“Nothing could be simpler. It is merely a small wooden casket, the size and shape of a cigar box, with a single switch on one face. When you throw the switch, there is an angry, purposeful buzzing. The lid slowly rises, and from beneath it emerges a hand. The hand reaches down, turns the switch off and retreats into the box. With the finality of a closing coffin, the lid snaps shut, the buzzing ceases and peace reigns once more. The psychological effect, if you do not know what to expect, is devastating. There is something unspeakably sinister about a machine that does nothing — absolutely nothing — except switch itself off.”

We are taking this invention as a starting point for our artistic research. If the Ultimate Machine can be seen as an historical icon for binary logic of computers and the software/hardware dichotomy. In the same way, as the 20th century can be seen the century of the computer, the 21st century must be seen as the century of biology. We are interesting in a icon for the ternary logic that is represented by the addition of wetware to hardware/software.

On/Maybe/Off

Here we are presenting On/Maybe/Off, a biological take on the Ultimate Machine. A self-contained and self-nourishing tissue-culture incubator is harboring a model hand constructed from a polymer. This scaffolding is seeded with human cells, allowing the cells to proliferate and grow in the form of the polymeric structure. As the cells grow, the hand model will expand, until this expansion reaches the off-button. The performance ends when the tissue-cultured hand pushes the off button, cutting its own access to energy and life support. The tissue-cultured hand will have turned itself off; it will have ended its life by its own hand.

In this paper we will explore original context and influence of Shannon’s Ultimate Machine and try to recontextualize it within bio/art context.

Advertising language functions as a powerful vehicle in creating a seductive relationship between the cosmetics industry´s products and their customers. While the actual products are supposed to dialogue with the human body in a material way, the content of the messaging is often working on a more abstract, psychologically evocative level. These »incantations« have a subconscious influence on our body image. The terminology communicates that the human body – by means of biotechnology – can be formed, manipulated and controlled. Seemingly aggressive and packed with numerous technological terms, the vocabulary used vividly conveys the physical changes, rejuvenation and improvement that occur at both a cellular and molecular level.

»Cellular Performance« draws on this terminology and applies it directly to the fleshy, living material that it makes reference to. Human skin cells, extracted and isolated from their bodily environment, are manipulated in the laboratory by means of bio-technological methods. This results in two-dimensional structures of cellular matter that visually »reincarnate« the incantations of cosmetics industry.

Microscopic time-lapse recordings are used to make visible and document the attempt to control the biological matter. Occasionally, the cells form legible structures, which quickly dissipate again. These short moments of successful stabilization are quickly followed by disintegration and entropy.

In regard to »MutaMorphosis 2012« I would like to focus on certain issues of uncertainty and instability that occur when working with biological, semi-living »material« and within experimental situations in general.

Cells as unstable »material«:

I would like to discuss the technology of cell culture and the processes of stabilization that attempt to turn such unstable life forms like cells ex vivo into stable and reliable workhorses. As semi-living entities that have been extracted from a human (or animal) body, cells do need continuous care when being kept alive in the laboratory before they can be used as a tool for science. Besides a certain number of instruments it also needs a lot of (hands-on) experience to keep cells alive over a longer period of time.

The experimental situation and the reproducibility of experiments:

Every experiment is a combination of a large number of different steps and conditions.

Even if one strives to repeat exactly the same steps from experiment to experiment, there are always slight variations we might not even be aware of. If an experiment doesn´t work out as expected it is sometimes very hard to figure out why things are not the same as before.

It might for example be that a certain detail that hasn´t been described in the protocol turns out to be very important in the end, or that a slight difference in timing or handling makes a huge difference regarding the result.

Especially in the context of Art-Science projects, where reproducibility is not a must, this uncertainty regarding the experimental outcome can be used as a tool to generate novel results and new ideas.

Methodology:

As an artist who worked in a scientific laboratory I would like to talk about my practical experience working with cells in vitro and combine it with philosophical and historical perspectives, focusing on uncertainty and instability vs. the engineering approach to control life and on the issues that arise when working with semi-living material in the context of an Art project.

Within the biotechnological frame she talks about her most recent collaboration with slovenian molecular biologist, the project MaSm Metatransformation. By setting up the intersections of science, art and civil society poses the questions if there is a possibility, considering the consequences of potential global food deficit and drastic reduction of the value of material goods, that human molecular production capacity in the DNA, as one of the few uncolonized biotechnological materials, could become a trade tool, (based on a system of genetic credit), which could become one of the next stages of evolution. Lastly she talk about her latest research on more complex organisms, concretely about her fascination by the invasion of ladybugs during the last few months, which may have the catastrophic consequences for the ecosystem.