Bio-objects through theatre

I’ll present the science-theatre model we developed as a tool for representing the bio-social meanings of some biotechnology innovations (‘bio-objects’), such as human and animal cloning, de-extinction and bio-banking. Scientific explanation and multimedia artistic representation were suitable to deliver knowledge and new insights and to engage debates, also by reaching the public’s emotions. The choice of the most suitable examples was crucial. Among the others, the case of HeLa cells (the first immortalized cell line established in the late ‘50s from Henrietta Lacks’ rare cervix adenocarcinoma) proved to be a suitable paradigmatic example. Hints for the public are their capability to challenge conventional natural, cultural, scientific and institutional orderings and to generate controversies. The invasive (an aggressive lethal cancer) immortal HeLa cells of emarginated origin (a poor, black woman) are emotionally impacting in their usefulness for generating precious knowledge and biomedical innovations as well as to produce commercial value. The public can be engaged in their social and symbolic impacts, raising questions about representation, significance and value of the exceptional, variety, individuality and property. Finally, HeLa cells also allow to be proposed as a suggestive lens for interpreting crucial key words of our multicultural and complex society, among them, cultural ‘diversity’ and ‘contamination’.