GENETICS GYM
A dedicated project website is available here
Genetics Gym is a speculative design project exploring how genetic technology and new media shape perceptions of beauty and identity. The project equates ‘genetic strength’ with training machines to perceive attractiveness online, through five fictional body-customisation brands.
The Genetics Gym is a speculative design provocation that explores the future of identity optimisation through emerging genetic technologies, media aesthetics, and body politics in an age of self-design. Developed as part of the Design Residency at the Fashion Space Gallery at London College of Fashion, UAL, the project draws from fashion theory to examine how digital media reshapes silhouette, shifting the act of ‘fashioning’ the body into new, algorithmically governed terrains. Following its initial exhibition, the project expanded into a wider programme of international exhibitions, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ongoing research exploring how biotechnology, media infrastructures, and identity intersect in both speculative and applied design contexts.
Created in collaboration with UCL’s Human Genetics and Embryology department, London College of Fashion’s Digital Anthropology Lab, and the Applied Psychology in Fashion department, the project comprises five fictional sub-brands that propose speculative regimes for enhancement. These include CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and epigenetic interventions offering a customisable ‘menu’ of traits—from eye shape to muscle gain—prompting reflection on how ‘genetic strength’ is defined through algorithmic legibility and digital desirability.
As CRISPR-Cas9 technology moves closer to real-world application, The Genetics Gym raises urgent questions around access, ethics, and control. It critiques how algorithms are trained to recognise and reproduce culturally biased ideals of beauty, and the consequences of encoding these into our biological futures. Through a sculptural installation, video, graphic illustrations, research documents and a techno-soundtrack, the project presents a critical, unsettling vision of a future in which fashioned bodies are curated, commodified, and computationally scored.
Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Bioethics, Computer Science, Consumer Psychology, CRISPR-Cas9, Cultural Analytics, Fashion Futures, Fashion Identity, Fashion Silhouette, Fine Art, Genetics, Identity Systems, Modifiable Bodies, New Media, Ontologies, Post-Humanism, Sculpture, Web3
Brain-Body-Society, 2017,
Graphic Illustration conceptualising the connection between cognition of visual proportions and mathematics,
and appropriation of individual bodies
Graphic Illustration conceptualising the connection between cognition of visual proportions and mathematics,
and appropriation of individual bodies
Install View, Genetics Gym
Fashion Space Gallery, 2017
Fashion Space Gallery, 2017
Body Scanning with Facial Tracking, 2017
Illustration: Brain-Body-Society, Character no5
Gallery visitors observe the characters blinking, breathing,
moving and slowly morphing between the five different ‘
perceptions of success’
moving and slowly morphing between the five different ‘
perceptions of success’
Character Number One, body edited according to the
first brand’s ideology or ‘perception of success’
first brand’s ideology or ‘perception of success’
Illustration: Brain-Body-Society, Character no1 (detail)
Illustration: Brain-Body-Society, Character no1
Research document showing brand outlines aligning
with the five characters to create twenty-five portraits,
including the ‘menu’ of genetic components required
for the body-morphs situated within gallery installation
with the five characters to create twenty-five portraits,
including the ‘menu’ of genetic components required
for the body-morphs situated within gallery installation
Research document
Research document (detail)
