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Ars Electronica Archive – S+T+ARTS

STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of technology and artistic practice. As part of this initiative, the STARTS residencies foster pioneering collaborations and the STARTS Prize honors the most inspired results in the field of creativity and innovation at the crossings of science and technology with the arts. STARTS is funded through various schemes provided by the European Commission.

S+T+ARTS Prize Nominierung 2024

Sentient Clit: the Pussification of BioTech

Jiabao Li, WhiteFeather Hunter
We investigate the potential of producing lab-grown clitorises by isolating stem cells from menstrual fluid and 3D-bioprinting them into anatomically accurate gel supports (clits) for in vitro growth. We have differentiated the cells into neuronal types to speculate creating clitorises that respond ‘intelligently’ to stimuli through cultured neural networks. This reconfigures the notion of feminine pleasure as passive response, to the embodied sentience of a discerning actor: Could clits think?

We challenge dominant narratives in tech by advocating for post-humanist feminist methodology focused on eroticism beyond reproduction, towards inclusive potential for women and nonbinary people. Our work is conveyed through video performance, microscopy, digital art, and a large-scale inflatable clit in a petri dish to deconstruct gender norms and foster multifaceted discourse on pleasure and sexuality.

We performed our biopolitics on OnlyFans in the tradition of feminist body art, to strategically disrupt digital consumption patterns around women’s sexual selves and address biocapitalist uses of technology that objectify bodies and control pleasure. Our project scrutinizes ethical complexities of bioprinted organs capable of neural responses, questioning ideas of consent and sentience in bioengineering to call for a broad reevaluation of tech advance in its sociocultural impacts.

Links: https://www.jiabaoli.org/sentient-clit
Jiabao Li, WhiteFeather Hunter

Lera Niemackl at The Open Discovery Institute (The ODIN) was involved as a collaborator in initial experimental phases of the project, providing support to Jiabao Li in tissue culture, as well as co-authoring the ISEA 2024 conference proceedings.

Cell differentiation guidance and material support to WhiteFeather Hunter: Stuart Hodgetts, Central Nervous System Repair Lab, UWA and Guy Ben-Ary at CELLCentral, UWA.
Videographer (for Jiabao Li): Teresa Nichta

We also acknowledge the bioengineering collaborators and the doctoral students who performed some of the 3D bioprinting for the project under WhiteFeather’s direction in Montreal. Unfortunately, these students and their supervisory collaborators cannot be named due to legal stipulations imposed by the research facility in which they work.

WhiteFeather Hunter received research and exploration funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quėbec. Jiabao Li received funding support from the University of Texas at Austin, Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Fine Arts.
Jiabao Li (CN) is an artist, Assistant Professor at UT Austin, and director of Ecocentric Future Lab. Her works address climate change, interspecies co-creation, and perceptions. In her TED Talk, she uncovered how technology mediates our reality. She is on Forbes China 30 Under 30 and has exhibited globally, including at MoMA and the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Dr. WhiteFeather Hunter (CA) is a Canadian artist and scholar with a PhD in Biological Art from The University of Western Australia. Her practice engages TechnoFeminist witchcraft and bioengineering with performance, new media, and craft. She collaborates/exhibits at recognized international research and art institutions and is published in peer-reviewed journals in Australia, Europe/UK, the US and Canada.