The Philadelphia Chromosome

An illustrated lecture on the origin story of cancer treatment at the genetic level
by writer Jessica Wapner
Date: Tuesday, May 7
Time: 8 PM
Admission: $10 – copies of The Philadelphia Chromosome will be available for purchase and signing

Philadelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research—the Philadelphia chromosome. This book charts not only that landmark discovery, but also—for the first time, all in one place—the full sequence of scientific and medical discoveries that brought about the first-ever successful treatment of a lethal cancer at the genetic level.

Science journalist Jessica Wapner brings extensive original reporting to this book. Wapner reconstructs more than forty years of crucial breakthroughs, clearly explains the science behind them, and pays tribute to the dozens of researchers, doctors, and patients whose curiosity and determination restored the promise of a future to the more than 70,000 people worldwide who are diagnosed with CML each year.

The Philadelphia Chromosome helps us to fully understand and appreciate just how pathbreaking, hard-won, and consequential are the achievements it recounts—and to understand the principles behind much of today’s most important cancer research, as doctors and scientists race to uncover and treat the genetic roots of a wide range of cancers.

Jessica Wapner is a freelance science writer focused on medicine. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Slate, The New York Times, Ode, TheAtlantic.com, New York magazine, Science, Nature Medicine, Ecologist, the Scientist, and Psychology Today. Her writing on cancer has been in patient-focused magazines CR and Cure, as well as Oncology Business Review. She lives in Beacon, New York, with her family.

A Q&A and book signing will follow the presentation.

This event is part of CUT/PASTE/GROW.

Image courtesy Alice Hungerford

Image courtesy Rosenberg

What is Biodesign? What is Bioart?

Image courtesy Revital Cohen.

An illustrated lecture by writer William Myers
Date: Friday, April 19
Time: 8 PM
Admission: $10 – copies of BioDesign will be available for purchase and signing

For centuries, artists and designers have looked to nature for inspiration and for materials, but only recently have they become able to incorporate living organisms or tissues into their work. This startling development at the intersection of biology and design has created new aesthetic possibilities and can help address the growing urgency to build and manufacture ecologically.

In this talk, William Myers, author of the new book BioDesign: Nature + Science + Creativity, will present several recent experiments in harnessing biology for art and design: from thoroughly serious and practical applications to provocative, gorgeous works of art. Highlights include a portrait of the human microbiome, a footbridge supported by willow trees, packaging made from mushrooms and a scheme to use bacteria to solidify sand dunes into walls in the desert.

A Q&A and book signing will follow the presentation.

This event is part of CUT/PASTE/GROW.

CUT/PASTE/GROW Show Opening

Andy Gracie, “The Quest for Drosophila titanus,” 2011

Science at Play: Bioart in Brooklyn
March 23–May 11, 2013
Opening reception: Saturday, March 23, 8 PM
Gallery hours:  Saturdays & Sundays 12–6 PM

Life is restless. Bioartists—the emerging group of practitioners who manipulate living tissues, DNA, and bacteria—must embrace this restlessness. Working in the lab, the artist can’t contain his medium. Even in the Petri dish, fungal spores invade the colonies, or the slime mold overruns maze. Precision gives way to open-ended experiment. The lab is a garden, and the bioartist is the gardener for the new millennium, where breeding advances naturally into gene splicing.

CUT/PASTE/GROW provides a space to ask fundamental new questions about aesthetics and our assumptions about life and death. What, for example, makes a beautiful blueprint for a beautiful form—what makes a beautiful gene?

By cutting and pasting DNA into a being, the organism itself—both in function and behavior—becomes a chimera, a hybrid natural/engineered being stitched from disparate parts, a result of both Darwinian evolution and the will of the artist.

Since antiquity, hybrids were considered abominations. Today, we can view them in any number of ways: Are these chimerae quasi-artworks or quasi-organisms? Is bioart a new approach to society and ecology, a partnership with the microbial life all around us?

Find out more at cutpastegrow.com

Invited artists:

  • Tuur van Balen
  • Nurit Bar-Shai
  • Heather Barnett
  • BCL: Shiho Fukuhara/Georg TremmelBruce Bryan
  • Revital Cohen
  • Tom Deerinck
  • Andy Gracie
  • Karen Ingram
  • Eduardo Kac
  • Edgar Lissel
  • Julia Lohmann
  • Simon Park
  • Nikki Romanello
  • SXSW Create 2013
  • Liam Young

Curators

Observatory is an gallery and event space in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Inspired by natural history, morbid anatomy, and the intersection of art and science, Observatory hosts lectures, classes, and exhibitions. Observatory is part of the Proteus Gowanus art complex, located at 543 Union Street (at Nevins). Gallery hours are 3–6 PM, Thursdays–Fridays; 12–6 PM, Saturdays–Sundays.

Genspace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting education in molecular biology for both children and adults. Its staff and volunteers work inside and outside of traditional settings, providing a safe, supportive environment for training and mentoring in biotechnology. Genspace also supplies a Biosafety Level 1 lab for biologists, laypeople, and artists to gather and collaborate on biotechnology projects.

Nurit Bar-Shai is a co-founder of Genspace and an interdisciplinary artist who works at the intersection of art, science, and technology. She composes video, live telematic installations and conducts experiments through creative collaborative inquiry. Nurit lectures and exhibits her work worldwide.

Daniel Grushkin is a co-founder of Genspace and a journalist who covers the intersection of science, biotechnology, and culture. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Businessweek, National Geographic Adventure, Popular Science, and Scientific American.

Wythe Marschall writes and teaches about futurism. With artist Ethan Gould, he is the author of Suspicious Anatomy, an illustrated book of fake neuroscience. At Observatory, Wythe has curated art shows and lectures on retrofuturism, technological ecstasy, the neo-grotesque, and the para-academic. Wythe teaches undergraduate literature at Brooklyn College. His stories and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and elsewhere.

William Myers teaches and writes about the history of architecture, art and design. His book BioDesign: Nature + Science + Creativity was published by The Museum of Modern Art in New York and Thames & Hudson in London in 2012. He has worked for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Hunter College, and Genspace.