be put to the test and will be thoroughly debated – hopefully by you as well!

If you want to attend the workshop, you need to register by sending an e-mail with subject “workshop human enhancement” to info @ rathenau.nl before 16 February 2009. This e-mail should include your name, nationality and date of birth. This information is necessary to ensure your access to the European Parliament and will be treated confidentially.

Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you have any questions about the workshop or our project.

Yours sincerely,

Martijntje Smits and Mirjam Schuijff
Rathenau Institute

E-mail: m.smits @ rathenau.nl or m.schuijff @ rathenau.nl
Telephone: + 31 70 342 15 42

Yours faithfully,

Mirjam Schuijff,
Researcher Technology Assessment
Rathenau Institute

Phone:
(0031) 70 34 21 524

Address:
Anna van Saksenlaan 51
2593 HW The Hague

Postal address:
Postbus 95366
2509 CJ THE HAGUE (NL)

The Rathenau Institute focuses on the influence of science and technology on our daily lives and maps its dynamics; through independent research and debate.

Start the Week with Andrew Marr

On Monday 15th at 830am GMT, I’ll be appearing on the BBC Radio 4 flagship Radio programme to talk abou thte future of humanity and my new book Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty.

Tune in, or iTune in (then buy the book – great Xmas present).

Andy Miah @ Human Futures: Symposium and Book Preview

Buy the Human Futures book by clicking here

Human Futures conference programme (2008.10.30, Liverpool)

Find below the full Programme for 30 October, 2008, FACT, Liverpool, UK. Book Tickets

And, via a presentation I gave last week, a sense of the book’s visual content:

10.00-10.15    Why Human Futures? Mike Stubbs

10.15-11.45    Envisioning the Future,

Chair: Steve Fuller

10.15-10.40    An Ethics of the Unknown, Russell Blackford    AUS
10.40-11.05 Notes Towards the History of the Present, Norman M Klein    USA
11.05-11.45    Questions & Answers, Discussion

11.45-12.15 Tea and Coffee

12.15-13.45    Designs on the Future,

Chair: Andy Miah

1215-12.45    Design for Debate, Fiona Raby    UK
12.45-13.00    Enhanced Humans as Super-Organisms, Michael Burton     UK
13.00-13.15    Natural Kingdoms and the Post-Biological World, Revital Cohen    UK
13.15-13.45    Questions & Answers

13.45-14.45 Lunch & ISEA 2009 Meeting

14.45-15.45    Life after death in the 21st century,

Chair: Ernest Edmonds    UK

14.45-15.05    Mission Eternity, etoy.CORPORATION    SWITZ
15.05-15.45    Discussants: Paul Brown, Linda Candy    UK

15.45-16.45    Unsustainable Futures? FACT in 2009 ,

Chair: Nicola Triscott

15.45-15.55    Overiew & Summary, Nicola Triscott    UK

Rapporteurs:
15.55-16.05    Steve Fuller
16.05-16.15    Ernest Edmonds
16.15-16.25    Nigel Cameron
16.25-16.45    Laura Sillars

17.15-18.30    Book Launch Reception, Speeches & Signings

Mike Stubbs – Human Futures: The Programme

Andy Miah   – Human Futures: The Book

Related Events
Also taking place in Liverpool that day is the Long Night of the Biennial, an evening of cultural activities running from 8pm-12am. The following day sees the start of the BBC’s Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival, which is also at FACT. If you’ve not had a chance to get to Liverpool during its year as European Capital of Culture, this could be your time.

Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty

Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty

Originally uploaded by andymiah

Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty

website: http://humanfutures.wordpress.com

30 October 2008
Symposium & Book Launch
10.00-5.00pm

Location: FACT, Liverpool, UK (which is also the location of Picturehouse Cinema Liverpool)

The world around us is changing. What will make the first century of the millennium different to the last? What will we love, how will we live, what will keep us awake at night?

