ON COLLABORATION, USE OF MATERIAL

AND PATAPHYSICAL THEORY IN

CHRISTIAN BÖK'S XENOTEXT PROPOSAL

Eveline Kolijn

April 18, 2007

HUMN 321

Materials & Processes

Mireille Perron

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 In the winter semester of 2007 I have had the opportunity to collaborate with poet and

author Christian Bök. His work was familiar to me from his Griffin Prize winning book Eunoia,

and his performance of sound-poetry at the Alberta College of Art and Design in November

2006. A hint from an instructor made me pursue the opportunity to work with Bök for the PRNT

305 Print-Publishing course. His highly intellectual concepts impressed me and I was attracted

to the idea of working cross-disciplinary with a poet on a visual print-project. The project

resulted in the production of a print-portfolio based on his current proposal to insert a poem into

the DNA of a primitive bacterium. In this paper, I shall discuss the process and nature of our

collaboration. Furthermore, I intend to analyse the scientific and 'pataphysical character of the

xenotext-proposal and resulting print-portfolio. Finally, a comparison will be made with other

genomic art projects. I shall look specifically into the ethical aspect of the use of DNA-material

for artistic purposes.

At our first meeting, I showed Christian my most recent prints. This gave him an idea of

my visual vocabulary as well as a sample of print-techniques. Next we brainstormed which

poetry to use from his work. His attraction to my print Plastic Culture, which depicts micro-

organisms manufactured from yoghurt cups, made him mention his Xenotext Experiment

proposal. The essence of this proposal entails the following:

” I propose to encode a short verse into a sequence of DNA in order to implant it into a

bacterium, after which I plan to document the progress of this experiment for publication. …….

I plan to compose my own text in such a way that, when translated into a gene and then

integrated into the cell, the text nevertheless gets “expressed” by the organism, which, in

response to this grafted, genetic sequence, begins to manufacture a viable, benign protein—a

protein that, according to the original, chemical alphabet, is itself another text. I hope, in effect,

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to engineer a primitive bacterium so that it becomes not only a durable archive for storing a

poem, but also a useable machine for writing a poem" (Bök, Xenotext 3).

The intended host is Deinococcus Radiodurans, a primitive bacterium with a remarkable

resistance to inhospitable environments and extreme high doses of radiation. Preliminary

internet-research yielded very interesting schematic visual representations of the special proteins

in this bacterium (figure 1). Re-applying the concept of constructing artificial micro-organisms, I

conceived of a model made from poultry-mesh (chicken-wire) and curled ribbons to resemble

this protein. For these ribbons clear Mylar strips with printed text could be used. Christian liked

this idea and we decided to go ahead with the Xenotext project. The actual poem for the project

has not yet been written and will take very long to compose due to its demanding constraints.

Instead, we decided to use text from the proposal for the ribbons. However, he wanted to be sure

that I based my model on the proper protein structure. Further internet-research introduced me to

a plethora of web-sites devoted to visualizing and building 3-D models of DNA proteins. The

site www.rcsb.org yielded the most authorative model of the biological molecule of Deinococcus

Radiodurans (figure 2). I even found a model of the RecA protein, which is responsible for the

unique radiation resistant characteristic of the bacterium (figure 3). From these models I

constructed a Photoshop image as guide (figure 4). I constructed a sample protein-model and

photographed it. The resulting image is depicted in figure 5.

Christian was very enthusiastic about these models and thought adjusted text from the

proposal would not do the object justice. Seeing the protein model had six curls, he decided to

write a six-sentence poem for the protein, each sentence for one curl. In the meantime, I had also

found beautiful genome maps of the bacterium produced by KEGG, the Bioinformatics Center of

Kyoto University and the Human Genome Center of the University of Tokyo. I wanted to use

more imagery describing the bacterium and decided to create a folio with a variance of prints. I

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would print two color-versions of the genome map, sandwiched between these a translucent

sheet with text of the poem, and a final image of the manufactured protein with the poem-text

curled into it. Christian produced a brilliant poem composed of six anagrams derived from

William S. Burroughs's quote that "language is a virus of outer space." Each stanza is a statement

on language. One of the inspirations behind the Xenotext proposal was to make literal

Burroughs's aphorism, that "the word is now a virus" (Bök, Xenotext, 1). Thus the title of our

project became: A Virus from Outer Space.

I have experienced this process of collaboration as extremely satisfying and successful in

the sense that our ideas have been building on each other. The process resembles the mechanism

described by Cummings in his observations on the designer-maker relationship: "The end

product is the result of a dialogue between idea, material and making process, with, creatively,

many feedback loops between them rather than a single, linear progression" (74). A more

frustrating part of the experience, was delivering the concepts successfully into print.

