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Schedule Participants
1:00 Beatriz Da Costa, collaborator of Critical Art Ensemble, will discuss the Kurtz case and show their work. Beatriz da Costa: is a Machine Artist and Tactical Media Practitioner. Coming from a sculptural and emergent technology background, Beatriz has incorporated robotic technology into her art and cultural practice and is interested in the use of various technologies within a critical public context. She is dedicated
to a participatory practice and interaction with the public represents one of the key components of her work. Beatriz has worked in collaboration with Critical Art Ensemble since summer 2000 and has taken part in the development and implementation of various bio-tech initiatives and models of contestational
science. Current projects include Swipe, a collaborative project with Brooke Singer and Jamie Schulte, concerned with the social implications of driver's license data collection. Beatriz has performed and exhibited work at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and The New Museum in New York. Recent shows include
ISEA 2002 in Japan, and the World Information Organization in Belgrade.
http://www.beatrizdacosta.net/

1:20 Nato Thompson, Curator at Mass Moca, who was paid a visit by the FBI for showing CAE's work. He will talk about the museum as civic pedagogical space, as well as his own experience with the media in the aftermath of
Kurtz's arrest.

 

Nato Thompson: Assistant Curator at MASS MoCA and curator for the exhibition "The Interventionists." With Greg Sholette, he is co-editor of The Interventionists: A Users Manual to the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life, published by MIT press. His Contributions to a Resistant Visual Culture Glossary is available at:
http://journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/3/thompson.htm
1:40 Sujatha Byravan, director of Council for Responsible Genetics, will discuss the history, philosophy and practical campaigns of CRG/Genwatch (selected CRG documents are included in reading packet). Sujatha Byravan: Executive Director at the Council for Responsible Genetics, a non-profit/non-governmental organization devoted to fostering public debate about the social, ethical, and environmental implications of the new genetic technologies. She was Director of the Fellows Program at LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International from 1999-2002, and in that capacity was responsible for developing and executing the program for the graduates of
LEAD, who number over 1000 and work all over the world in many sectors. Before joining LEAD, Sujatha worked in the area of science communication. She was coordinator of the Science Training and Communication Centre in the National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR) in Bangalore, India. She was also editor for Resonance, an undergraduate science journal produced by the Indian Academy of Sciences and freelanced as a science journalist. Sujatha has a Ph.D. in Biology and completed postdoctoral work at the University of California in Los Angeles, U.S.A. She is a Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar on Biotechnology: Legal, Ethical and Social Issues.
http://www.gene-watch.org
2:00 Charlie Weiner, Professor of Science, Technology and Society at MIT will discuss the history of socially engaged scientists, leading up to present debates in biotechnology. Charles Weiner: Professor, Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT Professor Weiner was educated at Case Institute of Technology (B.S., Metallurgy, 1960; Ph.D., History of Science and Technology, 1965). He was Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics from 1965 to 1974, when he joined the MIT faculty. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

His research and writing focus on the political, social and ethical dimensions of contemporary science and the responses of scientists to public controversies arising from their work. His publications have dealt with the history of controversies over academic patenting of biomedical research, the environmental, safety and ethical aspects of genetic engineering and biotechnology, and the development of nuclear physics. He is the editor of four volumes in the history of science and a new edition of his book, Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections (with Alice K. Smith) was published in 1995.

2:30-3:00 Discussion

3:00-3:20 Break

3:20 Jonthan King, Professor of Microbiology at MIT will address the politics of life patents and their implications for scientific research. (His co-authored paper "Patents on Cells, Genes and Organisms Undermine the Exchange of Scientific Ideas" is available in the reading packet) Jonathan King is Professor of Microbiology at MIT.

3:40 Faith Wilding, Professor of Art at the Art Institute of Chicago will deliver a paper entitled "Notes Towards a Politics of Biotech Art for a Third Culture" (this text is available in the reading packet). Faith Wilding: Wilding is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work addresses aspects of the somatic, psychic, and sociopolitical history of the body. Recent publications, lectures, exhibitions and performances focus on issues of cyberfeminist (women and technology) theory and practice, with particular emphasis on biotechnology. Wilding has exhibited and lectured widely in the USA and Europe. Her audio work has been commissioned and broadcast by RIAS Berlin; WDR Cologne; and National Public Radio, USA. Wilding has published in MEANING,
Heresies, Ms. Magazine, The Power of Feminist Art, and other books and magazines. She is the recipient of two individual media grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently, Wilding is a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the MFA in Visual Art Program at Vermont College of the Union Institute and University. She is also a member of subRosa.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fwild/faithwilding/ subRosa:
http://www.cyberfeminism.net/
4:00 Gene Benson, Staff Attorney at Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) will address the concept of environmental justice and discuss the current campign to stop the proposed Boston University Bioterror
Laboratory.
Gene Benson: Staff Attorney at Alternatives for Community Empowerment, received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. Before joining ACE in 2003, Gene was Associate General Counsel at Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, where he led the Environmental and Regulatory Law section. Gene‚s previous jobs include Executive Director of Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services in Cambridge, MA; Chief Attorney of the Legal Aid Bureau office in Frederick, MD; and Managing Attorney and Staff Attorney of the Prince George‚s County Senior Citizens Law Project in Mt. Rainier, MD. Gene is on the Steering Committee of the Environmental Law Section of the Boston Bar Association and wrote the chapter on Water Pollution Control in Massachusetts Environmental Law (MCLE 1999 and 2002). He chairs the environment task group in his town and was president of the Mystic River Watershed Association
http://www.ace-ej.org/staff.html#EB
4:20 Eugene Thacker, Professor of Literature and Communications at Geogria Institute of Technology will discuss the intersection of critical cultural theory and biotechnology, as well as the new publication Biotech Hobbyist, of which he is co-editor. Eugene Thacker: Assistant Professor, School of Literature, Communication, & Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of Biomedia (Minnesota 2004) and The Global Genome, forthcoming from MIT press. He is also co-editor at Biotech Hobbyist magazine.
A number of readings are available at http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~ethacker/

4:40-6:00 General Discussion


*We've divided the presentations into roughly 20 minutes, give or take 5 minutes. We can either do q/a after each, or do closing discussions after each half.

Other Invited Guests/Discussants:

Klare Allen: Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project Co-Director and Community Organizer, Klare X. Allen joined Alternatives for Community and Environment staff in 1995. Prior to joining ACE, she founded the Mother's Coalition, a group dedicated to promoting the interests of homeless women and their children. Klare has received numerous awards for her organizing and teaching. Most recently, in 1999, she was honored with the Parent's Magazine "As They Grow" Award. In 1998, she received the African Achievers Award from the Black Community Center. In November 1996, she was selected as the Conservation Teacher of the Year by the Massachusetts Audubon Society for her role in launching the Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project. Earlier that year, she also received the Green Leaf award from the Environmental
Diversity Forum.

Krzysztof Wodiczko
Artist, writer, educator, 1994-present - Professor of Visual Arts and Director, Interrogative Design Work Group, CAVS, MIT, Cambridge M.A. USA

Krzysztof Wodiczko emigrated twice, from Poland to Canada and then from Canada to the United States. He now shares his time between New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is the director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since 1980, Krzysztof Wodiczko has also created over 70 projections of politically charged images on monuments and public buildings. Public projections include: The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. (1988); The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1989); Arco de la Victoria, Madrid (1991); City Hall Tower, Krakow (1996); Bunker Hill Monument, Boston (1998); A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima (1999); and El Centro Cultural, Tijuana, Mexico (2001).