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Proposal for a Great Earth Mother:
Bio Art and Digital Literature
Regina Célia Pinto
(English Version: Sabrina Gledhill)
The renowned anthropologist Sir R.B. was the first to note the
strange symbols on Kiwi multimedia artist HVJ’s femur stem. As a
result, this item was immediately taken to the CALS (Center for
Anthropological and Linguistic Studies) in the main city on the Island
of Aotearoa. The world’s foremost anthropologists and experts in
linguistics and codes flocked to that important research center to
witness an unheard-of event in the world of Science.
For months on end, these specialists devoted themselves to the study
of that femur stem without making any discoveries. Meanwhile,
multimedia artist HVJ got used to walking with her new tantalum1 hip
implant, and was amazed at the sudden fame gained by that former
part of her bone structure. Every day, the wildest claims appeared in
the newspapers, but the scientists were stymied. The code (?) was
still unbroken.
In an attempt to overcome this problem, the creators of the Extra ¼Scale Ear were called in. This project by TC&A and Australian artist
Stelarc had found that living tissue can grow and sustain itself outside
the body. The Extra ¼-Scale Ear is a partial life form – partly
constructed and partly autonomous, awaiting the opportunity to
become a gentle prosthesis. Therefore, the same methods used to
create the ear were employed on the femur stem, and to everyone’s
amazement, it began to develop and gain a life of its own. As a
result, the code (?) gained more characters and a bit more clarity.
Could it be a bio-poem? Then someone recalled Genesis, a transgenic
work by the well-known and amazing Brazilian poet, multimedia artist
and thinker Eduardo Kac (http://www.ekac.org/):
“Genesis is a transgenic artwork3 that explores the
intricate relationship between biology, belief systems,
information technology, dialogical interaction, ethics,
and the Internet. The key element of the work is an
"artist's gene", a synthetic gene that was created by
Kac by translating a sentence from the biblical book of
Genesis into Morse Code, and converting the Morse
Code into DNA base pairs according to a conversion
principle specially developed by the artist for this work.
The sentence reads: "Let man have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
every living thing that moves upon the earth." It was
chosen for what it implies about the dubious notion-divinely sanctioned--of humanity's supremacy over
nature.”
The next idea was to analyze the DNA of the item in question. The
results of this study were astonishing. It was a completely unknown
type. Even more astonishing was the fact that, after some time,
images began to appear on the bone and move in a lively and
dramatic fashion, suggesting the devastation and destruction
underway on Planet Earth:
“Let man rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and all the
beasts which creep on the Earth”?
“Maori religion is closely related to nature and to the
ancestors, and all things are conceived of as possessing
a life force or mauri, since all living things are
connected by a common descent through whakapapa or
genealogy. Certain people and objects contain manaspiritual power or essence. In accordance with the
Polynesian tradition, Tangaroa is god of the ocean and
the origin of all fish. Tane is the god of the forest and
the origin of all birds, and Rongo is the god of peaceful
activities and agriculture.” (Wikipédia)
An elderly inhabitant of the island, a Maori sage, was called in to give
his opinion. Seeing all that magic in motion, he intuitively perceived
the relationship between what was going on and the ancient myth of
“Papatuanuku,” the Great Earth Mother:
"The mythological origins of Maori society are laid out in
three major myth cycles, beginning with the creation
myth of Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatuanuku, the
earth mother. The second sequence of myths deals with
the adventures of the demi-god Maui, who fished up the
land and brought many benefits into the world for
humankind. The third series of myths deals with the life
of Tawhaki, the model of an aristocratic and heroic
figure. .... The central characters in the myths are gods,
their progeny and their human descendants. The stories
are narrated in prose form, with the notion of an
evolutionary sequence conveyed by the storyteller
linking the main characters through the traditional
method of genealogical recital. Inherent in the
genealogy of earth and sky, the gods and their human
descendants is the notion of evolution and progression."
- Walker, Ranginui, Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou:
Struggle Without End, Penguin, Auckland, 1990.
(http://maaori.com/whakapapa/creation.htm)
It was then decided that a group of artists, all experts in Art and
Biology, should be called in. After observing the scenes showing on
what they began to call the Femur Cinema, comparing them with the
state of perpetual ecological disaster reigning on our planet and
engaging in a profound study of Maori mythology, they decided to
engage in a collaborative effort to create a Great Earth Mother
Cyborg or, as they affectionately call her, Papatuanuku Cyborg.
Although these artists are supported and sponsored by the “Planet
Earth Preservation Fund” and aided by the wisest and most
committed specialists in Biology, Genetics and DNA, the project is
moving ahead slowly because everything involved is new and the
subject of in-depth study. Responsibility and Ethics are key
requirements for all the research team’s members. The first
prototype, made from the same DNA as the femur stem, is already
being tested. It contains chips that store all the respect for Nature of
the less-complex cultures. Could this be the first stage of the planet’s
future?
Now fully accustomed to her tantalum hip implant, Kiwi artist HVJ is
playing an active part in the study. It is through her and her “on-line”
performances that information on the project is being shared with
universities on the island and the rest of the world. These
performances clearly demonstrate all her love for our blue planet.
Notes:
“Tantalum (formerly tantalium) is a chemical element in the
periodic table that has the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. A
rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous, transition metal, tantalum is
highly corrosion-resistant and occurs in the mineral tantalite.
Tantalum is used in surgical instruments and implants because
it does not react with body fluids”.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalum)
1
"Extra Ear 1/4 Scale is about two collaborative concerns. The
project represents a recognisable human part. However, it is
being presented as partial life and brings into question the
notions of the wholeness of the body. It is also confronts
broader cultural perceptions of 'life' given our increasing ability
to manipulate living systems. TC&A
(http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/extra/extra_ear.html)are dealing
with the ethical and perceptual issues stemming from the
realization that living tissue can be sustained, grown, and is
able to function outside the body. Stelarc
(http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/), ultimately, is concerned with
the attachment of the ear to the body as a soft prosthesis.
Extra Ear 1/4 Scale is partial life form – partly constructed and
partly grown – waiting to become a soft prosthesis."
2
“Transgenic poetry: synthesize DNA according to invented
codes to write words and sentences using combinations of
nucleotides. Incorporate these DNA words and sentences into
the genome of living organisms, which then pass them on to
their offspring, combining with words of other organisms.
Through mutation, natural loss and exchange of DNA material
new words and sentences will emerge. Read the transpoem
back via DNA sequencing”. (http://www.ekac.org/)
3