Ep. 55 - The Extremophile's Guide to Art and Space with J.J. Hastings
In this installment of the Future Grind podcast host Ryan O’Shea is joined by Dr. J.J. Hastings. J.J. is a biohacker, artist, and researcher consistently blurring the line between art and science. She is a graduate of NYU, Harvard, Oxford, and London’s Saint Martins with advanced degrees in Biology, Fine Art, and Bioinformatics. She’s been a biohacker for over a decade, and her artwork has been exhibited around the world. In recent years J.J. has turned much of her attention to analog space missions, through which she conducts social, psychological, and scientific experiments that will pave the way for human missions to Mars and beyond.
They discuss her Manifesto of Transfiguration, the relationship between art and science, hackers in space, and much more.
You’ll notice that this episode has two variations of the name - the audio version is titled “The Extremophile's Guide…” while the video version is titled “The Extremophiles’ Guide…”. It was debated whether or not the name should mean “the guide of an extremophile” (“Extremophile’s”), or “a guide for all extremophiles” (“Extremophiles’”). That answer we settled on was “both.”
And we have a special announcement - we plan to send an episode of the Future Grind podcast to the Moon on board Astrobotic’s first mission, and we wanted to provide you an opportunity to fly alongside us by sending your own digital files and photos to Moon! Find out more and get involved here - To The Moon
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J.J.’s “Manifesto of Transfiguration” (2014)
Nature, and by extension the human body, is mediocre and deserving of scorn. It is not the product of supernatural design, but rather probability, and therefore merits no intrinsic reverence or devotion.
The schism between ‘natural’ and ‘synthetic’ is artifice. Whether made by the hands of humankind or other beings/forces, all matter is formed of the same fragmentary constituents of our Cosmos.
As a species, humans have developed an impulse to find meaning out of seeming disorder, and from this impulse is born our search for purpose and the transcendental. Such an impulse can be destructive as much as it is powerful, yet it must be cultivated in the search for our own apotheosis.
It is only through the advancement of techne that apotheosis can be attained. For, what is technology but an attempt to ameliorate insufficiency?
The quest for apotheosis merits abhorrence for the ordinary and an aversion to convention. Rather, our deliverance lies in the singular, the aberration, the improbable. Uniformity breeds mundanity, the perdition from which we seek salvation.
Transcendence must be sought in every aspect of our existence—the material, the spiritual, the cerebral, and the emotional—and that which is revered as sacred, sublime and worthy of devotion must abjure a sense of familiarity. Ours is an aesthetic devoted to the exceptional, the irrational, the preposterous.
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Show Notes
J.J.’s extremophile life [2:14]
Biohacking [4:21]
Academia, illness, & finding biohacking [5:37]
Manifesto of Transfiguration [9:58]
Artwork using ML & parts of J.J.’s body [17:20]
Science vs. Art [24:52]
Stelarc & the power of framing [27:57]
Obsolescence & reincarnation of the body [31:04]
Transhumanism [33:41]
J.J.’s implants [34:58]
Science labs and making the creative space [36:18]
J.J.’s academic credentials [38:10]
Analog space missions [40:23]
Cornell fellowship, COVID, and future space missions [46:07]
How to follow along [47:08]
Mentioned
Ernest Shackleton
Bioinformatics
Valentine de Saint-Point’s “Manifesto of Futurist Woman”
Demiurge (Universal Fashioner) / Demiurge (art)
Ambystomatid salamanders
Stelarc, Ear on Arm
Objectivity by Lorraine Daston & Peter Galison
Bennu (Egyptian deity), Bennu (Asteroid), Bennu (art)
Max More & Natasha Vita-More
xNT NFC Chip implant
PegLeg, Michael Laufer
London Biohackspace
BioQuisitive (Melbourne, Australia)
Michel Foucault, Heterotopia
DEF CON
Lunares
Dr. Sarah Jane Pell
Sensoria, HI-SEAS
Roscosmos, MARS-500
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