Ricochet - Cultural Epigenetics and the Philosophy of Change - on Ljå Forlag (Oslo). Epi-genetics is the science of epi - (above) - tags sitting on our genes like gargoyles on a church façade. These little chemical groupings influence which cells are reproduced during cell division and replication, in direct relationship to external factors such as diet and stress. The epi-genome are like a series of cellular-scale app notifications that nudge the cell to respond in a specific way. And because culture always communicates political and emotional information - causing stress or relief (or both), one can in fact speak, non-theoretically of culturally influenced epigenetic activation and silencing in real biological bodies. In Ricochet the artist Alex Head explores a recurrent, 12,000 year history of the Sacred Date Palm Tree. Culturally mutating from Iran and Syria, via Ancient and modern Greece, all the way to the rear of the German secret service building (BND) in Berlin and beyond. The study of causation between our environment and the genes we humans pass on to the next generation through epigenetic tags, is still very young. However, abusive or otherwise toxic environments during childhood have been shown to affect a person’s cell behaviour with consequences in later life and it is epigenetic silencing or activation that carries that abuse into the body’s cells. Culture, it is argued, alters not only our minds, but also the very bodies in which we live. It is important to note that the work of cultural epigenetics developed here argues for the determination of human biology by culture and not the other way around. That cultural expressions can be shown to replicate in cyclical patterns over time does not mean that they are inevitable.
