Mindaugas Gapševičius in collaboration with Auksė Gaižauskaitė, Miglė Kalvaitytė, and participants
MO Museum, 15-17/06/2019
This workshop was constructed for manipulating and experiencing genome with professional and DIY tools. The idea of experiencing a manipulated genome was developed earlier in the toolkit “How I Prepare Myself to Be Cloned,” conceptualized and developed by Mindaugas along with a number of collaborators. Conceptually, the workshop was wrapped around the intolerance of dairy products in humans, an issue often raised while questioning anthropocentric views in relation to non-human animals. In a broader context the workshop invited one to experience DIY manipulations of a genome and referred to recent techniques for gene manipulation, including the CRISPR method. At the DIY level, the references included the gene therapies of biohackers Josiah Zayner and Tristan Roberts who recently experimented with genome manipulations on themselves. These manipulations evoked recollections of experiments with one’s own body by artists Marina Abramovic, Bas Jan Ader, or Stelarc.
Experimentation showed that what it is possible to do over a duration of three days is very limited. Nevertheless, participants of the workshop developed their ideas based on the tools provided: An art student, Tanya, came up with a speculative script on the relationship between a couple who cannot tolerate lactose; Paulius conceptualized his slides based on the beauty of life; 10-year-old Sofia and her mom Danielė conducted two electrophoresis experiments, the first while repeating negative words out loud and the second while repeating positive words; 11-year-old Julius experienced the failure of experimentation.
This workshop was part of “Self-repair Lab,” an art installation and a collaborative framework for biological, chemical, and geological experimentation. The project was kindly supported by Nordic Culture Point and Council for Culture of Lithuania.
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