Public perception, gained through radical programs devised by groups such as Visual AIDS, Gran Fury, and Act Up, forced the issue on the medical establishment and has had unexpectedly positive results. The private sector is responsible for the creation, discovery and development of effective treatment. And with odd traversal-fields like nanotechnology, where the computational is inserted into the cellular level, but relying on the cellular already figured as an information processor. I asked Steve what the role is, in this landscape, for critical artistic practice. The narratives he means are those that engage the real and the practical, and have resonance in everyday life.
Critical artists can bring the knowledge out of the labs, and into the lives of nonspecialists.
Steve writes that artists can play a significant role in developing awareness about biotech, and languages with which to speak about it critically. Joy points out the only valid way for us, as artists, to play that significant role is through collaboration with the scientists and other specialists outside our field. I found the information provided by ACT UP and GMHC to be much more helpful than what was coming from science. I think the same can be said of the feminist movement's treatment of abortion and in other women's medical issues. As with AIDS and abortion, he writes, it's time for artists and activists to make similar inquiries into other issues of biology and biotechnology.