Thesis Mindmap

Thesis February 19th, 2007

I’ve done a lot of research and have started down a few different paths that could become the focus of my thesis or basis for future work. I wrote down the different areas/topics that I’m interested in on a bunch of postit notes and stuck them to the wall. They fall under the broad categories of Philosophy, Science, Politics, Art and Ethics. Each category has a different colour.

Under each category I made a list of each idea I’m interested in. Then I sorted the notes in each category with more important or interesting ideas percolating to the top. After that I started making clusters of ideas related across categories.

The main clusters (or “constellations”) that emerged are roughly as follows:

The “what is the nature of life?” cluster dealing with what recent developments in molecular biology are telling us about the material basis of life and the relationship between humanity and nature (as affected and effected by our new tools for genetic manipulation).
The “open source biotechnology” cluster dealing with issues of corporate and institutional control of biotechnology.
The “ethics of biotechnology in artistic practice” cluster dealing with the use of living organisms and biotechnology in art.
The “art as informal science education and arena for debate” cluster exploring the relationship between art, science and the public.

Things are starting to gel a little. Part of the challenge is that there is so much information to assimilate, and so few easy answers.

Thesis Mindmap set on Flickr

Michael Ang

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