Conceptual Description

"First of all, discourses are objects of appropriation. The form of ownership from which they spring is of a rather particular type, one that been codified for many years." -Michel Foucault

         Every time that I walk into a bookstore I am excited by the amount of books that I would like to read.  I also become overwhelmed by the impossibility of my being able to read them all and the improbability that I will comprehend all that I do read and convert it to usable knowledge.  I feel this way as a middle class white male with plenty of opportunity of access to knowledge, however, there are others with even less privilege and possibility to access knowledge.

            What if the possession of knowledge could come in a different way? A cheaper and more instantaneous way?  In collaboration with student’s in Brown University’s Bio-Medical department I aim to convert great works of knowledge into a unique genetic strand.  Those desiring knowledge can request the works that they are interested in obtaining and I will have them mixed into an injectable cocktail that a nurse will inject into their veins.  In this way, the person will be able to access and possess knowledge without having to benefit from the privilege of previous education, economic class and access to higher education.

            It is questionable whether or not the knowledge injected in the body will become anything more than just circulating knowledge.  In all probability one will not be able to quote the information on a particular page of the book that was injected.  However, the project isn’t about that.  Most of us, cannot reference in a useful way the entire knowledge that we obtained from books or schools, however, having a degree from a university where it is assumed that the transfer of knowledge of particular books took place allots the individual the power of possessing that knowledge.  Possessing the genetic sequence of a book will function in much the same way.  By having the information circulating in the blood, the individual owns that information it is a part of their body.

            Books possess a lot power, even if just as signifiers.  When visiting one’s home and seeing the collection of books on their shelves we logically attribute to them the knowledge of those books, “they have Foucault on their shelves; they must have read Foucault; Foucault is difficult to understand; they must be smart.”  It is not even necessary to read the actual book in order to possess the power of the book.  With the genetic strand, the person will own and possess the knowledge and power of the book.

Technical Description

"What is a book in itself?  A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects.  It is a set of dead symbols.  Then the reader, the right reader comes along and the words, or rather, the poetry behind the words, for the words themselves are mere symbols, spring into life and we have a resurrection of the world."
-Jorge Luis Borges

            Words are arbitrary, letters are arbitrary, they are empty signifiers until they take residence within a particular cultural context that is defined by institutions of power.   Does knowledge exist separate from the language that describes or articulates it?  Does a body of work articulated in one language lose its significance when translated and thus framed within the context of another language and culture?  So knowledge cannot be truly engaged with, without the mediation of the culturally arbitrary signifiers of language.
           
            Working with this argument, I begin with the English version of a work of knowledge, to maintain a standard of consistency.  I then convert the entire work to a quaternary numerals, which I then convert to a genetic code.  I chose quaternary code as an intermediary for the reason that it draws almost direct parallel to the four DNA nucleotides.  So it can be translated as thus: the complementary digit pairs 0-3 and 1-2 match the complementation of the base pairs A-T and C-G.

Piece Description

            All the Knowledge in the World functions both as a formal installation work and a performance.  Upon entering the gallery space the viewer finds a curtained section similar to that of a doctors office.  Inside of the curtained area there is a glass cupboard containing a library of the genetic code of hundreds of books.  Suggesting a space that is both library and medical office to convey the idea of knowledge acquisition by way medical procedure.

            In the first manifestation of the performative work, the artist will receive a cocktail injection of three books: Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things, Edward Said’s Orientalism and Bell Hooks’ Outlaw Culture.   A certified nurse will administer the injection.  The books chosen represent the artist’s conscious decision to transform notions of acquisition and constructions of knowledge.  Further performances will include injections of different books, specific to the location and climate surrounding each performance.

            A later plan would involve setting up the installation in a gallery space along with a nurse and allowing gallery viewers to sign a release and have their own choice of books injected to themselves.  In it’s final form the clinic space will be set up in a store front and be open to the public to receive free injections of knowledge.