Oron Catts
The Ecology of Living Fragments
SymbioticA, University of Western Australia
Summary
The biomass of disassociated living cells and tissues can be measured
in the thousands of tons. These fragments do not fall under current
biological or cultural classifications. The notion of the Extended
Body developed by the TC&A (Tissue Culture & Art) Project can be seen
as a way to define this category of life and, at the same time, an
attempt to destabilize some of the rooted perceptions of the
classification of living beings. The Extended Body is an amalgamation
of the human extended phenotype and tissue life – a unified body for
disembodied living fragments, an ontological device, set to draw
attention to the need for re-examining current taxonomies and
hierarchical perceptions of life. The extended body is by no means a
fixed, scientifically binding order; it is rather a soft, artistic and
conceptual view of the subject of technologically mediated and
augmented life.
By creating a device that will allow the co-culturing and fusion of
cells and tissues (can be read fragments of bodies) of different
genotypes and phenotypes (i.e., from different organisms and different
tissue types), we will present the breakdown of both Linnaean taxonomy
and Molecular systematics (chemotaxonomy). A new technologically
mediated ecology of semi-living fragments that will question deep-
rooted perceptions of life and highlight the need for reevaluation of
human relationships with the living world around us.
The paper will present an historical narrative that will follow the
construction of knowledge through collection and classification as
manifested by the natural history museum, which stand as opposition to
the messiness of the cabinet of curiosities. We will discuss these in
relations to the development of modern biological curiosities that
bring into question deep-rooted perceptions of life.
Biography
Oron Catts: Artistic Director of SymbioticA, artist/researcher and curator.
Founded the Tissue Culture and Art Project (TC&A) in 1996.
Co-Founder and Artistic Director of SymbioticA - The Art & Science
Collaborative Research Laboratory at The School of Anatomy & Human
Biology, University of Western Australia.
Curator of Biofeel exhibition and The Aesthetics of Care? Symposium,
BEAP 2002 and BioDifferences BEAP 2004. A Research Fellow at The
Tissue Engineering & Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Massachusetts
General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (2000-2001).
Trained in product design (BA, Honours), and Visual Art (MA).
Oron has exhibited, published and conducted workshops of his own work
as well as the work of SymbioticA internationally.
www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au