From Data to Matter: Anti-Systematic Interventions and Explorations of the (Micro)biopolitical Organism

Abstract: In this essay, we draw on multidisciplinary scholarship and artistic interventions that we consider to be instances of anti-systematic practice, wherein artists’ use of their own biological data and matter supports material research, and catalyzes alternative, embodied knowledge production of the self. While an anti-systematic practice builds on systematizing biomedical tools and practices, its primary aim is to integrate that general knowledge with complex, contextualized experiences for deeper collective self-understanding. The datafication of the self through wearable self-tracking technologies expands our capability to build bodily knowledge, but simultaneously entails pervasive (micro)biosurveillance and reproduces an internalized, isolating neoliberal ethos. Technological advances can constitute forms of (micro)biopower that dominate, control, classify, and govern our life on a molecular level. We consider theory and art practice that domesticates and demystifies biotechnology and citatresits or subverts forms of (micro)biopower, while engaging with medical knowledge and biotechnological capability for bodily observation. The works we describe invite participation in collective body projects and empower self-understanding that arises from collaborative conceptualization of alternate futures.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Maria Satsia

Kit Kuksenok

Conference

Publication date: September 2021

Publication date (Print): September 2021

Pages: 205-213

Affiliations

[0001]Nicosia, Cyprus

[0002]Berlin, Germany

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/POM2021.27

SO-VID: 5df995af-9805-4761-b334-fa690e7a47d5

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of Politics of the Machines - Rogue Research 2021

Conference acronym: POM 2021

Conference number: 3

Conference location: Berlin, Germany

Conference date: September 14-17, 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: debate and devise concepts and practices that seek to critically question and unravel novel modes of science

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/POM2021.27

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Al-ma.org. (2021) ALMA. [online] Available at: <https://al-ma.org/ALMA-connects-FLORA> [Accessed 30 August 2021 ].

[2] R Braidotti (2016) Posthuman critical theory. In: D Banerji and M Paranjape, ed., Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures, 1st ed. New Delhi: Springer, New Delhi. 13–32.

[3] A Borbély, T Rusterholz and P Achermann (2017) Three decades of continuous wrist-activity recording: analysis of sleep duration. Journal of Sleep Research, 26(2). 188–194.

[4] A. S Byatt, & S Ede (2000). Strange and charmed: Science and the Contemporary Visual Arts. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

[5] N Campo Woytuk, M Juul Søndergaard, M Ciolfi Felice and M Balaam (2020) Touching and Being in Touch with the Menstruating Body. In: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 1–14.

[6] R Debatty (2021) WhiteFeather Hunter, “The Witch in the Lab Coat”. [online] We Make Money Not Art. <Available at: https://we-make-money-not-art.com/whitefeather-hunter-the-witch-in-the-lab-coat/> [Accessed 30 August 2021 ].

[7] M Fragnito (2020) Commoning Molecules: Decolonising Biological Patents by Gender Hacking Protocols. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 21(7). 153–169.

[8] GENITAL( * )PANIC by Mary Maggic – Mz* Baltazar’s Lab. (2021) GENITAL( * )PANIC by Mary Maggic – Mz* Baltazar’s Lab. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mzbaltazarslaboratory.org/event/genital-panic-by-mary-maggic/. [Accessed 29 August 2021 ].

[9] C Gimbert and F Lapointe (2015) Self-tracking the microbiome: where do we go from here?. Microbiome, 3(1).

[10] Gitomasello.com. (2021) Giulia Tomasello. [online] Available at: <https://gitomasello.com/Future-Flora> [Accessed 29 August 2021 ].

[11] P Ironstone (2019) Me, my self, and the multitude: Microbiopolitics of the human microbiome, European Journal of Social Theory, 22(3), pp. 325–341.

[12] K Kuksenok and M Satsia (2021). Know thy Flesh: What Multi-disciplinary Contemporary Art Teaches Us about Building Body Knowledge. xCoAx 2021.

[13] D Lupton (2016) The quantified self. Malden, MA, Polity.

[14] Maggic.ooo. (2021) Genital( * )Panic — Mary Maggic Official. [online] Available at: <https://maggic.ooo/Genital-Panic> [Accessed 29 August 2021 ].

[15] Maggic.ooo. (2021) Open Source Estrogen — Mary Maggic Official. [online] Available at: <https://maggic.ooo/Open-Source-Estrogen> [Accessed 29 August 2021 ].

[16] A Mularoni (2021) Feminist Science Interventions in Self-Tracking Technology.”Catalyst: Feminism, Theory,Technoscience, 7 (1). 1–21.

[17] D Nafus, & J Sherman (2014) Big Data, Big Questions| This One Does Not Go Up To 11: The Quantified Self Movement as an Alternative Big Data Practice. International Journal Of Communication, 8, 11.

[18] J Pylypa (1998) Power and Bodily Practice: Applying the Work of Foucault to an Anthropology of the Body, Arizona Anthropologist 13. 21–36.

[19] Re-fream.eu. (2021) Alma by Giulia Tomasello – Re-FREAM. [online] Available at: <https://re-fream.eu/portfolio/alma-giulia-tomasello/> [Accessed 29 August 2021 ].

[20] N Rose (2001) The Politics of Life Itself, Theory, Culture & Society, 18(6). 1–30.

[21] R Sanders (2017) Self-tracking in the digital era: Biopower, patriarchy, and the new biometric body projects. Body & Society, 23(1). 36-63

[22] E Šlesingerová (2018) Biopower imagined: Biotechnological art and life engineering. Social Science, 57(1). 59–76. doi: [Cross Ref].

[23] subRosa, (2008) Common Knowledge and Political Love, In: ‘B Da Costa and K Philip ed.,Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience, 1st ed. The MIT PRESS, 221–242.

[24] M Tsang (2017) Open source estrogen: from biomolecules to biopolitics... hormones with institutional biopower!. Graduate Theses. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

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