posthuman craft

I've written previously about the consideration of the nonhuman agents that participate in my work, willingly or not - can a microorganism even be 'willing' in the way a human can be 'willing' aside from the decision to live or die in a set of circumstances? And how much of that live or die impetus is an actual decision as we understand decision-making? As in, willful? Karen Barad has written, in her piece entitled, Posthumanist Performativity, about posthumanism as encapsulating the basic principle of decentred human action. That is, a posthumanist world acknowledges that, while humans exist and act on the world, they are not the only influential actors/performers and indeed are often acted upon, themselves by nonhuman performers. This shift in thinking follows the decline of the idea of humanism, or anthropocentrism, that places human beings at the centre of importance in reality/ the world. Humanism itself, I would imagine, followed the decline of placing God or supreme beings at the centre of importance (e.g. religion). So, no longer are gods, gods. And no longer are humans god-like. 

More and more exciting and interesting news articles emerge online each day, about the important role of gut bacteria in determining the health and wellbeing of its human host. This is merely one example of a posthumanist perspective on health. The idea of viruses has been around for some time but the latest Radiolab podcast delves into not only the idea of random viruses floating around and interrupting human functioning, but that our own microbes, our embodied bacteria, contain virus DNA as an offense against those viruses that would attack our bodies. Of course, the Radiolab episode is much more than that, but my point is that we have thoroughly culturally shifted into a posthuman consciousness. With this in mind, I realize that I must reframe my current art practice within the parameters of posthumanism. This philosophical framework, often thought of in lieu with robotics, augmentation/prosthetics, computers and the digital, is also fully applicable to biotech but requires a humbled perspective.

I've written on previous blogs that science (health sciences, biotech) and religion promise the same sorts of things. My project, The Ossificatorium, explored the false dichotomy between science and religion. They both promise healing, release from the pain of material existence, and an enduring state of being. What biotech is now focusing on is not simply prolonging or augmenting human life, but on other actants, other forces that make the material world go 'round. We are not gods. Our gods may be the candida albicans, the e. coli, the c. difficile, the bizillions of microorganisms that are more us than us and that influence our moods, outlook, capacity to act in the world. In this vein, my recent biotextile project:

I think of myself as an artist, a creator. You can't get much closer to being god than that occupation. Indeed, humans are creators. However, depending heavily on the activities of another microscopic life form to complete my work for me - and I say 'my' work lightly - is to adopt the posthuman perspective. And I think the posthuman perspective is not so contemporary, either. Farmers, I'm sure, understand environmental actants, insect actants, bacterial actants and cosmological actants as prime influences on the success of their creative endeavours (moreso than themselves). Craft, then: another skilled trade (with a focus on aesthetics and functionality). My skilled trade of creative tissue engineering is completely dependent on the nonhuman actors and it is THEY who are central to the creative process, not ME. This is the crux of posthuman craft as I see it. The question is, can I even call myself an artist in this context? Perhaps I'd be better called a curator? What contribution does my performance make to the end aesthetic/ functional product? Is it an object or is it an entity? Oops, that's another discussion.

I'm not a PhD (yet), so my philosophy is patchy at best, but this (posthumanist question) is one of the critical questions to ask in a BioArt practice, and a critical perspective to engage with in terms of my own work.