Join artists, scientists, ethicists, futurologists as they explore questions, ideas and propositions that explore our changing environment and the challenges humanity faces in the future.

This conference brings together contributors from FACT’s Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty edited by Andy Miah which features work by George J Annas, Fiona Raby & Anthony Dunne, Norman M Klein and William Sims Bainbridge and Oron Catts.

An updated schedule of the symposium will be added soon, but for more information contact gabrielle.jenks@fact.co.uk

To order the book contact shop@fact.co.uk

Tickets £25.00/20.00 (members and concessions)

Tickets available from 0871 704 2063 or www.picturehouses.co.uk (Liverpool, FACT)

ISEA 2009

ISEA 2009

Originally uploaded by andymiah

I’ve recently become involved with ISEA 2009 as a Steering Committee member and Programme Theme Chair for ‘Posthumanism: New Technologies and Creative Strategies’. here’s a sneak preview at what I’ll be looking for with Co-Chair Mike Stubbs of FACT and our panel team:

“Posthumanism operates at the interface of transhumanism and cyborgology, drawing attention to the convergent spaces of biology and artifice. Its manifestation through a range of biopolitical events, along with the aesthetic staging of bioethical encounters ruptures the polarized views of bioconservatism and technoprogressivism, provoking a series of conflicts that demand multi-layered conceptual apparatus to unravel. The sensory habitus of posthuman prostheses initiates the re-staging of design principles to anticipate the demand for new sensory experiences, technologies, services. This theme explores and expands our understanding of how innovative hardware and technologies are constituted by new art and design forms and how modes of sensory experience alter aesthetic encounters. For example, what kind of experience is generated through imaginations of posthumanity in different art and design forms? What do viewers expect from artists in terms of adopting posthuman technologies and modes of sensory delivery? How do we prepare and critically engage new generations of artists, designers and consumers through these technologies?”

The Review Panel for this theme consists of the following experts:

•    Jeffrey N. Babcock, Executive Director, International Center for the Arts, San Francisco State University, USA
•    Oron Catts, Director, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia
•    Alison Clifford, Lecturer in New Media & Digital Art, University of the West of Scotland, UK
•    Heather Corcoran, Curator in New Media, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK
•    Gina Czarnecki, Independent Artist, Liverpool, UK.
•    Anthony Dunne, Royal College of Art, London, UK
•    Ernest Edmonds, Professor of Computation and Creative Media, University of Technology, Sydney.
•    Jens Hauser, Institute for Media Studies, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
•    Michelle Kasprzak, Scottish Arts Council, Scotland, UK
•    Debbi Lander, Regional Creative Programme for the North West, London 2012 Olympics.
•    Fiona Raby, Royal College of Art, London, UK
•    Emma Rich, Loughborough University, England, UK
•    Laura Sillars, Head of Programme, FACT, Liverpool.
•    Nicola Triscott, The Arts Catalyst, London, UK.

Paralympics 2.0

Just published a new position piece for the Hastings Center online environment, Bioethics Forum:

Friday, June 6, 2008
Paralympics 2.0
BY ANDY MIAH

Oscar Pistorius was right all along, at least for now. He was right to appeal the ruling from the International Association of Athletics Federations that forbade him from competing alongside Olympians in Beijing for one simple reason: he is an Olympian…

http://www.bioethicsforum.org/Court-of-Arbitration-for-Sport-discrimination.asp

Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology

A month or so back, I published a couple of new articles, which each deal with the concept of posthumanism. The main article details a typology of human enhancements that aims to clarify the different levels of discussion and expectation of human enhancement technologis. The second is a ‘Letter to Utopia’, a reply to Nick Bostrom’s Letter from Utopia published alongside my paper in SELT. They’re available through the SELT website:

MIAH, A. (2008) Engineering Greater Resilience or Radical Transhuman Enhancement? Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2, http://www.bepress.com/selt/vol2/iss1/art5.

