Cell Track: Mapping the Appropriation of Life Materials
An installation and web site examining the privatization and patenting of human, animal, and plant genomes within the context of a history of eugenics. Cell Track draws attention to the increasing separation between the bodies that produce stem cells and genetic material, and the medical and pharmaceutical “products” derived from them. Maternal body cells and tissues like eggs, placentas, fetuses, and umbilical cord blood have become valuable “raw materials” mined for stem cell technologies. This development has opened the way for corporate science to profit from the manipulation and control of life—by patenting and licensing DNA sequences, engineered genes, stem cell lines, transgenic organisms, and the like. Cell Track raises the possibility of a activist, feminist-inspired embryonic stem cell research and resource lab, available to amateurs, artists, independent scientists, and non-profit researchers conducting experimental and contestational public health research and shared knowledge production.*
1. Bio-Difference: The Political Ecology, Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Univ. of Western Australia, Sept. 12–Oct. 3, 2004 2. YOUGenics3, curated by Ryan Griffis, Betty Rymer Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 4–Feb. 5, 2004 3. Deliciously Disposable Earth, curated by Carolina Loyola-Garcia, Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Jan. 17–Feb 22, 2008 (catalog) 4. Soft Power. Art and Technologies in the Biopolitical Age, curated by Maria Ptqk. Amarika Project at Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Fall, 2009