Bioeconomics - Introduction

As we enter the 21st Century, key issues that face our economy that confront economic development are shifting away from those of the late-Industrial Age towards an era in which life-sciences and biotechnology are fashioning a bio-industrial world. Public awareness and broad-ranging debate on the implications of these trends are crucial to any realisation of the promised benefits of biotechnology.

Thank you. Thank you very much for coming to this second session and I would really like to thank Amanda and The Festival for scheduling this session because Bioeconomics, which is the title, is a very focal topic. It can not receive enough attention. We really have to talk as much and act as much as possible with this discipline. Today we have four speakers; Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr, Craig Cormick and Steve Kurtz on behalf of Critical Art Ensemble. And I will ask them in turn to introduce themselves because I presume they will do a much better job than I would. I just would like to say that this is a topic that is really approached and you will see, I think, from the presentations, from very many different sides and corners and it creates a lot of controversy and provocation often, and Artists and Scientists' discourse. This topic is extremely important. So it's very fantastic that we have these eminent practicioners to talk about this. Please.