PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
Following the last twenty years of steep biotechnological development, the process of evolution—which by chance endowed life on Earth—has given way to life endowed by choice instead. Given the necessary tools, access, and expertise, humans now possess the capacity to design humanity itself; and artists working in the medium of synthetic biology, working with living matter in and across time, answer the call to confront the innovative nature and “wisdom” of the “wise human” Homo sapiens.
Today, the landscape for that work includes de-extinction efforts; gene drive-equipped mosquitoes; the 2018 announcement, by Chinese researcher He Jiankui, of the world’s first gene-edited babies; and the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for two scientists, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who pioneered the genome editor CRISPR—indicating that we have transcended the point of the hypothetical, the mythic, or the modest proposal.
Who has the privilege of dreaming about their own immortality or enhancement at the same time that they have the resources to make it so? How do racial and gender inequalities in STEM fields affect not only the science performed, but the future imaginary writ large? How can we amplify the voices of new criticalities and post-colonial ethical frameworks? Who possesses power to shape the world as it is and as it is becoming?
Fathomers, with curatorial partner Antajuan Scott, head of programming at Science Gallery Detroit, is pleased to announce a Pacific Standard Time research grant for Emergence: A Genealogy, a global bioart survey that—in its commingling of synthetic biology with design, sculpture, social practice, performance, and artist-led activism—probes changing definitions of what is natural, synthetic, conscious, and essential to human existence.
Fathomers is one of 45 cultural, educational, and scientific institutions throughout Southern California to receive support from the Getty Foundation for their projects, all of which will explore the intersection of art and science.
Pacific Standard Time will include dozens of simultaneous exhibitions and programs focused on the intertwined histories of art and science, past and present, that together address some of the most complex challenges of the 21st century—from climate change and environmental racism to the current pandemic and artificial intelligence—and the creative solutions these problems demand.
About Fathomers
Fathomers is a creative research institute dedicated to producing sites and encounters that challenge us to live and act differently in the world. We cultivate the ideas of die-hard dreamers, commission projects that seem far-fetched, and enlist expansive thinkers across disciplines to redefine the limits of scale, scope and support for artist-led projects.
We do this because we value discoveries made absent predetermined outcomes, and we believe in the power of the realized dream as a test site and model for visionary change.
About Pacific Standard Time
Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented series of collaborations among institutions across Southern California. In each, organizations simultaneously present research-based exhibitions and programs that explore and illuminate a significant theme in the region’s cultural history.
In Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, more than 60 cultural institutions joined forces between October 2011 and March 2012 and rewrote the history of the birth and impact of the L.A. art scene. In Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, presented from September 2017 through January 2018, more than 70 institutions collaborated on a paradigm-shifting examination of Latin American and Latinx art, seen together as a hemispheric continuum.
Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty.
About Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC)
Founded in 1971, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center is one of the largest ethnic arts and cultural centers of its kind in the United States. A hub for Japanese and Japanese American arts and culture and a community gathering place for the diverse voices it inspires, JACCC connects traditional and contemporary; community participants and creative professionals; Southern California and the world beyond. www.jaccc.org
CURATORIAL TEAM
Annie Fischer is a writer, editor, curator, and co-founder of Fathomers, a Los Angeles-based creative research institute for artist-led projects, where she directs research and communication. With Stacy Switzer, she co-edited Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015.
Prior to her role with Fathomers, she worked as a journalist and an educator. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and served as a Fulbright Fellow to Hungary in 2014-2015.
Antajuan Scott is a Detroit-based culture worker and curator. Currently, Antajuan serves as the Head of Programming for Science Gallery Detroit, an initiative of the Science Gallery International network and Michigan State University.
At Science Gallery Detroit, Antajuan is responsible for co-managing its open call process for exhibitions and programs, as well as developing collaborations with researchers, artists, and organizations. Curatorial projects and collaborations undertaken include SmellScape Detroit with artist Sissel Tolaas and MSU Broad Museum; commissions by artist Laura D. Gibson and Indigenious collective the Aadizookaan; and co-curation of The Intersection, an art-science program series with Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Prior to his role with Science Gallery Detroit, Antajuan served as Sciences Program Manager at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.
Stacy Switzer is curator and executive director of Fathomers, and served as artistic director of Grand Arts from 2004 to 2015. Her current projects in development with the Fathomers team include Michael Jones McKean’s Twelve Earths and Ni’Ja Whitson’s The Unarrival Experiments. At Grand Arts, Switzer curated dozens of major solo projects by artists including Sanford Biggers, William Pope.L, Mariah Robertson, and Tavares Strachan. In 2002, Switzer curated the first exhibition in the United States to include work by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr’s Tissue Culture and Art Project. Additional bioartists Switzer has worked with include Critical Art Ensemble and Paul Vanouse (Cult of the New Eve, Grand Arts, 2004); Heather Dewey Hagborg (Field Station: Spirit Molecule, 2019); Faith Wilding and subRosa (Salina Art Center, 2002); Sissel Tolaas (Grand Arts, 2007 and 2012); and Phil Ross (MycoCosmos, Fathomers, 2017). She has been a visiting lecturer, critic and consultant for Creative Capital, Sotheby's Institute, the Jerome Foundation, and the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, among others. With Annie Fischer, Switzer is co-editor of Problems and Provocations: Grand Arts 1995-2015.