Art & Science
Ancestry is so much more than genetics. It’s culture, history, society, and politics. To reflect on this mesh of interwoven concepts, we called up art to serve as a go-between.
This interplay of art and science seeks to find shared points between culture, ethnography, biopolitics and genetic information. This raises complex and controversial questions: How do we think about diversity? What do genotypic or phenotypic differences say about us? How does ancestry tinker with the sense of identity?
Throughout the project, this multidisciplinary exploration will take on various forms, including the involvement of artists in the scientific process and discussion, putting together an exhibit, public engagement, and the development of educational and outreach materials.
Exhibit
A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity – activities in the context of the exhibit
6 September 2024 — 17h30 – 19h30
As part of the exhibition ‘A Journey through Human Genetic Diversity’, on show at the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Lisbon until 8 September, the museum organised free activities.
Public Sessions: visits to the exhibit by the curators
6, 13, 20 AND 27 APRIL 2024 | 16h-17h30
You can register for a guided visit to the exhibition “A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity” in Porto. During April, five dates are available. Registrations are free but mandatory due to the limited number of available places.
Virtual Tour
A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity
Nothing replaces the real thing, touching the objects, the smell of paper, and the physical experience of the place. But if you can’t visit this exhibition in Porto or Lisbon we offer you a brief virtual tour.
Public debate: Encounters, mismatches and memory of the Magellan-Elcano voyage: an anthropological perspective
16 July 2024 — 18h00 – 19h00
We will look at some of the encounters and disagreements between navigators and locals in Patagonia, the Marianas, the Philippines and the Moluccas and discuss the memorialisation of these contacts.
Exhibition Catalogue
A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity
This publication includes images and text that together form a reflection on human genetic diversity in the global world from the perspective of the sciences, arts and humanities.
Public Sessions: visits to the exhibit for high school students
May -April
Schools can register for a guided visit to the exhibition “A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity” in Porto. The visits are coordinated by the i3S educational program, Ciência et al.
Exhibit: A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity – Lisbon
17 MAY – 8 SEPTEMBER
The exhibition A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity was inaugurated at the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Lisbon on the 17th of May 2024.
Exhibit: A Journey Through Human Genetic Diversity – Porto
16 JANUARY – 30 APRIL
This exhibit recaps the voyage of Fernão de Magalhães and Juan Sebastián Elcano, from the perspective of the peoples’ genetics, population diversity and genetic heritage.
Residency and co-production
Residency and co-production: Population Diversity Tree
To explore specific themes, we invited some authors to an artistic residency, to plastically reinterpret scientific data, in close collaboration with the project team. Cristina Lousada Soares developed one such work creating the Population Diversity Tree.
Residency and co-production: Sonification of Genetic Variability
In close collaboration with the project team, some artists were invited for an art residency to explore specific topics, informed by the scientific data. One of these explorations was the work of Clara Tapadas developed as part of her MA thesis (Master in Multimedia at the University of Porto).
Call for Drawing
Genetics & Identity
This is a call for artists interested in a collaborative exploration of genetics and identity. The selected artists will attend an ancestry genetic test workshop with researchers and then explore these topics through drawing.
Co-production and public debate
Inside Doctor Henry Jekyll’s Laboratory
Telling genetic stories through drawing
16 JANUARY | 14-17H
This drawing workshop will turn participants into detectives who, focusing on a lab and a scientist, will reenact an improbable story.
Co-production: a multidisciplinary approach to science and engineering
The “Human diversity along the Magalhães circum-navigation space: genetics, history and culture” project, in collaboration with the “Hybrid Lab Network” project, participated in an online hackathon to explore a multidisciplinary approach to science.
Co-production and public debate with master students
A session of discussion and co-production was carried out with students from the Specialization Course in Interaction Design, Web and Games (FBAUP & FEUP), students from the MA in Image Design (FBAUP), and students from the MA in Multimedia (UP), during the 2020-21 academic year.
Diversity – a challenge for science
The project “Human diversity along the Magalhães circum-navigation space: genetics, history and culture” participated in the event “Diversity – a challenge for the life and health sciences” which took place on the 1st of October 2021 at i3S.