The founding of Ars Electronica 21 years ago was connected with the intention of offering a public platform for the presentation and discussion of new, socially relevant technologies. This took place at a time when we were hardly capable of assessing the consequences of the information technologies that were then emerging.
From the very outset, one of the core elements of the festival's concept was the linking up and networking of art and science.
With the founding of Ars Electronica, Linz was not only able to achieve recognition on an international basis; by continually maintaining the festival's thematic focus on leading-edge developments, the city could position itself as a highly reputable and competent discussion forum boldly confronting technology-induced sociocultural questions and issues.
The rapid development of biotechnologies over the last few years had a logical consequence for the festival's organizers: a reorientation of Ars Electronica's thematic focus. This was done in 1999 with the LifeScience festival theme and is being carried on this year with NEXT SEX.
Thus, in speeches, artistic works and scientific presentations, Ars Electronica 2000 shifts into the centerpoint of attention a topic that deeply affects each and every human being. Does the intervention into the building blocks of human life mean the end of its uniqueness? Will the creation of human life in the future be seen as something totally separate from sexuality, which would then be relegated to procreative superfluousness?
Ars Electronica is thus intentionally initiating a public discourse, and is calling upon scientists to take a position on these issues.
Sperm Race-the project under discussion here-is not to be seen in isolation; rather, it must be assessed in the context of a topical symposium featuring leading experts and scholars, art projects, and the publicly accessible lab installed on Linz's main square in which visitors can get a close-up look at artificial insemination methods that are already in use on an everyday basis. In addition, male visitors have the opportunity to submit a sample of their own sperm for a check-up. The respective semen samples can be brought in, or they can be taken on the spot in a specially installed, self-enclosed container space under the usual clinical conditions.
This laboratory is being run for Ars Electronica by scientists and physicians from the University of Salzburg and the University of the Danube at Krems, and is in conformity with the strictest hygienic and medical standards. The sperm analysis is performed according to scientific methods; well-substantiated information about the quality of the respective sperm sample and individual medical counseling are then provided free of charge.
With this project-which seems so provocative at first glance-Ars Electronica brings out into the open scientific methods and practices that have an impact on all of us. Our aim thereby is to kick off a long overdue discussion that gets beyond speculative clichés and voyeurism.
Christine
Schöpf, Gerfried Stocker - Directors of Ars Electronica
Sperm Race and the Container Laboratory on the
Main Square of Linz
- The Background -
Modern molecular biology, the research being done on the human genome, and developments in the field of reproductive medicine have to an unprecedented extent brought science and technology to the human being's innermost core.
As never before, this has to do with us, with the way we reproduce, with how we define ourselves-biologically, morally, metaphysically.
The process of researching the human being will become a touchstone for our conception of that which is human. This constitutes a challenge to humanism and religions, just as it does to political and social weltanschauungen.
In the year in which the human genome was decoded, in which Great Britain began to permit the cloning of human embryos, Ars Electronica has shifted the future of human reproduction into the focal point of artistic and scientific consideration.
The Sex i(n) Motion and Sperm Race projects have to do with the public face of science. The media serve us up a daily diet of reportage written for the layman about gene therapies, pre-implantation diagnostics, artificial insemination, etc., but the scientific and technical processes involved remain hidden behind the closed doors of research labs.
In many of the world's richest nations, semen banks, IVF and surrogate motherhood have already become extremely widespread forms of reproduction, and have attained elitist luxury-cult status through their association with pop icons like Madonna and Jody Foster.
Highly respected researchers like Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the birth control pill, have come out in favor of young men having their sperm frozen and stored in order to be able to have recourse to their "best" material when they are finally ready to have children.
An enlightened process of dealing with these developments (which, like nothing before, will truly have a direct impact on each and every one of us) can take place only when we are also in a position to confront them and, thus, to encounter them up-close-and-personal.
Ars Electronica's container laboratory will enable the general public to get acquainted with these key technologies for the first time. We are going public with them in order to get a public debate underway.
Naturally, this runs up against taboos, as is almost always the case when it comes to modern genetic engineering. But as Mag. Reinhard Nestelbacher, geneticist and scientific director of the project stressed, "facilitating an encounter with science means also seeing the entire reality of this science and not just pretty pictures of it." He went on to say: "Only in this way can people make contact with science and find a way to approach it."
Sperm Race, one of the experiments in the container lab on the main square of Linz, has to do with the widely known fact that sperm quality (above all its motility and speed, the decisive factors of reproductive capacity) has clearly declined during recent years. Sperm concentration over the last four decades has even dropped by up to 70%. The forces responsible for these trends are a matter of controversy, but many analysts presume that industrial chemicals and pesticides are to blame.
