Taxonomies, Categorizations and Queer Life

Zurr, Ionat; Catts, Oron

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-25887-9_5

Ionat Zurr⁴ &
Oron Catts⁵

Part of the book series: Palgrave BioArt ((PB))

99 Accesses

Abstract

‘Nature’, like ‘life’, is an odd word. In the English language, bewilderingly, we use a word – life – to describe diverse phenomena that are either biological, conceptual or metaphysical (as a comparison, for example, to describe the simple phenomenon of the body’s excrement and its associated cultural interpolations, we have many nuanced words to choose from such as faeces, dung, manure, shit and so on).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 99.00; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 129.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 129.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Donna J. Haraway. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Vol. 1. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.
2.
Timothy Morton. 2016. Frankenstein and ecocriticism. In The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein, ed. Andrew Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 146.
3.
Eugene Thacker. 2010. After Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. xv.
4.
American Type Culture Collection. 2022. HeLa CCL-2™. https://www.atcc.org/products/ccl-2. Accessed 22 July 2022.
5.
Leigh M. Van Valen and Virginia C. Maiorana. 1991. HeLa, a new microbial species. University of Chicago. https://www.mn.uio.no/cees/english/services/van-valen/evolutionary-theory/volume-10/vol-10-no-2-pages-71-74-l-van-valen-and-v-c-mairorana-hela-a-new-microbial-species.pdf. Accessed 22 July 2022.
6.
Samuel Butler. 1872. Erewhon. London: Trübner & Co.
7.
Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material. Conservation [webpage]. https://aiccm.org.au/conservation/. Accessed 25 July 2022.
8.
H.G. Wells. 1975. The limits of individual plasticity. In H. G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction, eds. R.M. Philmus and D.Y. Hughes. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, p. 36.
9.
Karl Polanyi. 2001 [1944]. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press, p. 154.
10.
Polanyi, The Great Transformation, p. 45.
11.
Polanyi, The Great Transformation, p. 76.
12.
Polanyi, The Great Transformation, p. 76.
13.
Kevin Laland, Tobias Uller, Marc Feldman, Kim Sterelny, Gerd B. Müller et al. 2014. Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? Nature 514: 161–164, pp. 161–162.
14.
Laland et al., Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?, pp. 161–162.
15.
University of Edinburgh. The life of Dolly [webpage]. https://dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/facts/the-life-of-dolly/index.html. Accessed 11 August 2022.
16.
National Museums Scotland. Dolly the sheep [webpage]. https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/natural-sciences/dolly-the-sheep/. Accessed 11 August 2022.
17.
Umwelt, from the German, meaning ‘environment’ or ‘surroundings’, first used by Jakob von Uexküll. 1909. Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Berlin: J. Springer.
18.
F. Cameron. 2008. Safe places for unsafe ideas? History and science museums, hot topics and moral predicaments. In Social History in Museums, ed. M. Terwey. London: Social History Curators Group, pp. 5–16.
19.
Based on recorded interviews and email exchange between Oron Catts and Prof. Charles Vacanti from 2014.
20.
Available at United States Copyright Office. http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi. (Search for ‘mouse with human ear’.)
21.
Jacques Loeb to Ernst Mach, 28 December 1899. Quoted in Scott F. Gilbert. 2000. Developmental Biology. New York: University Press, pp. 93–117. For more, see Philip J. Pauly. 1987. Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb & the Engineering Ideal in Biology. New York: Oxford University Press; or O. Catts and I. Zurr. 2014. Countering the engineering mindset: the conflict of art and synthetic biology. In Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature, eds. A.D. Ginsberg, J. Calvert, P. Schyfter, A. Elfick and D. Endy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 27–38.
22.
William H. Robinson. 2005. Urban Insects and Arachnids: A Handbook of Urban Entomology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 96–97.
23.
See Stephen J. Gould. 1980. The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
24.
Western Australian Museum. 2013. Echinodermata (echinoderms) [webpage]. http://museum.wa.gov.au/research/collections/aquatic-zoology/marine-invertebrates-section/echinodermata-echinoderms. Accessed 13 June 2018.
25.
Donald I. Williamson. 2006. Hybridization in the evolution of animal form and life-cycle. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148(4): 585–602. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00236.x.
26.
Donald I. Williamson. 2003. The Origins of Larvae. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
27.
Lomonosov Moscow State University. 2016, March 1. Researchers study the reaggregation of artificially separated marine sponge cells. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2016-03-reaggregation-artificially-marine-sponge-cells.html. Accessed 13 June 2018.
28.
L. Margulis and R. Fester (eds.). 1991. Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation: Speciation and Morphogenesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
29.
Quoted in H. Harris. 1985. Roots: cell fusion. BioEssays 2(4): 176–179. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.950020409.
30.
E. Szymanski, T. Bates, E. Cachat, J. Calvert, O. Catts, L.J. Nelson, S.J. Rosser, R.D.J. Smith and I. Zurr. 2020. Crossing kingdoms: how can art open up new ways of thinking about science? Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 8: 715. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00715.

