ARC Conversations: Heather Dewey-Hagborg

Name: ARC Conversations: Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Start: 2026-05-13T16:00:00+01:00
End: 2026-05-13T17:30:00+01:00
Location: Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow

Schedule

Wed May 13 2026 at 04:00 pm to 05:30 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Advanced Research Centre, University of Glasgow | Glasgow, SC

The ethics and aesthetics of genomic technologies
About this Event

ARC Conversations: Heather Dewey-Hagborg
The ethics and aesthetics of genomic technologies

How much can you learn about a stranger from a stray hair?

In this artist talk, Heather Dewey-Hagborg will discuss a series of artworks that began with this question in 2012. From DNA phenotyping to interspecies opera she will share her work using genomic technologies, highlighting different modes of art/science collaboration, and demonstrating research as critical practice and well-informed speculation about the future.

Join us for a special opportunity to hear from this internationally renowned artist and biohacker on what is revealed through her boundary-pushing 'art as research' practice and technological critique.

Agenda

16:00 -16:05 – Welcome from Prof. Andrew Tobin

16:05 -16:35 - Talk from Heather Dewey-Hagborg

16:35 -17:00 - Audience discussion and Q&A

17:00 -17:30 - Drinks

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This event is free, but ticketed.

There will be drinks available after the event, while stocks last.

If you have any access requirements, please contact [email protected]

This talk is the second of two events hosted as part of Heather Dewey-Hagborg's residency at the University of Glasgow’s Advanced Research Centre. For details of the screening of Dewey-Hagborg's short film, , on Tuesday 12 May please visit our collection.

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About the speaker

Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a New York-based American/Canadian artist and biohacker who is interested in art as research and technological critique. Her controversial biopolitical art practice includes the project Stranger Visions in which she created portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material (hair, cigarette butts, chewed up gum) collected in public places.

Heather has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, the Daejeon Biennale, the Guangzhou Triennial, and the Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, Transmediale, the Walker Center for Contemporary Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and PS1 MoMA. Her work is held in public collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, SFMoMA, among others, and has been widely discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to Art Forum and Wired.

Heather has a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is a founding board member of Digital DNA, a European Research Council funded project investigating the changing relationships between digital technologies, DNA and evidence.