MIAH, A. (2008) Letter to Utopia. Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology, 2, http://www.bepress.com/selt/vol2/iss1/art7

Synthetic Times (Exhibition, Beijing, Jun 10 -July 3, 2008)

A BEIJING OLYMPICS CULTURAL PROJECT

National Art Museum of China (NAMOC)
No. 1 Wusi Street Dongcheng District
Beijing 100010 P.R.ChinaJun 10, 2008 -July 3, 2008

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the National Art Museum of China will present “SYNTHETIC TIMES – Media Art China 2008” in its current location at the center of Beijing. NAMOC is the only national art museum in China that is dedicated to research, presentation and promotion of modern and contemporary arts. “SYNTHETIC TIMES – Media Art China 2008”, scheduled from June 10th to July 3rd, will be one of the most important cultural events leading up to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The exhibition will occupy approximately 4500 square meters (48000 square feet) of the museum gallery space and an additional outdoor area of ca. 2000 square meters (22000 square feet). The internationally recognized Dutch architecture firm NOX/Lars Spuybroek will architecturally transform the entire first floor of the museum in response to the nature of the works on display. A full-color catalogue will be co-published by NAMOC and the MIT Press to accompany the opening (with international distribution). An online forum dedicated to the discourse of the respective exhibition themes and beyond will be created prior to the opening of the event. A pre-Exhibition symposium will be held in New York City in collaboration with MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and other major cultural and educational institutions. The forum and the subsequent symposia will be moderated by a group of distinguished scholars and media arts professionals. Selected discussion essays will be included in the catalogue. Meanwhile, a number of satellite exhibition venues have been planed within the greater Beijing art community, engaging prominent galleries of the booming Beijing art scene. In addition, a number of special evening events during the opening days of the Exhibition are conceived to celebrate countries with significant contribution to the development of media art and culture.

Synthetic Times – Media Art China 2008 will showcase both established and emerging artists from approximately thirty countries, and over fifty media art installation works will be on view along with performances, workshops, presentations and discussion panels. To complement the theme exhibitions, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will contribute a special screening program consisting of seminal video art works. Ars Electronica is set to present the award winning Animation Festival while European Media Art Festival will bring in an edition of International Emerging Video Art. The Exhibition is envisaged as a landmark event in the history of contemporary Chinese art dedicated to embracing the most innovative artistic production and theorization to date, and aspiring to foster and advance new modes of thinking and novel ways of artistic engagement in an increasingly technologically immersed society and global cultural landscape, resonating with the leitmotifs of “Cultural Olympics” and “Hi-Tech Olympics” put forward by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Supported by the Chinese government, international cultural foundations as well as embassies from the participating countries, renowned museums and media art institutions worldwide will collaborate with NAMOC to produce the Exhibition and its related events.

http://www.namoc.org/namoc/index.jsp

Human Dignity and Bioethics

I just received my copy of the new publication from the US President’s Council on Bioethics. This volume looks like a great addition to the literature. Human dignity featured heavily in my Genetically Modified Athletes and is a concept I am continually drawn back to when thinking about the range of issues arising from discussions about human enhancement.

Future Ethics (Manchester, 2008-9)

Future Ethics:

Climate Change, Political Action and the Future of the Human
An interdisciplinary workshop series, June 2008 – January 2009, held in Manchester.
www.manchester.ac.uk/futureethics <https://owa.liv.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/futureethics>

3 one day workshops to explore the ideas, beliefs and motivations underpinning  political responses to climate change.

A chance for activists, academics, practitioners, and concerned individuals working on political responses to climate change to come together with questions, solutions, experience, and ideas.

Workshop 1: “What is to be done?  Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Political Action”
June 13, 2008

Workshop 2: “What Price Security?  New Issues in the Ethics of Risk”
September 19, 2008

Workshop 3: “A World Without Us?  Imagining the End of the Human”
January 16, 2009

Free to attend, but places limited!  See the website for registration.