References

American Type Culture Collection. 2022. HeLa CCL-2^TM. https://www.atcc.org/products/ccl-2. Accessed 22 July 2022.
Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material. Conservation [webpage]. https://aiccm.org.au/conservation/. Accessed 25 July 2022.
Butler, Samuel. 1872. Erewhon. London: Trübner & Co.
Google Scholar
Cameron, F. 2008. Safe places for unsafe ideas? History and science museums, hot topics and moral predicaments. In Social History in Museums, ed. M. Terwey. London: Social History Curators Group, pp. 5–16.
Google Scholar
Catts, O. and I. Zurr. 2014. Countering the engineering mindset: the conflict of art and synthetic biology. In Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature, eds. A.D. Ginsberg, J. Calvert, P. Schyfter, A. Elfick and D. Endy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 27–38.
Google Scholar
Gilbert, Scott F. 2000. Developmental Biology. New York: University Press.
Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen J. 1980. The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Google Scholar
Haraway, Donna J. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Vol. 1. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.
Google Scholar
Harris, H. 1985. Roots: cell fusion. BioEssays 2(4): 176–179. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.950020409.
Article Google Scholar
Laland, Kevin, Tobias Uller, Marc Feldman, Kim Sterelny, Gerd B. Müller et al. 2014. Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? Nature 514: 161–164.
Article Google Scholar
Lomonosov Moscow State University. 2016, March 1. Researchers study the reaggregation of artificially separated marine sponge cells. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2016-03-reaggregation-artificially-marine-sponge-cells.html. Accessed 13 June 2018.
Margulis, L. and R. Fester (eds.). 1991. Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation: Speciation and Morphogenesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Google Scholar
Morton, Timothy. 2016. Frankenstein and ecocriticism. In The Cambridge Companion to Frankenstein, ed. Andrew Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar
National Museums Scotland. Dolly the sheep [webpage]. https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/natural-sciences/dolly-the-sheep/. Accessed 11 August 2022.
Pauly, Philip J. 1987. Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb & the Engineering Ideal in Biology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 2001 [1944]. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press.
Google Scholar
Robinson, William H. 2005. Urban Insects and Arachnids: A Handbook of Urban Entomology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Book Google Scholar
Szymanski, E., T. Bates, E. Cachat, J. Calvert, O. Catts, L.J. Nelson, S.J. Rosser, R.D.J. Smith and I. Zurr. 2020. Crossing kingdoms: how can art open up new ways of thinking about science? Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 8: 715. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00715.
Article Google Scholar
Thacker, Eugene. 2010. After Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Book Google Scholar
Uexküll, J. von. 1909. Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Berlin: J. Springer.
Google Scholar
United States Copyright Office. http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi [website]. Accessed 11 August 2022.
University of Edinburgh. The life of Dolly [webpage]. https://dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/facts/the-life-of-dolly/index.html. Accessed 11 August 2022.
Van Valen, Leigh M. and Virginia C. Maiorana. 1991. HeLa, a new microbial species. University of Chicago. https://www.mn.uio.no/cees/english/services/van-valen/evolutionary-theory/volume-10/vol-10-no-2-pages-71-74-l-van-valen-and-v-c-mairorana-hela-a-new-microbial-species.pdf. Accessed 22 July 2022.
Wells, H.G. 1975. The limits of individual plasticity. In H. G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction, eds. R.M. Philmus and D.Y. Hughes. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Google Scholar
Western Australian Museum. 2013. Echinodermata (echinoderms) [webpage]. http://museum.wa.gov.au/research/collections/aquatic-zoology/marine-invertebrates-section/echinodermata-echinoderms. Accessed 13 June 2018.
Williamson, Donald I. 2003. The Origins of Larvae. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Book Google Scholar
Williamson, Donald I. 2006. Hybridization in the evolution of animal form and life-cycle. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148(4): 585–602. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00236.x.
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

School of Design, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
Ionat Zurr
School of Human Sciences, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
Oron Catts

Authors

Ionat Zurr
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Oron Catts
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ionat Zurr .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zurr, I., Catts, O. (2023). Taxonomies, Categorizations and Queer Life. In: Tissues, Cultures, Art. Palgrave BioArt. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25887-9_5

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25887-9_5
Published: 30 March 2023
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-25886-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-25887-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics