Genomics - Question Time

Patricia, I'm interested in the Siren Moles. For those who haven't been over to the ConVerge exhibition there are two Moles in the glass cabinet. How long have you had them?

I made them for the Melbourne Festival last year and Melbourne Zoo. I made them to sit alongside the wombats in the wombat enclosure in the borrows so when the public came into the underground tunnels they saw the wombats that were sleeping, because they're nocturnal and then they saw my sculptures which were also dormant - because they were electronic or mechanical. The moles raised a lot of questions about where new life should belong, what the zoo actually does, that all animals are at their root really strange. We had a lot of different reactions to them. They actually went to Peru a few months later and they loved them because the indigenous Peruvian dog is even stranger than the Siren Mole. Its absolutely naked and its got this sort of blonde head of hair and the rest of it is naked. So they thought it was related.

Bizarre. This is an organism that's completely synthetic and you talked about responsibilities and caring for this thing. I was wondering whether you relate to it as a child. What do you see as its future? Are you going to be its carer or will it become a zoo or a museum dweller?

Well it raises those questions. I have a really personal relationship to these sculptures. It seems a bit embarrassing sometimes or out of context. Well it's inspired by what happens around me - the idea that things like that could potentially exist and this sparks my imagination. But it will have to be looked after by people as I imagine that most of the creations that we bring to life will have to be looked after.

How did you make the Track babies and how did you begin the concept?

Actually, I know I said I worked in isolation but that was actually not completely true. I feel isolated but in fact I work with a lot of people and the Siren Moles were made by an animatronics expert that does work for TV. The Track Babies were made by a car modeller called Paul Cactera in Victoria. He's fantastic to work with - I gave him the drawings and we worked together to make clay moulds and then fibre glass.

You've been talking about how you've worked. I'm wondering have any scientists have come up to you and said 'Yes you've opened another area for me to see something new to work on'?

Sometimes it's the same problem of artists trying to become a scientist. At MIT, Oron and I encouraged this young artist - some of his videos were great. He had taken a needle and put it down through a petrii dish of scar tissue cells and then videoed them - the scar tissue cells coming back together. You know at first glimpse you go 'wow it's gorgeous'. But scientists are often untrained artists and artists are often untrained scientists and that can sometimes work.