In this weekend's Telegraph Review, the article,
Touching the Void, by Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees poses exactly the kind of
questions that I hope to evoke with my degree show installation.
Evolution, not just of our own humble species, but on a cosmic scale.
Where is it that we have come from, and where are we headed?
In exploring post-humanism and the evolution of
humanity, I became drawn to the origins of life on Earth. I have been
mesmerised by the incorporeal cyanobacteria.
A mysterious blue-green algae invisible to the naked eye yet responsible
for so much that we take for granted.
Cyanobacteria are a form of micro-algae, tiny micro-organisms many of
which contain chlorophyll (as plants do) yet have the ability to move towards
light and nutrients via the use of whip like tails (flagella), as an animal
might. They exist today, as they did billions of years ago, in the oceans
and their ability to create oxygen in the atmosphere was ultimately responsible
for all other life on earth.
Researched for their potential to create bio-fuel and
for their properties as nutraceuticals (health food supplements), they are also
highly prized for their intense blue-green pigment. Like the ‘oltramarino’ of renaissance Italy,
cyanobacteria possess that impalpable quality of the colour blue, of coming
from beyond the seas and beyond the skies.
One might argue that these tiny beings enabled the
existence of humankind. Their origins
are unclear and debated amongst scientists. There is an other-worldly
quality that connects them to the cosmos.
The enticing possibility that they hail from a star far beyond our solar
system, that they are the remnants of an intelligence that we cannot comprehend
at present.
Evolution of intelligence as
Rees points out, has the potential to present a hyper-real scenario not unlike
that depicted in the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix. Rees suggests that
such a world will not be possible without post-human intelligence. The
post-human conjures up images of science fiction. Today, the collaborative
relationships between artists, scientists, technologists, ethicists
and philosophers mean that the reality of the post-human is creeping into the
broader public perception. Cloned animals, crops genetically bred to
resist disease, glow in the dark mice and zebra fish, human embryos cultivated
to avoid genetic deficiencies. These are all possible today and fifty
years from now it may be commonplace to combine human DNA with that of other
species to eradicate disease, boost intelligence, increase life expectancy, or
even to better our chances of survival on another planet. Human
intelligence is evolving to incorporate the possibility of life beyond human.
It is a reality that may still seem alien in the present, but it is a inevitable aspect of our future. It is the future that we know, that we are able to predict and describe. An entirely human construct. What we must expect therefore as we move towards the post-human is the unknown: the future that is not ours to shape.