Fortunately, the production of the folio-cover and the genome maps in silk-screen went

smoothly. Christian participated in silk-screening the text of his poem on vellum. Creating the

image with the protein faced many hurdles: Christian took longer than anticipated in producing

the poem - which delayed the actual manufacture of the model; there were technical difficulties

in acquiring a proper transparency of the Photoshop-image, and the semester-closure of the print-

studios was drawing dangerously near. The image did not print well in silk-screen and I had to

switch last-minute to the medium of lithography. All in all I was reminded of the description of

print-collaboration by Lafuente, who states that "the unexpected is met by perseverance" by the

master-printer throughout several months of work (1). The final results of the project are shown

in figures 6 - 9.

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 The project involves many concepts concerning the relationship between art and science,

which is of particular interest to me. There is interplay between science and imaginary science or

'pataphysics, which is one of Christian Bök's main fields of interest. Concerning the relationship

between 'pataphysics and poetry, Bök remarks: "Just as the "pataphysics" of Alfred Jarry, for

example might intermix technical concepts with aesthetic conceits so as to create an archive of

"imaginary solutions", so also does my own artwork strive to create such a hybrid fusion of

science and poetics." (Xenotext, 5). Goldsmith mentions Bök's proposal as one of the prime

examples of post-modern, conceptual poetry:" Conceptual writing or uncreative writing is a

poetics of the moment, fusing the avant-garde impulses of the last century with the technologies

of the present, one that proposes an expanded field for 21st century poetry. Not satisfied to

exclusively be bound between the pages of a book, this new writing continually morphs from the

printed page to the webpage, from the gallery space to the science lab, from the social space of

the poetry reading to the social space of the blog." (1).

'Pataphysics is one of the sources inspiring those "avant-garde impulses of the last

century". Conceived by Alfred Jarry in writings that were published at the end of the 19th and

beginning of the 20th century, it is a philosophy that questions and ridicules a thoroughly

deterministic and positivistic view of reality. In the figure of Faustroll Jarry created a parody of

the scientist by distorting and inventing alternative sciences and realities in the realm of

"Ethernity". Jarry demonstrates there is no such thing as one reality, indeed, "universal assent is

an incomprehensible prejudice" (Bök, Pataphysics, 29). 'Pataphysics exposes that science itself

is often based on arbitrary assumptions and ignores exceptions. 'Pataphysics therefore, chooses

to focus on exceptions and solutions from an alternate universe. This relativistic view clearly

constitutes a pre-cursor of post-modern thought. It is interesting to note that just six years before

Jarry's Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician was published (posthumously) in

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1911, Einstein formulated his theory of relativity. Since then, the field of physics has changed

dramatically from the positivism that ruled it before. Current theoretical physics can hardly be

differentiated from 'pataphysics, with theories containing probabilities and paradoxes in concepts

such as black holes, dark matter and anti-matter (Bök, Pataphysics, 24). The connection between

Faustroll as a 'pataphysical philosopher and language is also expressed by Jarry through turning

this character literally into a book. Bök comments on Faustroll: "For such a superman, whose life

is a text that displays the grammar of flux and flow, language itself becomes an absurd vessel - a

sieve of words, set adrift upon the oceanic surface of protean reality."( Pataphysics, 36). One of

the anagrammed lines in the poem created for the print-portfolio certainly references this idea:

"Language for a sum is a corrupt sieve."

Imagine that the bacterium Deinococcus Radiodurans becomes the vessel for a poem!

Will this vessel be a sieve? Returning to Burroughs idea that language is a virus, we can perceive

how language operates similarly. A virus attaches itself to a host, replicates and spreads from

host to host. Like a virus, language is a "nonliving pattern of information, a configuration of

meaning that attaches itself to consciousness, a program waiting to be executed, changing both

the consciousness it infects and morphing its very own structure as it replicates itself" (Aoki,1).

One of the modes of exception studied by 'pataphysicians, is the clinamen, which can be

described as a swerve or an unexpected deviation. The spiral is a symbol of this deviation. The

principal of the spiral as a sign of renewal is embedded in an adopted motto from Bernoulli by

the "College of Pataphysicians": "I arise again the same though changed" (Harris, 4). This motto

is reflected in the poem through the use of the anagram of Burroughs's quote. Each sentence is

new, but constructed from the same letters. The spiral is even applied physically in the curling

Mylar strips with text woven in the protein model. The anagram also references the idea of DNA

recombination. Viruses use host-DNA to replicate themselves. The idea of translating a poem

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into DNA is not a very large imaginary step when you realize that DNA itself is written in a true

alphabet. Information preserved in DNA has passed through generations of life. DNA codons

strung together form protein molecules. Not all existing DNA information is meaningful, and

some sequences are random or left-over bits that will never be 'read' or used (Dawkins, 20).

