Hacking life? The politics and poetics of DIY biology
Abstract
Biohacking, or do-it-yourself (DIY) biology, has rapidly established itself as a distinctive movement over the past 6 years. Numerous media articles have reported on biohacking, and it has even entered the museum world, in an exhibition called Biohacking: Do-It-Yourself at the Medical Museion in Copenhagen. DIY biology is today a rather fashionable phenomenon, attracting an increasing number of practitioners, journalists, academics, scientists, students, citizens, hackers, artists, and potential entrepreneurs. This paper analyses the DIY biology movement. The paper examines its history and genealogy, its politics of openness, and its ethics and economic logics and argues that these need to be carefully analyzed and defy neat categories and simple narratives. The politics of life are complex and multifaceted - and the politics of hacking life are no exception.