Laurie Ramsell

Over the last 5 years Laurie Ramsell has investigated what it means to be human in a world where such a label is increasingly becoming outdated. New environments and identities are opening up through digital spaces, genetic modification, and additive manufacturing processes that challenge our current understanding of being human. My cross-disciplinary practice explores themes the natural and unnatural experience, through the use of biological material, often using my own body. I have worked with scientists to explore the human genome through zebrafish, cultured living bioart sculptures, and collaborated with bioart societies in Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Tokyo.

Novo Sapiens

During the 16th Century, alchemists attempted to create a homunculus – a diminutive human created by artificial means. The 21st Century human is far removed from the Homo sapiens of a mere fifty years ago, let alone five hundred. We now carry or wear processors twice as powerful as the supercomputers of only half a century ago. Two and a half million people alive today have been born through IVF, and we can now exist in virtual, digital spaces. 3D bioprinting is allowing scientists to work as biofabricators, not just simply to print new organs or limbs, but to aesthetically design them in new individual ways to suit your personality or follow fashion. In the 21st Century, new disruptive technology could enable us to print a whole human. How we would design a human for the future, and what do our future desires tell us about the society of today?

http://www.laurieramsell.co.uk

UKYA PROJECTS:

UKYA City Takeover: Nottingham 2019