CGS : Arts & Culture

About Arts, Culture & Human Biotechnology

Mention genetic technologies or human enhancement to the average person, and more likely than not their first response will reference the 1997 film Gattaca or Aldous Huxley's 1932 classic, Brave New World. Art and popular culture profoundly influence how we think about ourselves and each other, and portrayals of human biotechnologies are likely to affect how we think about future social arrangements. Ultimately this can shape the policy decisions we make today.

The social meanings of human biotechnologies have been pondered in film, television shows, painting, and other visual arts; in speculative fiction, novels, and children's books, and other literature; in performance and experiential art; and even in a project that produced a living rabbit engineered to glow in the dark.

Strange New World[Book Review]by Jeanette Winterson, The New York TimesSeptember 20th, 2009Margaret Atwood's new novel, "The Year of the Flood," takes place in the same bioengineered world as her 2003 work of speculative fiction, "Oryx and Crake."

Michael Jackson, cloning, and assisted reproduction: The trivial and the troublingby Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical TimesJuly 13th, 2009Michael Jackson was “obsessed” with cloning himself, and used assisted reproduction to produce three children “crafted to be `white’ enough to match [his] artfully devised if pathetically alienated image of himself.”

GATTACA Framing in the Newsby Osagie Obasogie, Biopolitical TimesJune 18th, 2009While the media hype machine has overwhelmingly pushed the “science can only benefit society” narrative, we also have to be critical of premature hints at doomsday scenarios. However subtle and sporadic, they can be just as troublesome.

Fertility Drug Makes the Big Leaguesby Osagie Obasogie, Biopolitical TimesMay 9th, 2009The suspension of LA Dodgers' Manny Ramirez sheds light on how hormonal drugs for egg collection are used.

Bio-Dad documentary available onlineby Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical TimesMarch 26th, 2009A compelling look at the "emerging political battle" of people conceived with assisted reproduction to know their genetic origins.

Cloning Keira Knightleyby Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical TimesMarch 26th, 2009The British star will play the central character in a film adaptation of the 2005 novel "Never Let Me Go."

War Against the Weak – The Documentaryby Osagie Obasogie, Biopolitical TimesJanuary 27th, 2009Edwin Black’s award-winning book on the history and modern implications of the American Eugenics Movement is about to hit the silver screen.

This Year’s Stocking Stuffersby Osagie Obasogie, Biopolitical TimesDecember 15th, 2008What do you give the people on your holiday shopping list who have everything? Themselves!