Research document showing five different drivers defining scope for theoretical context study; Genetic Tech Development, Photographic Tech Development, Shift in Media / Human Interaction, Shift in Public Anxiety, Perception of Disability, 1975 - 2045
Research document (detail)
Research document (detail)
Character Number Five, body edited according to the first brand’s ideology or ‘perception of success’
GENETICS GYM
Commissioned by the Fashion Space Gallery
Artist - Adam Peacock
Project Management - Fashion Space Gallery Team
Research
Research Lead - Adam Peacock
Applied Psychology Consultant - Prof. Carolyn Mair (London College of Fashion)
Genetic Technology Consultant - Dr. Helen C. O’Neill (UCL)
Genetic Technology Research - Ashley Campbell, Liane Stein (UCL)
Research Assistants - Dian-Jen Lin, Isabela Branca Gygax, Lara Gill (London College of Fashion)
Research Workshop Attendees, Design - Dian-Jen Lin, Hew Wang, Jo Cope, Siyang Meng, Voranida Rujekitnara, Yuqing Lai (London College of Fashion), Anderson Dalle Laste (London College of Communication)
Research Workshop Attendees, Psychology - Prof. Roberta Degnore (Fashion Institute of Technology NYC), David Adams, James Boag (London College of Fashion)
Research Workshp Attendees, Genetic Technology - Dr. Helen C. O’Neill, Ashley Campbell, Liane Stein, Rachel Ho (UCL)
Research Workshop Photography - Celia Tang (London College of Fashion)
Research Symposium Chairs - Adam Peacock & Lynne Murray (Digital Anthropology Lab)
Research Symposium, on Social Policy & Mental Health - Duncan Stephenson (Royal Society for Public Health)
Research Symposium, on Genetic Technology - Prof. Joyce Harper (UCL), Dr. Helen C. O’Neill (UCL)
Research Symposium, on Synthetic Biology & Speculative Bodies - Dr. Agatha Haines (Cognovo Research Lab)
Research Symposium, on Plastic Surgery - Dr. Barry M. Jones (Royal College of Surgeons)
Research Symposium, on Computer Science - Henrique Mathias (Feeld)
Production
Videography, Post-Production, Styling - Adam Peacock
Sound Artist - Timothy Wang aka TWANG
Makeup Artist - Tamara Dickson-Jones (London College of Fashion)
Production Assistants - Celia Tang, Dian-Jen Lin, Isabela Branca Gygax, Lara Gill (London College of Fashion)
Technical Equipment - Adam Grice, Alex Burgess, Dimitrios Coumados, James Montgomery, Kate Allen
Model Casting - Adam Peacock / The Validation Junky
Model Number One - Wing Yue Leung
Model Number Two - Hermione Fallow Callow
Model Number Three - Brendan Howley
Model Number Four - Thomas Wade Nichols
Model Number Five - John Kamau
Graphic Illustrations Drawings - Adam Peacock
Graphic Illustrations Printing - theprintspace
Research Document Production - Adam Peacock
Dissemination
Exhibition Design - Adam Peacock
Technical Install - Fergus O’Connor, Manoj Mistry, Steven Legget
Exhibition & Behind-The-Scenes Photography & Videography - Adam Peacock, Dian-Jen Lin, Isabela Branca Gygax, James Sanders, John Duff
Exhibition & Behind-The-Scenes Photography & Videography Edit - Adam Peacock, Isabela Branca Gygax
With ongoing support by Praksis Oslo, Arts Council Norway, City of Oslo, Science Gallery Dublin, Science Gallery Melbourne, Reproductive Science and Women's Health MSc, University College London, Digital Anthropology Lab, University of the Arts London
The project would not have been possible without the generosity of conversation, critique, ideas, wisdom, energy, and patience from - Adrien Weinert, Alex McIntosh, Charalambos Demetriou, Charlotte Baker, Dai Rees, Eelko Moorer, Frances McGarry, Janne Baetsen, Lara Sanjar, Mouhannad Al-Sayegh, Neil Hubbard, Nigel Luck, Nilgin Yusuf, Peter Hill, Susan Postlethwaite, Ted Hunt, Yener Bayramoglu, Zowie Broach
Exhibited at - ‘JUMPSTART’, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey and Mexico City, Mexico (2022-23), ‘Perfection / Speculation’, Vigeland Museum, Oslo, Norway (2021), ‘PERFECTION’, Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland (2019), PERFECTION: Part Experiment / Part Exhibition’, Science Gallery Melbourne, Australia (2018), Fashion Space Gallery, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK (2017)