In a scientific-medical setting, male visitors will have the opportunity to have their own semen sample analyzed and to receive medical counseling. Users have the option of bringing in their sample, but, of course, it also has to be possible to provide a semen sample at the laboratory itself (under strict hygienic conditions).
This undertaking is by no means a voyeuristic staging of acts of intimacy and the private sphere; rather, it is an enlightened effort to come to terms with highly topical problems and issues. Provocation by means of a sexual action or exhibition is not what is happening here. This is not a denigration of human beings and their moral values, but rather a confrontation with our high-tech world, which does not come to standstill in the face of human concerns. We must face the reality of our modern technological society, because only in this way can we avoid the impasse of either demonizing medical progress or being blissfully transfixed by it.
We have to eliminate the taboos associated with science, even when they have to do with issues like sexuality and procreation.
Sperm Race, however, intentionally goes one step further-staging a "competition among sperm" as an artistic strategy to describe socially problematic areas.
Recently, many researchers have been pointing out the significance of fundamental factors of evolutionary biology in determining human behavior. Male anxiety with respect to potency, sexist displays, promiscuity and even rape are being described (by Robin Baker, Randy Thornhill, and Dean Hamer, for example) as behavioral patterns engendered by evolutionary biology.
This research is highly controversial, in that it casts a certain amount of doubt upon the extent to which our culture is capable of taming our drives.
In the age of Viagra and silicon, isn't it high time to adopt a somewhat ironic perspective for once in looking at conventional concepts of sexual competition. After all, what really determines the outcome of sexual competition: social status, six-pack abs from the health club, how many horsepower your car has, or, possibly, whether you've been getting free hormone treatments?
Sperm Race is designed to show that many widespread prejudices and opinions about male potency have very little connection to reality.
The project is headed by Mag. Reinhard Nestelbacher, (molecular biologist at the University of Salzburg) in collaboration with the University of the Danube at Krems (Dr. Gunter Schultes, chairman of the Center for Reproductive Medicine). Medical advisor is Dr. Andreas Jungwirth (urologist and andrologist on the staff of the Clinics of the Province of Salzburg)
Dr. Andreas Jungwirth, urologist and andrologist on the staff of the Clinics of the Province of Salzburg
For Dr. Jungwirth, the project's medical advisor, the aim is "to
diminish people's fears of confronting the techniques of reproductive
medicine, and also to take advantage of these if need be. Everything
we can do to shed light on this area and to enable the public to gain
a better understanding of it is sorely needed, and particularly at
a time when more and more people are personally confronted by medical
problems having to do with the desire to have children."
"What exactly will take place? The three key parameters-sperm count,
their motility and morphology-will be analyzed; then we will explain
how to interpret this information, and which interrelationships are
important-and this will be carried out on the highest technical plane."
"Staging this as a competition is designed to fulfill the function
of breaking down taboos. It should make it easier for people to approach
this topic and to discuss it in a relaxed manner."
Dr. Gunter Schultes, chairman of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the University of the Danube at Krems
"One notices a tremendous difference between the way the British
and the Americans, for instance, deal with questions of reproductive
medicine, and how the Austrians go about this.
In the Anglo-American countries, one encounters a very normal, almost
matter-of-fact mode of dealing with these issues; the individuals
in question are very open about it, and they are perfectly comfortable
discussing in vitro fertilization, whereas most people here try to
hide the fact and keep it under wraps. What is actually quite a harmless
medical problem for which there are highly effective treatment methods
is made taboo and even demonized. The problem is regarded as a stigma,
which makes it even harder for the effected individuals to come to
terms with it and possibly even to seek help.
This has even been exacerbated by the discussion surrounding genetic
engineering, because this has polarized opinions even more extremely
and the technology is stylized as a threat.
But in light of the rapid development of new medical possibilities,
a wide-ranging encounter with this topic has become more important
than ever.
For example, what went on in 1992 in conjunction with the Reproductive
Medicine Act has shown that the absence of an open discussion and
a process of public opinion formation has appalling consequences for
the development of the framework conditions of these new technologies.
In order to get people talking about certain topics, what is needed,
of course, is a certain degree of tension as the lines of opposing
opinion are drawn, and this competition concept is a good opportunity
to get the discussion out into the open so that the topic can receive
the attention it deserves.
It seems to be a law of our media-saturated society that only spectacular
problems elicit any reaction. As scientists, we are always struggling
to introduce matters that greatly concern us to the individuals directly
effected by them, and Ars Electronica can help us to accomplish this."
| SPERM RACE |
Saturday |
Sunday-Monday |
| science education team/A |
September 2, 2000 |
September 3 - 4, 2000 |
| |
6 P.M. - 8 P.M. |
10 A.M. - 7 P.M. |
|
|