Genetic-ancestry tests are having a moment. Look no further than Spotify: On Thursday, the music-streaming service—as in, the service used...
Arts & Culture
Art and culture can have a profound influence in shaping public opinion and policy decisions about biotechnologies. From Aldous Huxley’s classic 1932 novel Brave New World to films like GATTACA and TV shows like Orphan Black, popular culture profoundly influences how we understand the potential impacts of emerging biotechnologies. Scholars have even created terms like the “CSI effect,” which refers to how crime show story lines make the public overly confident about the accuracy of DNA as a forensic tool. In general, works of art and pop culture can provide important insights into the risk that unreflectively embracing new technologies can exacerbate existing inequalities.
Biopolitical Times
[Image by Amaury Laporte via Flickr]
For centuries, Western artistic conventions for depicting infants drew heavily on the Christian typology of the Madonna and child. Even popular secular images of babies often featured poses and compositions similar to those gracing many a European church wall. Twentieth century pieces challenging the notion of whiteness as the norm, as shown in Romare Bearden’s
