Week 1 HW: Principles and Practices

SCOBY DNA Steganography

A biological engineering application or tool that I want to develop is a new system for biomaterials for artist books that contains the book contents in its DNA. Above is an example of a a previous project of mine, where I was making masks out of SCOBYs, Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria and Yeast. A next level project might be to use SCOBY to create pages of artist books, where the the content of the pages (illustrations, text, relief sculptures, etc.) is also written into the DNA of the yeasts and/or bacteria that makes up the SCOBY. The reasons I am interested in this, and believe others will be interested as well, is primarily twofold: 1) I am interested in this as an unusual form of artwork that “grows on you” on multiple levels (such as genetic level, personal level, cultural(!) level, etc.) and 2) I am interested in this as a form of storytelling and story distrubution that can replicate itself.

Grimoires … codes … cultures … colonies … skins … steganography …

… describe one or more governance/policy goals related to ensuring that this application or tool contributes to an “ethical” future, like ensuring non-malfeasance (preventing harm). Break big goals down into two or more specific sub-goals. …

describe at least three different potential governance “actions” by considering the four aspects below (Purpose, Design, Assumptions, Risks of Failure & “Success”). …

score (from 1-3 with, 1 as the best, or n/a) each of your governance actions against your rubric of policy goals. The following is one framework but feel free to make your own: …