- Miriam Simun
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Scope Of Work
44 pages
A4
- Design: Seth Weiner
In Scope of Work; Miriam Simun works with Glyphic Biotechnologies, a startup working on technologies for protein sequencing. The primary aim of Simun’s engagement is to develop a scope-of-work with the company, however, the overall work unfolds through an open Telegram channel, in which Simun catalogs her reflections and learning process: learning together with the audience of the work, a process in which the audience becomes an extension of the consultant and even a participant in the process through their interactions in the channel. Through the work, Simun opens up the question of what happens when the artist takes a position within the system of production (“artists as consultant”) as opposed to the position of independent, yet dependent on patronage (“artist in residence”)?
Simun’s work problematizes the conditions of technological innovation, as the artist traces both the stories of people and the flows of money and energy being moved for innovation. Biotechnology rearranges lives on multiple levels - molecular, interpersonal and political. Simun gestures towards a corporate unconscious: is a biotech company a site of cultural production? And how are dimensions of ethics, friendship, and privacy addressed or ignored amongst constraints of capitalist progress and innovation? What does an artist do amidst all this?