21st July 2004

I am interested in how the technology mediates perception of the genome, for example, grid forms useful for categorization, shiny non-permeable surfaces, straight clean cut edges. The physical characteristics of the technology create an impression of boundaries and divisions which are the antithesis of the conceptualization of the genome which is now emerging. This, described by Steve Hughes as 'the space in which genes happen', is a complex dynamic and fluid field of interactions not always clearly bounded. Luciana Parisi and Tiziana Terranova, in their article Heat Death (see http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=127). I have explored this text in relation to stem cell imagery.