Have you ever wondered about the ethical implications of emerging technologies? We hear more and more in the news about gene editing technology and the ethical implications, and complexities of this can seem overwhelming.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and St Andrews have been working together with artists to explore this complex area of research, the ethical implications of editing, adapting and transforming our ecosystems. Come along to this event where we explore and present some of the ethics and future implications of gene editing through a digital multi-arts approach.

This session will consist of a brief overview of our project, and participants will get to experience our interactive online audio-visual space. Our game space world will present fictional scenarios based on real world issues to make choices that could fundamentally alter the genome of many species. How will you make your decision and why? Here you get to make decisions that will impact on biological ecosystems in the present and for the future. Please join us to continue the development of our project, help facilitate next stages and improve how we might move forward with new powerful tools in an ever changing world.

Presented primarily via an online digital platform incorporating machine learning techniques and a variety of cutting edge digital arts tools, the project looks at bringing together research, data science, visual arts, sound and language into an experimental toolkit and set of frameworks that presents the project findings to a wider public audience in the shape of playful online interactive interventions.

This online event has been set up to contribute to research for a project run by the “Non-Random Artist Collective” funded by Creative Scotland, working alongside researchers from the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC) at the University of Edinburgh, and the Biomedical Sciences Research Complex at St Andrews University, Genetic Alliance and Race on the Agenda (ROTA).

The event will be presented by the Non Random Collective (Dr Linda O’Keeffe – Head of Fine Art, Edinburgh University, Dr Tony Doyle and Ashley James Brown) and Malcom White, Professor at the School of Biology at St Andrews University.

For more information on the Project and what we’ve been doing so far please go to our site – Evolving Ourselves