Presented at
30C3 (2013),
Dec. 27, 2013, 8:30 p.m.
(60 minutes)
Various dietary restrictions are historically associated with human culture and civilization. In addition, millions suffer from eating disorders that have both pathological and cultural origins.
Widespread concern about food safety has been exacerbated by the introduction of genetically modified crops and questionable practices of world agro-business. Meanwhile, many common organic foods are naturally poisonous and can cause illness and death if handled or prepared improperly. The most poisonous food imaginable is, of course, the forbidden fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil". The ongoing catastrophic and bloody conflict between wisdom and knowledge has decimated humanity and many of its intellectual and cultural treasures. As a project in art and science, an international consortium has been organized to sequence the genome of Malus sieversii, a wlid apple from central Asia recently shown to be the ancestor of all domestic cultivars. A project to modify the Malus sieversii genome with a compressed version of Wikipedia is now underway. Malus ecclesia (Wikipedia-modified M. sieversii) will be planted in herpetaria and several other sculptural/architectural contexts internationally.
Presenters:
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Joe Davis
Joe Davis (b. 04 Dec 1950): B.A. Creative Arts, Mt Angel College, Mt. Angel OR, 1973. Undergraduate work (laser art) at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ; University of Cincinnati Medical Center Laser Laboratory (1972-74). Lecturer/Research Fellow, MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies (1981-1990); Research Affiliate, Alexander Rich Laboratory, MIT Department of Biology (1990-current); Research Associate, McLuhan Program, University of Toronto (1995 – 2008); Artist Scientist, George Church Laboratory, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School (2010-current); Visiting Scholar, University of Washington (January 2011 – March 2011).
Research in areas that include lasers and laser fabrication, optoacoustics, microscopy, molecular biology, microbiology, and bioinformatics for the production of genetic databases and new biological art forms. Helped to pioneer fields in art and molecular biology and carried out several widely recognized contributions to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Created large-scale, permanent public art (sculpture/fountain/pedestrian lights) in Kendall Sq., Cambridge MA (1989). Rockefeller Fellow (1986 and 2008). Awarded “Golden Nica” in Hybrid Arts, Ars Electronica (2012). Organized current international consortium to sequence the genome of Malus sieversii, a wild progenitor of domestic apples (2013) and continuing with collaborators at Harvard Medical School and elsewhere to clone the progenitor apple genome with an English language version of Wikipedia.
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