Short abstracts for ’starter papers’ invited for each  workshop.  See the website for submission deadlines

All Workshops held at Bridge 5 Mill (MERCi) <https://owa.liv.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.merci.org.uk/merci.php> , Manchester’s own centre for sustainable living

Please circulate widely!

Many thanks

Stefan Skrimshire

Dr. Stefan Skrimshire
Post Doctoral Research Associate in Religion and Politics
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures
Samuel Alexander Building
The University of Manchester
Manchester M13 9PL

stefan.skrimshire@manchester.ac.uk
tel: 0161 306 1663

Transhuman minds? Is cognitive enhancement a human right? (London, 11 March, 2008)

Transhuman minds? Is cognitive enhancement a human right?

Tuesday 11th March 2008, 3-6pm

The Royal Society of Medicine, London W1G 0AE

The development of cognitive enhancement has meant the phrase “give your brain a boost” now brings with it a range of connotations which have never been experienced thus far in human history. The convergence of nano-, bio- and information technology with cognitive science promises many interesting forms of cognitive enhancement. Neurobiology is expanding our understanding of how the brain works in association with neural systems and information technology is providing vastly improved signal processing capabilities for use in neurobiological research. Accompanying such advances, cognitive neuroscience is pushing back the traditional boundaries of cognitive psychology to broaden understanding with regard to the interaction between brain structure, function and cognition.

The prospect of being able to enhance human cognition presents a nexus of questions associated with future ambitions, hopes and concerns. Should individuals be allowed the freedom and the right to decide for themselves how best to use enhancement technologies? Is government intervention and regulation required in order for both individuals and society to thrive through the use of enhancement technologies? Or does the very notion of human essence prohibit enhancement in all its forms?

BioCentre invites you to an assessment of what cognitive enhancement promises and how best to harness its potential informed by leading specialists in the field.

Speakers will include:

Professor Ruud ter Meulen
Professor of Ethics in Medicine, University of Bristol

Dr. Anders Sandberg
James Martin Research Fellow, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University

Dr. Daniela Cerqui
Social and Cultural anthropologist, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr. Donald Fitzmaurice (tbc)
Director of ePlanet Ventures, former Professor of Nanotechnology, University
College Dublin

The discussion will be chaired by Professor Nigel M de S Cameron, Executive
Chairman of BioCentre: Centre for Bioethics & Public Policy.

RSVPs are required. Please include your name and the organisation that you represent in your response. There is no charge for the event.

To RSVP:

e: info@bioethics.ac.uk / t: 0207 227 4706

Olivier Goulet

Today, I attended FACT’s seminar for artists and professionals, based around their Human Futures exhibition. The conversations were broadly about the practice of art processes and how we should proceed with artistic undertakings.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with Olivier Goulet who indicated he was very interested in my view. He immediaely reminded me of Alfredo, of Irene and Alfredo. I want to hook them up together, for Irene to sell his clothes in her ’sustainable clothing’ shop in Barcelona.

We talked a lot about his work and I was very interested in how his clothing made from synthetic human skin were received by audiences. He explained that the removal of the word ‘human’ from publicity led to quite different responses, all of which were really fascinating. The clothes he makes are beautiful; incredibly stylish, trendy and wearable. He’s performing tomorrow night and we’ll hope to  see him, but here’s SkinBag: http://www.skinbag.net/

Human Futures @ FACT launch

Last night was the launch of the Human Futures exhibit SK-interfaces at FACT. It was really extraordinary and nice to see some friends come over for the event. The highlight was the performance of http://www.yannmarussich.ch ‘Blue Remix’. Photos are in my Flickr photoset. this image is of his assistant and I was moved by the care and attention this man gave to the whole process. Made me wish i could take better photographs.

ORLAN at Goldsmiths (5 February, 208)

ORLAN at Goldsmiths

Tuesday 5 February 2008
6.15pm THE THEATRE
Department of Drama

The Department of Drama’s Performance Research Forum and the Digital
Studios’ (Department of Computing) Thursday Club are delighted to co-host
this special event, aTALK by one of the most original and provocative
woman artists working today in what she calls CARNAL ART.

