The Costumed Visions of the Enhanced Body project, kindly funded by the Wellcome Trust, is a collaboration between the Institute for Science Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester, and the JK Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and Law at the University of Edinburgh. It will explore graphic fiction portrayals of the enhanced body, engaging with questions such as:
● What do the depicted enhancements say about current ideas of treatment and enhancement?
● How are different embodiments treated, and what does that say about value or values?
● How is science and technology portrayed, and are comics useful for science communication?
On 16 September 2015, at the Manchester Meeting Place, the project team (David Lawrence, Shawn Harmon (GJA), Gill Haddow) will join with other interested contributors (including Professor Scott Bukatman, Mr Dan Abnett, Professor Andy Miah, Dr Simon Locke, Mr Alan Cowsill, Mr Mik Scarlet, Dr David Kirby, Dr Thomas Giddens (GJA), and Dr Yasemin J. Erden (GJA)) to undertake a one-day interdisciplinary discussion around these questions. It will serve as a nexus of culture, media and literature studies, and will provide a unique lens through which to focus on persistent academic debates about embodiment and the ethics and regulation of enhancement. Key outcomes of the project will be the augmentation of the Graphic Justice Alliance through the founding of the Costumed Visions Network, the creation of an edited collection based on the meeting, and the preparation of a proposal for further research this novel intersection of fields.
More information and registration is available at: http://masoninstitute.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/costumed-visions-network-launch.html