Circulations: Biomaterial Econ
omies After\, Before\, and During Entanglement. \;
Elizabe
th R. Johnson\, Associate Professor of Human Geography at Durham Universit
y\, UK. \;
Across pharmaceutical\, biomedical\, and material ind ustries\, scientists and inventors have increasingly turned to biological materials and structures as a resource for innovation. Amid this trend\, c utting edge researchers like MIT’s Neri Oxman tout novel combinations of b iomaterial and technological structures as the basis of a more ecologicall y sustainable future. As she argues\, the rise of bioinnovation promises t o move the socio-technical infrastructure of our day “from the age of the machine\, to the age of symbiosis.” \; \;
This presentation offers an initial attempt to make sense of such promises in the context of the so-ca lled bio-economy. In it\, I explore how the emerging bioinnovation paradig m prefigures a reconfiguration of Harvey’s spatial fix: rather solving the problems of capital by moving across space\, these emerging technologies attempt to move into and out of biological life through techniques of “man aged growth” and “material ecology.” Drawing on case studies of marine bio materials\, I explore the limits of bio-innovation and further how its pro mises function in the realm of capitalist fantasy. I ultimately argue that bioinnovation’s material promises may matter less than the temporal and n arrative structure of fantasies like Oxman’s where the “bio” joins with he roic effort to achieve a planetary salvation to-come. Throughout\, I consi der the implications of such promissory narratives for the intersection of political ecology and cultural geography.
Elizabeth R. Johnson is an Associ
ate Professor of Human Geography at Durham University\, \;UK. Her work
explores how ties between the biosciences and technological innovation ar
e changing how we understand life in the context of environmental precarit
y. She writes on biomimicry\, biosensing\, and biomaterial technologies an
d their influence \;on how we inhabit our environment. She is currentl
y researching the political and economic lives of marine biomaterials. A s
election of her writing has appeared in Progress in Environmental Geography
\, The Handbook of Ocean Space\, \;
Theory and Event\, Society and Space
\, and the Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Sh
e is also co-editor of Blue Legalities: the Life and Laws of the Sea.