Art and Biogenetics: Breeding the Body Beautiful - SAHT9206

When Eugenic Sterilisation became law in the Third Reich, American, Australian, European and British Eugenic Societies immediately congratulated Hitler. He, in turn, commended their eugenic policies and acknowledged them as his precedent. Far from being an isolatable phenomenon, this course will then reveal why Nazi eugenics may be perceived as the extreme realisation of a biogenetic culture that flourished worldwide. By examining images and exhibitions of the body beautiful, alongside those of degeneracy, it will explore different ways in which art propelled the quest for genetic perfection. Through an investigation of the artwork of such critical Modernists as Marcel Duchamp and Picabia, it will expose ways in which art was also able to parody this quest. As a postgraduate course, it will also investigate the relationship of eugenics to the Human Genome Project today and the art projects that have pursued its ramifications upon bioethics and aesthetics.