The fact that DNA can be transmitted through generations has sparked serious scientific

research into the possibility of actually storing important information into DNA. Information

technologist Pak Wong actually succeeded in implanting the lyrics from "It's a small world after

all" as a strand of DNA inside Deinococcus Radiodurans. The durability of the bacterium

transcends all other storing options in time (Mc Dowell, 1). These experiments gave Bök the idea

for his Xenotext proposal (1). The idea that a poem inserted in this bacterium has the capacity to

survive an apocalypse of our society and live on endlessly, fired his imagination. Renowned

biological theorist and researcher Stuart Kauffman is the iCore Chair for the Institute of

Biocomplexity and Informatics at the University of Calgary, and has offered his expertise for the

actual execution of the Xenotext experiment. The unique radioactive resistance has caused

speculations that the origin of Deinococcus Radiodurans lies in Outer Space. Astro-biologist

Paul Davies speculates that existing "useless" strands of DNA are possibly messages left by

aliens, waiting for us to be decoded (Bök, Xenotext, 2). A text surviving our society will be the

ultimate clinamen, executed through use of science, and the spiral of messages encoded in DNA

hurled into space will come full circle with the origin of assumed alien code embedded in

random DNA.

There are methods of describing protein structures used by science that definitely cross

into the realm of 'pataphysics. In recent years, scientists have discovered that characteristics of

proteins are not only determined by their DNA sequences, but also in the way they are physically

structured, and specifically in the way proteins are curled. The curling and spiraling of proteins

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determine part of their functions. Indeed, ways to research this issue have been visual and even

musical. "Scientists…recognize the impossibility of expressing the complex sequences of the

protein in any language other than a visual one. The structure of these proteins evades simple

algorithmic formulas. The colours they choose do not represent the colours of the macro

molecules, but are a tool so the scientist can visualize their contours, and thus predict how they

function" (Sawchuk, 20). My web-research has shown that there are many, colorful and

extremely attractive images from proteins. The schematic structures, which you can manipulate

and even rotate in a 3-D environment seem objective, but the choices made in devising these

computer generated models are no less than those made for hand-drawn images (Kemp, 175).

Arbitrary aesthetic choices have been made in creating these visual models, diminishing the

divide between art and scientific illustration. The construction of my protein model can be seen

as a 'pataphysical alternative to the world of scientific protein-modeling.

Finally, I want to reflect on the place of this project within genomic art. Obviously it

currently still exists as a thought-experiment. Most contemporary art on bio-engineering

references research related to the human body. Much of this art constitutes a critical comment on

modern research involving genetic manipulation. Material generated by scientific research is

used, but it rarely involves actual transgenics, the recombination of genetic material at a

molecular and cellular level, as the object of art.

The most notorious projects in which transgenic material was used are those of Eduardo

Kac. In GPF Bunny (2000), Kac had the fluorescent gene of a Jellyfish implanted in a white

bunny. In Genesis (1999) he inserted the first lines of the Book of Genesis in a bacterium. The

Petrie dish with the bacterial culture was placed under ultra-violet light, which was activated

each time the linked web-site was accessed. The UV-light mutated the DNA sequence of the

bacterium. The mutated DNA was re-read as a transformed text. Although both projects involved

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genetic manipulation, the bunny-project has received much more public criticism. Apparently,

there is a perceived difference in ethical value applied to which living organism is bio-

engineered for artistic purposes. Kac comments: "It is unclear why genetic engineering

performed in the name of science is more acceptable than the same process carried out in the

name of art. Art has always made valuable contributions to the understanding of technology and

its social ramifications. GFP Bunny explores the boundaries between art and science, and

between animals that are genetically altered and those that are not. It opens up new dimensions

of discussion about the ethics of genetic engineering in general"

(http://www.artexetra.com/Kac.html). In fact, both Kac's projects and Bök's proposal are not

very revolutionary in the sense that their proposed transgenic procedures have already been

carried out. The novelty lies in the fact that they are applied for artistic purposes.

An interesting artist collective that has been targeting the implications of bio-technology

and the intersections between art and science is the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), a collective of

five media artists operating in the United States. The collective has been engaged in political

activism through the mechanism of tactical media-art and culture jamming. On the field of

transgenics, they have developed a website of a fictional company called GenTerra

(www.critical-art.net). The site looks like one from a real corporation. In this respect it resembles

the La Mejor Vida Corporation from Minerva Cuevas (Obrist, 1). CAE believes that much

information is withheld from the general public on what actually goes on in research on bio-

engineering. The public is usually presented with finished results or products from this research

resulting in general ignorance, disinformation or fear of many issues connected with genomics.

