Nov 7-11 2019
Organized by Dr. Yewande Pearse
Our DNA – the script of our lives – is 99.9% the same across the human species. But differences in the remaining 0.1% hold important clues to who we are as individuals – a reality that begat the “quantified self” movement. The movement, also known as lifelogging, describes the trend towards using technology to acquire data on aspects of a person’s daily life, with the goal of improving physical, mental, and/or emotional performance.
Genetic information acquired by consumer testing companies like 23andMe can illuminate inner resources and limitations, functioning as a kind of oracle into the secrets of our bodies, identities and individualities. Still, many questions remain unanswered in regards to the impact of such inquiry on notions of the self and the socio-political.
Spanning over 5 days, this program demystifies how genomics inform identity with an exhibition, a presentation by Dr. Aaron Panofsky and Dr. Terence Keel from the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, and the release of a Massive Science x NAVEL collaborative zine (more info below) on the impact of genomic studies on three aspects of identity: race, gender and politics.
Participating Artists
Alessia Petrolito
Analisa Teachworth
Em Minyard Oppman
Fred Schmidt-Arenales
Isabel Prade
PHILTH HAUS
Zhiwan Cheung
Charlie Tweed
Cameron Duguid
Dr. Dan Lloyd
Presentation by
Aaron Panofsky
Terence Keel
Zine Contributors
Yewande Pearse
Allan Lasser
Dan Samorodnitsky
Jasmine Sarp
Amisha Gadani
Cassie Muir
Dr. C Brandon Ogbunu
Dr. Gina Paige
Shannon Bono
Jazmina Figueroa
Elysa Carr
Dr. August Guang
Lila Leatherman
Prabarna Ganguly
Isabel Prade
Gunter Seyfried
Schedule
Thursday, November 7
7PM: Doors
7:30-9:30PM: Exhibition Opening Reception, Massive Science x NAVEL 0.1% zine launch, and a presentation by Aaron Panofsky and Terence Keel from the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics.
Friday, November 8 – Monday, November 11
2-6PM: Exhibition Open Hours
Sunday, November 10
2PM: Exhibition tour by curators Yewande Pearse and Amanda Vincelli with artist Em Minyard Oppman and scientist Dr. Dan Llyod.
0.1% Zine
NAVEL has teamed up with Massive Science to create 0.1%, a zine which focuses on how genomics inform identity. With a specific focus on race, gender and politics, the zine explores how the growing field of genomics is changing how we form, live and understand our identities — raising important questions about its impact on individuals and society, as well as the dogma which drives scientific enquiry. Through essays, conversations, and artistic works, this zine discusses race, risks and reparations in the post-genomic era, indigenous sovereignty and post-human futures, why searching for scientific explanations for sex and gender may be a harmful endevour, the heritability of our political beliefs, genetic privacy and genetic manipulation. This zine, comprising original works, uproots old questions of identity and provide new answers through a genomics lens.
0.1% Exhibition
With evermore access to our genetic information, the 0.1% exhibition explores what it means to uncover the genetic roots of who we are and who we could be.
Our ancestral differences reflect only a 0.1 percent difference in DNA. Yet, three million non-negligible differences lies in this 0.1%. How does genomics inform identity? How does it influence the ways in which we relate to others?
The exhibition include works by Alessia Petrolito, Analisa Teachworth, Em Minyard Oppman, Fred Schmidt-Arenales, Isabel Prade, PHILTH HAUS, Zhiwan Cheung, Charlie Tweed, Cameron Duguid and Dr. Dan Lloyd.