Shiho Fukuhara

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Shiho Fukuhara received a BA(Hons) in Fine Art from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London and continued her studies with an MA in Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art. Shiho was invited to participate at the Le Pavillion at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2004 and was selected as Artist-in-Residence at the IAMAS in Ogaki, Japan in 2005, and in 2008 at ISEA in Singapore and at Ambient TV in London. 

She has been collaborating with Georg Tremmel since their graduation from the RCA on numerous projects investigating the relationships and differences between art and science with a special interest in social implications of the emerging possibilities of biotechnology.

Georg Tremmel

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Georg Tremmel studied Visual Media Art (Visuelle Mediengestaltung) at the University for Applied Art in Vienna and Interaction Design at the Royal College of Art in London, where he started his ongoing collaboration with Shiho Fukuhara. Their works were awarded several distinctions, including the NESTA Creative Pioneer Award, the Science Musem's Product of the Future Award, a 1st prize at VIPER Media Art Festival and a 2nd Prize at the Biotech in Business Forum in Cambridge, UK.

Recently, they formed the artistic collaborative research framework BCL in to explore the relations, congruences and differences of biological and cultural codecs through artistic interventions and social research.

Common Flowers / White Out (Abstract)

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This project proposes to reverse the genetic modification of blue carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) back to it's original white state. The blue carnation is an socio-cultural important plant as it is the first GMO whose purpose is neither animal feed nor human food, but purely aesthetic consumption. Using biotech DIY methods, this project shows, that our biofuture is within our control and must not be without our responsibility.

Common Flowers / White Out (Project Proposal)

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Introduction

This project proposes to reverse the effects of the modification of the pedal colour in carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) from white to blue through genetic manipulation. This creating of blue carnations is relevant in two points. First, it was only achieved through 'molecular breeding', as it was not possible with traditional breeding techniques to generate the blue petal colour in carnation. Second, this blue carnation, produced and manufactured by the japanese company Suntory Inc. marks the first instance of a genetically modified plant, which is aimed directly at the consumer market. Unlike other GM products (soy, corn, rice) these flowers are used neither for human food nor animal feed, and therefore exclude themselves from the ongoing debate about the possible negative effects of adding genetically modified products and their unknown consequences to the food chain.

"White Out" builds upon a previous artistic research project called "Common Flowers" in which the blue carnations were obtained as cut-flowers and subsequently re-animated using basic plant tissue culture to grow, multiply and technically 'clone' the carnations. The artists were not so much interested in the artistic possibilities of the emerging 'bio-media' and 'wet-ware', but rather more in the social consequences that these technologies afford. The keys point of the research effort are therefore not in answering specific research questions, but in opening up - in the artist's opinion - relevant topics for discussion and participation.

"White Out" aims to take this process a step further by creating a non-genetically modified plant from a previous GM plant. This reversal of changes in living organisms and restoration of it's original, "natural" state will question the concepts of 'change', 'untainted nature', and 'human manipulation' in the ongoing biosciences in particular and in a wider social context in general.

Bio-sharing, Bio-hacking and Open-sourcing

Common Flowers proposes a mechanism of bio-sharing. By freeing ('jail-breaking') the flower from its destiny as a cut-flower and establishing a feral and 'natural' population of blue carnations, the flower will be given a chance to reconnect to the general gene-pool and to join again the evolution through natural selection.

Common Flowers hopes to touch is the question of patents on plants and on life-forms in general. In particular what form of legal protection for their plants was granted and if the act of multiplicating plant cells constitutes a violation of Suntory's rights on the plant. Must this be considered an act of Bio-piracy or freeing prisoners?

Subversion through Over-affirmation

Currently Suntory grows the carnations in Columbia and ships them to the markets, mainly Japan. But because the selling of GM plants require a legal approval - which Suntory was granted - it is perfectly legal to grow GM carnation in Japan, as well as in other countries having signed the Cartagena protocol.

Common Flowers takes next logical step and deliberately introduces sets free the GM carnation in the wild, with the goal of establishing a feral population of Common Flowers at certain locations - "Flower Commons".