“Unlike ‘Body Art’, from which I set it apart, Carnal Art does not desire
pain as a means of redemption, or to attain purification. Carnal Art does
not wish to achieve a final ‘plastic’ result, but rather seeks to modify
the body, and engage in public debate=E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6=E2=80=A6Carnal Ar=
t is not against
cosmetic surgery but, rather against the conventions carried by it and
their subsequent inscription, within female flesh in particular, but also
male. Carnal Art is feminist, that is necessary. It is interested not onl=
y
in cosmetic surgery, but also advanced techniques in medicine and biology
that question the status of the body and the ethical questions posed by
them” ORLAN

All welcome. Entrance free. Latecomers will not be admitted.

To book this event, call 020 7919 7422

<http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/drama/orlan.php>

sk-interfaces (Liverpool, FACT, Feb 2008)

New exhibition and conference starting the FACT programme. Looks good!

“Designer hymens, a composite coat made of blended skin cultures by legendary French artist ORLAN, a brain infused with glowing moss and non-animal ‘leather’ growing in the galleries, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) presents a ground-breaking UK exhibition exploring the idea of skin as a place where art, science, philosophy and social culture meet.

sk-interfaces opens 01 February until 31 March 2008.

Curated by Jens Hauser, sk-interfaces launches FACT’s Human Futures programme in Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture and as an interdisciplinary exhibition will feature works from 15 international artists, including 2007’s Golden Nica winners at Ars Electronica.

“What used to be understood as a surface that represents the limit of the self and between the inside and the outside can today be seen as an unstable border. sk-interfaces is ideally placed within the cultural programme of Liverpool 08: Artists are exploring trans-species relationships, xenotransplantation, satellite bodies, endogene design, telepresence, permeable architecture and the ever pushed limits of art itself,” says curator Jens Hauser.

Formerly known for her surgery-performances in which she refigured her face and created new images referring to non-Western cultures, ORLAN presents her new work Harlequin Coat, a patchwork life-size mantle, which contains fusing in vitro skin cells from various cultures and species. This prototype of a biotechnological coat is made to symbolise cultural cross breeding.

The Tissue Culture and Art Project’s Victimless Leather investigates the possibility of producing ‘leather’ without killing an animal. Three miniature stitch-less garments are tissue-cultured live in the gallery. Artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr are behind the award-winning lab project SymbioticA (Golden Nica in Hybrid Art 2007 Prix Ars Electronica), the Australian–based research facility dedicated to artistic enquiry.

French duo Art Orienté objet has created biopsied, cultured, hybridized and tattooed skin made from their own epidermis and pig derma to create living biotechnological self-portraits. Marion Laval-Jeantet and Benoît Mangin’s work is intended to be grafted onto collectors themselves so they can physically wear and absorb an artists’ piece.

American artist Julia Reodica’s hymNext Designer Hymen Series confronts the values of purity and gender roles using the artist’s own vaginal tissue and animal muscle cells to create designer hymens. The sculptures pose as products to be marketed and are intended as objects of novelty for ‘re-virginisation’ thus addressing the issue of how different cultures value female virginity and the associated pressures.

Zbigniew Oksiuta from Poland will come to Liverpool to create a new version of his project Breeding Spaces in which a large 3D sphere of gelatin is grown in situ. The artist proposes the possibilities of designing biological spatial structures that can serve as a new kind of habitat and presents a new form of spatial coexistence between man and nature.

sk-interfaces will also feature further commissioned and existing projects from international artists such as Eduardo Kac, Jun Takita, Wim Delvoye, Olivier Goulet, Zane Berzina and Neal White among others.

Mike Stubbs, Director and CEO of FACT says, “FACT opens its 08 programme committed to pushing at the boundaries of how and what creative technologies and art can be. Touching on some of the biggest issues of our day FACT invites debate and conversation around life sciences and our changing relationships with our bodies and technology”.”