Byron Rich
ART Habens
ethics of our use of the HeLa cell is very debatable, and we are open to this criticism as it offers a portal to discussing the ethics of how the HeLa cell came to prominence in the first place. The HeLa cell is important because it was the first recognized immortal cell line, however it was taken without permission from an African America woman, Henrietta Lacks, in the 1950s as she was dying from cervical cancer. From there it became an indispensible research tool, but also a huge money generator, for cultures were commoditized and sold to labs across the world. Her family didn’ t know that her cells lived on beyond her death, nor did they receive any kind of monetary compensation.
With all that said, IMMOR( t) AL is highly contentious as it delves deeply into institutionalized racism, and issues surrounding self-ownership and governance, especially on the part of marginalized sectors of society. It’ s a very sad piece in many ways. Controlling whether these cells live or die via a highly subjective interpretation of brain activity is a bit unsettling.
( in collaboration with Ian F. Thomas and Alex Derwick)
As for how the collaboration came about, it really started as a conversation in my living room. Heather had just finished a very well know book about Henrietta Lacks, and I had just found an EEG setup to play around with. I wondered about controlling an incubator with an EEG, and John said he could make it happen by building custom software, and here we are! John is a brilliant programmer, and Heather find nuance in ideas and concepts that I would never notice. It’ s a very healthy collaboration.
Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Autonomous Player Simulation, that probes the capability of a medium to offer constructed realites to whom we relate. While questioning about the disconnect between physical experience and the immateriality of the technological simulation
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