Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg

01.11.2013 | Blog , Culture | BY: admin

When we think of future technologies we often think of shiny silver slim stuff that streamlines our experience and simplifies our day to day. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, designer, artist and writer, is in fact invested in future processes that disrupt that ideology. A prominent voice on synthetic biology, a techno-science based on the intersection between nature and design, Daisy has worked on various provocative projects, notably E. chromi – a speculation on colour-coded disease detection that would allow you to diagnose yourself by looking at the colour of your faeces! With a degree in Architecture from Cambridge, time at Harvard, as well as an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, Daisy has no formal training in science yet continues to push the field outside its comfort zone. Grow Your Own… Life After Nature, co-curated with designer Anthony Dunne, synthetic biologist Paul Freemont and biohacker Cathal Garvey at Science Gallery in Dublin is her most recent pursuit and will surely gather a host of controversial responses (Hint: it features human cheese)

Unlike all the tech and gadgets we deal with, anything biological is really a bit gross. What are your thoughts on their dissimilar appeal?

Drones are perhaps ‘sexy’ to the people in the tech community but others find them frightening. But I agree – biology is wet, it’s gloopy and it’s threatening when it’s growing. There is the idea that it’s okay in context but when it’s out of place, we don’t like it. At the Grow Your Own… we have Sissel Tolaas’ and Christina Agapakis’ Selfmade ‘human cheese’ that they made for the Synthetic Aesthetics project, displayed for the first time in Dubin. For some, this project is just disgusting and visceral, it’s gross…you don’t eat stuff from your body! But is this really from your body or is it your bacteria, and not you?

When do you think the context will arrive where biology in that sense is acceptable – will it ever happen?

Synthetic biologists talk online casino about being able to control biology … but will we actually be able to control biology in the same we control other design materials? That’s something that interests me as a designer, understanding what a machine or a designed ‘thing’ is when it changes or evolves, and whether we will ever tolerate that idea of change. You may have seen Suzanne Lee’s Biocouture jackets made from bacterially produced cellulose. For a lot of people there is something weird about the material aesthetic – we’ve become so used to mass-produced uniformity and somehow we feel safe with it, which in itself is strange.

You’ve just started your PhD, what are you going to explore?

The project is called ‘The Dream of Better,’ I’m exploring why we think the future is going to be better. What role has design played in constructing hope around technology? For example when you get a new iPhone you believe somehow that it’s going to make everything better, there is an inherent faith in technology and design for most people. When did everyone stop thinking that the Garden of Eden was where it was at?

That’s interesting because you often speak about the concept of perfection and I’m fascinated by what dictates perfection or ‘better’?

The world is so complex that someone in the end has to make that decision. You realise that you can put all these protocols in place but the decisions are often ultimately made in quite an esoteric way. A lot of my practice is about managing and opening up spaces within synthetic biology, as an emerging technology, and asking whether there is a role for art and design here? If synthetic biology is realisable, what should or shouldn’t we be making with it?

How do we know when we’ve reached the future? How do we know when we are there?

Maybe I don’t believe in the ‘future’. I’m not that optimistic about it and I don’t think that’s necessarily understood when I talk about my work. I remember having a conversation with my mum years ago and she said ‘I don’t think you should have children…I don’t think today’s world is a good world to bring children into, my generation has ruined it,’ which is an extraordinary thing to feel. But that’s what I’m curious about, the belief that some people have that ‘oh, its just going to sort itself out and it’s inevitable that it will’ … but will it?

Text by Monique Todd

Portrait of Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg by Harry Borden.

daisyginsberg.com

dublin.sciencegallery.com/growyourown