The Genetic Salon project, developed over the past five years, presents a hypothetical scenario where a genetic beauty company allows consumers to beautify themselves in any way imaginable through genetic technology. Presented in the form of exhibitions, films, speculative fiction and livestream programmes, Genetic Salon is a work of sci-fi, building on queer notions of the fluctuation of body, gender and identity, as well as theories of the digital age and the quantification of everything through big data.
Genetic Salon presents a future worldview in which genes are the basis for dominating everything; it is also the currency in circulation. Gene manipulation paves the way to a more ideal existence, and lends us a chance to experience living as a non-human species. On this technological trajectory towards further artificiality, the notion of the natural has become an enemy.
The project, which began as a podcast with Hong Kong Radio Community, includes collaborators from different professional and personal backgrounds, including artists, filmmakers, scientists, actors, scholars and collectors. It addresses various issues concerning genetic technology in relation to theology, history, anime, and the human body.
