When the Jaguar lies down with the Lamb: speculations on the post-biological culture

Abstract

This presentation investigates the metaphoric contiguity of Silicon Valley and the Amazonian rain forest, in the context of our post-biological culture, and speculates on the role that the rehabilitation of archaic knowledge might play in the advancement of technological art. The Jaguar shaman and Dolly the clone mark out shifting boundaries that define our new epistemology of mind and matter, where particles, neurons, atoms and genes converge as the substrate upon which our mixed realities can be built. Our experience of life on the Net, in cyberspace and on the Web, has already prepared us to reconsider the Western conventions of time and space, the apparent immutability of human identity and the isolation of the discrete mind, and to replace those illusions with a more constructive vision of a collaborative and coherent future. The place of art in all of this, with its ability to move creatively through cultures however distant or exotic, to find new meaning and method in ancient practices and esoteric knowledge, is to compliment the urgent progression of science, and creatively embrace the innovations of technology. Advances in molecular science and ubiquitous telematics define a challenging locus for explorations in interactive art. By employing Dr. Jeremy Narby's model of DNA communication in shamanic practice, the psychoactive domain of plant technology can be productively related to the spiritual ambitions of art in the post-biological world. This study seeks to show how, so to speak, the jaguar might lie down with the lamb.