The Infinity Engine

Lecture on the topic »art and genetic engineering« with Ingeborg Reichle, Uwe Strähle and Lynn Hershman Leeson.

In her most recent work »The Infinity Engine« Lynn Hershman Leeson examines the impact of genetic engineering on human life. The multimedia installation, in collaboration with the biologist Josiah Zayner, was developed with reference to natural scientific genetic laboratories. One of the questions which arises in connection with photographic and film samples of the most recent achievements in molecular and cell biology, as well as genetically altered organisms, is the degree to which human interventions into DNA are ethically justifiable and what kinds of social, political and social impact these have. In so far as she develops her work as based on real research results and draws on state of the art technologies, the North American media artist presents for discussion cutting-edge knowledge in the natural sciences within the context of art.

The lecture evening throws light on the »Infinity Engine« from art-historical, natural scientific and artistic perspectives: Ingeborg Reichle discusses the various elements of the complex installation against the background of laboratories in the context of art; Uwe Strähle examines the innovative work based on the practice of genetic research; while in the subsequent discussion Lynn Hershman Leeson explains the concept and realization of the work in greater detail.
 

Ingeborg Reichle

has been FONTE Foundation Professor at the Institute for Cultural Sciences at the Humboldt University, Berlin, since 2014. She studied art history, archeology, sociology and philosophy in Freiburg i. Br., London and Hamburg, from 1991 till 1998.  She gained her PhD at the Humboldt University in 200, with a dissertation entitled »Kunst aus dem Labor. Zum Verhältnis von Kunst und Wissenschaft im Zeitalter der Technoscience«, later followed by her habilitation entitled »Bilderwissen – Wissensbilder. Zur Gegenwart der Epistemologie der Bilder«, in 2013.

Uwe Strähle

is Professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Heidelberg, Managing Director of the Institute for Toxicology and Genetic Engineering, as well as of the European Zebrafish Resource Center at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He studied molecular and cell biology in Heidelberg and Edinburgh, was Director of Research at the CNRS in Strasbourg, and is interested in the development of animals as well as in the environmental influences on these processes.

Lecture languages are German and English.