In order to correct this issue, CAE encourages public participation in doing actual experiments,

exploring science and theatre. These public experiments demystify the scientific process and

serve as a public education on biotech research. "CAE hopes these performances contribute to

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the development of an informed, critical public discourse on biotechnology"

(http://greenmuseum.org). Understanding transgenic art-projects is contingent on a public well-

informed on bio-engineering. Thus far, most art-activism has been directed to the principle of

bio-engineering itself and not necessarily towards art employing its techniques.

The transgenic projects discussed in this paper, have been done or proposed by artists

who believe in the scientific potential of this kind of research. Kac mentions the need for proper

ethics in this field, but he also sees genomic science and its far-reaching consequences for our

society as unstoppable and is willing to accept and embrace the profound changes it will effect

on human society (Kac, 5). Bök states that, " I hope that my poem might urge readers to

reconsider the aesthetic potential of science, causing them to recognize that, buried within the

building blocks of life, there really does exist an innate beauty, if not a hidden poetry—a literal

message that we might read, if only we deign to look for it" (Xenotext, 8).

REFERENCES

Aoki, Keith. "'Means of Communication: Technology, Language and Communicative Power."

53 U. Miami L. Rev. 961 (1999). <www.law.uoregon.edu/faculty/kaoki/site/>, (10/04/2007).

Bök, Christian. 'Pataphysics. The Poetics of an Imaginary Science. Illinois, Northwestern

University Press, 2002.

Bök, Christian. The Xenotext Experiment. Unpublished proposal. Copy received on 01/29/2007.

Critical Art Ensemble. <http://greenmuseum.org/c/enterchange/artists/cae/> (04/13/2007)

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Cummings, Keith. "Glass making and the evolution of the Craft process." The Persistence of

Craft. Ed. Paul Greenhalgh. Piscataways, N.J. Rutgers University Press, 2002, 73 - 83.

Dawkins, Richard. The Ancestor's Tale. A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of life. London, Orion Books,

2004.

Goldsmith, Kenneth. "Dispatches: Journals." PoetryFoundation.org: Journals

<http://poetryfoundation.org/dispatches/journals/2007.01.22.html>,(3/21/07 )

Harris, Steven. "'Pataphysical Graham: A consideration of the 'Pataphysical Dimension of the

Artistic Practice of Rodney Graham." Tate Papers Autumn 2006,

<http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/06autumn/harris.htm>, (3/27/2007)

Kac, Eduardo. "Transgenic Art." Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Vol. 6, N. 11, December 1998,

n/p/n (http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/) - ISSN: 1071-4391.

Kemp, Martin. Visualizations. The Nature Book of Art and Science. Berkely: University of

California Press, 2000.

Mc Dowell, Natasha. "Data stored in multiplying bacteria." New Scientist.com news service, 08

January 2003, <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3243&print=true>, (15/04/070.

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Lafuente, Pablo. "Art in the making." Art Review (London, England) 53 supp May (2002): 24-

27, Wilson Web, WN0212204391010 (February 18, 2007)

Obrist, Hans Ulrich. "Conversation with Minerva Cuevas." 24th Lubljiana Graphic Biennial,

2001 <http://Amsterdam.nettime.org.>

Sawchuk, Kim. "Biological, Not determinist: The Technological Mutations of Nell Tenhaaf."

Jansma, Linda (Curator), Nell Tenhaaf. Fit/Unfit:Apte/Inapte. A Survey Exhibition/Un survol.

The Robert Mc Laughlin Gallery, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art gallery, Tom Thomson memorial

Art gallery, Art gallery of Hamilton, 2003 - 2005.

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Figure 1. Protein Structure Figure 2. Protein Structure of D. Rad.

Deinococcus Radiodurans.

Figure 3. RecA Protein Figure 4. Total protein composite.

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Figure 5. Sample protein construction Figure 6. Cover of Folio

Figure 7. First color genome map Figure 8. Second color genome map and

Vellum overlay with poem text.

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Figure 9. Word virus protein

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 APPENDIX

A Virus from Outer Space

By Christian Bök

Language
is a virus
from outer space.

Language
is a pursuer
of covert aims.

Language
frames our
virus as poetic.

Language
tapers our
vicious frames.

Language
for a sum is
a corrupt sieve.

Language
for us promises
a curative.

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