The genome incorporated: constructing biodigital identity

The Genome Incorporated examines the proliferation of human genomics across contemporary media cultures. It explores questions about what it means for a technoscience to thoroughly saturate everyday life, and places the interrogation of the science/media relationship at the heart of this enquiry. The book develops a number of case studies in the mediation and consumption of genomics, including: the emergence of new direct-to-the-consumer bioinformatics companies; the mundane propagation of testing and genetic information through lifestyle television programming; and public and private engagements with art and science institutions and events. Through these novel sites, this book examines the proliferating circuits of production and consumption of genetic information and theorizes this as a process of incorporation. Its wide-ranging case studies ensure its appeal to readers across the social sciences

Relics of bioart: Ethics and messianic aesthetics in performance documentation

Australia-based art collective Tissue Culture and Art Project (TC&A) use the tools of biotechnology as artistic media to create "Semi- Living" sculptures. These sculptures are exhibited, eaten, and killed in various public contexts and, therefore, raise important ethical questions about the existence of life outside of the body. Departing from dominant concerns within the academy about the ethics of producing biological art, the essay instead focuses on the overlooked ethics of its reception. It addresses the ethics of spectatorship in TC&A's work by arguing three main points: first, its documentary images reference, play with, and are haunted by religious iconography; second, examining the messianic resonances in TC&A's work illuminates an ethics of spectatorship that is closely related to the Derridean ethical experience of otherness; and third, focusing on TC&A's documentary images addresses the potential of bioart documentation to generate affect and engage in ethical relations

From motor babbling to hierarchical learning by imitation: a robot developmental pathway

How does an individual use the knowledge acquired through self exploration as a manipulable model through which to understand others and benefit from their knowledge? How can developmental and social learning be combined for their mutual benefit? In this paper we review a hierarchical architecture (HAMMER) which allows a principled way for combining knowledge through exploration and knowledge from others, through the creation and use of multiple inverse and forward models. We describe how Bayesian Belief Networks can be used to learn the association between a robot’s motor commands and sensory consequences (forward models), and how the inverse association can be used for imitation. Inverse models created through self exploration, as well as those from observing others can coexist and compete in a principled unified framework, that utilises the simulation theory of mind approach to mentally rehearse and understand the actions of others

Od 0110 k ACGT. _Je[to]živé_[?]

V roku 1995 bol zverejnený článok naznačujúci pohľad na 21. storočie ako na storočie biológie. Po roku 2000 budú hlavné sociálne, morálne a ekonomické témy pravdepodobne prameniť z metafor a prístupu biológie a dostupnosti technológií. Biomyslenie bude formovať náš svet a utvárať našu víziu seba samých. V dobe jeho vzniku tento článok zrejme nikto nebral vážne, keďže jeho autor bol známy najmä ako autor science fiction. Doba pokročila a pri spätnom čítaní si uvedomujeme, že sci-fi sa stáva realitou. Text naznačuje príbeh vzniku oblasti umenia, ktoré by podľa niektorých teoretikov malo byť umeleckou formou charakteristickou pre 21. storočie. Príbeh od digitálnych simulácií života až po tvorbu položivých entít a transgénových chimér.In 1995 the published article suggesting that 21 century will be the century of biology. After 2000, the main social, moral and economic issues will rise from biological metaphors and from technology. Biothinking will shape our world and shape our vision of ourselves. At the time of publishing this article, no one took it seriously, since its author was best known as the author of science fiction. Time progressed and by rethinking we realize that science fiction becomes reality. The text suggests a story of artistic creation, which, according to some theorists, should be an art form characteristic for 21 century. The story of digital simulations of life to creating semi-living entities and transgenic chimeras

Bioart et bioéthique. Compte-rendu de Bioart : transformations du vivant, sous la direction d’Ernestine Daubner et Louise Poissant

Compte-rendu / ReviewÀ travers des exemples d’œuvres bioartistiques et des réflexions sur celles-ci, l’ouvrage collectif Bioart : transformations du vivant met en exergue l’intérêt de cette approche artistique pour soulever les enjeux éthiques liés au vivant, aux sciences et à l’art en lui-même.Through examples of bioartistic works and reflections on these, the edited collection Bioart : transformations du vivant highlights the importance of this artistic approach to raising ethical issues related to life, science and the art in itself

Merleau-Ponty and neuroaesthetics: Two approaches to performance and technology

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Digital Creativity, 23(3-4), 225 - 238, 2012. Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14626268.2012.709941.Assisted by the rapid growth of digital technology, which has enhanced its ambitions, performance is an increasingly popular area of artistic practice. This article seeks to contextualise this within two methodologically divergent yet complimentary intellectual tendencies. The first is the work of the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, who recognised that our experience of the world has an inescapably ‘embodied’ quality, not reducible to mental accounts, which can be vicariously extended through specific instrumentation. The second is the developing field of neuroaesthetics; that is, neurological research directed towards the analysis, in brain-functional terms, of our experiences of objects and events which are culturally deemed to be of artistic significance. I will argue that both these contexts offer promising approaches to interpreting developments in contemporary performance, which has achieved critical recognition without much antecedent theoretical support

Robot Swinging Using van der Pol Nonlinear Oscillators

In this study, we investigated the use of van der Pol oscillators in a 2-dof embodied robotic platform for a swinging task. The oscillator controlled the hip and knee joints of the robot and was capable of generating waveforms with the correct frequency and phase so as to entrain with the mechanical system

Neuro-mechanical entrainment in a bipedal robotic walking platform

In this study, we investigated the use of van der Pol oscillators in a 4-dof embodied bipedal robotic platform for the purposes of planar walking. The oscillator controlled the hip and knee joints of the robot and was capable of generating waveforms with the correct frequency and phase so as to entrain with the mechanical system. Lowering its oscillation frequency resulted in an increase to the walking pace, indicating exploitation of the global natural dynamics. This is verified by its operation in absence of entrainment, where faster limb motion results in a slower overall walking pace