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A series of in-person short talks with Q&As from some of the artists behind GLOW: Illuminating Innovation. This is an opportunity for you to hear directly from them about their work and their creative processes.
Yarli Allison is a Hong Kong-Canadian born, London-based artist with an interdisciplinary approach that traverses sculpture, installation, CGI (VR/AR/3D modelling/game), moving images, drawings, poetry, tattooing, and performances. Yarli’s recent works were exhibited at Tai Kwun Contemporary Museum (HK), LINZ FMR (Austria), FACT (Liverpool), Barbican Centre (London), Institute of Contemporary Arts: ICA (London), V&A Museum (London).
Yarli's multimedia installation with digital experience Stem Cell Clinic <beta> is part of the GLOW: Illuminating Innovation exhibition at King's College London. Imagining a speculative (possible) future of our city entirely made of Embryonic Stem Cells, harvested from blastocysts in the uterus, this fictional clinic serves as the first entry point of Yarli’s long-term research in exploring possibilities of the usage of biotech innovation that could solve issues on gender health gap and heal damaged ecologies.
Web 3.0 and speculative futures from a feminist perspective
Dr Sara Lara Marquez-Gallardo and Yarli Allison
In discussing Yarli's multimedia installation "Stem Cell Clinic <beta>" within the context of the GLOW: Illuminating Innovation exhibition at King's College London, we can delve into the intricate layers of its speculative narrative. Yarli's work serves as a provocative exploration of a potential future city constructed entirely from Embryonic Stem Cells, harvested from blastocysts in the uterus. Embedded within this speculative landscape is the fictional Stem Cell Clinic, envisioned as a pioneering entity in biotech innovation. By imagining such a future at the intersection of technology, biology, and social consciousness, the installation confronts us with profound questions about gender health disparities and ecological rehabilitation. It presents a narrative space where the boundaries between science fiction and tangible reality blur, compelling us to critically examine the implications of biotechnological advancements on our society and environment.
This talk will engage with the work, and extend our conversations from a feminist perspective, to explore beyond the mere depiction of speculative futures. It invites us to interrogate the power dynamics inherent in technological innovation and envision alternative pathways towards gender equity and ecological harmony, by engaging with themes of dystopia and utopia within the realm of Web 3.0, we confront the potentialities and pitfalls of emergent digital landscapes.
Dr Sara Lara Marquez-Gallardo (Sara) is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries, Researcher, and MA Programme Leader at the Faculty of Arts Design and Humanities at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. Her current research focuses on the intersection of Web 3 affordances and its utopian possibilities from a queer and feminist perspective. She also investigates innovative possibilities enabled by Web 3, such as demand-based production strategies to minimise waste and the potential of NFTs to re-define ownership in the digital domain. Prior to her role at De Montfort University, she earned her PhD in Organisation Theory from City University, researching the potential of Web 2.0 to disrupt the notion of ownership in the creative industries.
The talk is supported by King's College London, Hong Kong Arts Development Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Event details
Bush House Arcade
Arcade at Bush House, South Wing, Strand WC2B 4PJ