THE VALIDATION JUNKY

PRAKSIS x RAM GALLERY
OSLO, 2023

THE VALIDATION JUNKY is an ongoing research-led project that investigates how identity, desirability, and the body are shaped and increasingly codified by digital infrastructures.

With over 60% of the global population actively using social media (Statista, 2023), algorithmic systems continuously reconstruct subjectivity through data loops, platform feedback, and the commodification of the self. At the same time, rapid developments in AI and biotechnology—often driven by corporate agendas—are transforming the human body far ahead of regulatory frameworks. THE VALIDATION JUNKY continues to expand through interdisciplinary formats, blending critical design, systems thinking, and speculative fiction, while centring LGBTQIA+ perspectives in discussions around mental health, technological development, and digital governance. It calls for alternative imaginaries and infrastructures that challenge normative optimisation and advocate for more plural, inclusive futures.

Keywords - Artificial Intelligence, Bio-Technology, CRISPR-Cas9, Gene Editing, Metaverse, New Media, Post-Ontology, Transhumanism

THE VALIDATION JUNKY Installation

RAM Galleri Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

VALIDERINGSSØPPELET

VALIDERINGSSØPPELET is a large-scale drawing that explores how artificial intelligence, new media, and cognitive computation influence the construction of identities. Using a mix of anatomical forms, speculative design, and architectural drawing techniques, the drawing visualises the hidden systems that shape how an individual is seen, valued, and understood in today's digital world.

In continuous development since 2013, the 2023 version brings together research developed in Oslo through collaboration with PRAKSIS, and builds on partnerships with The Vigeland Museum and Karmaklubb*. The drawing reflects on how bodies and identities are increasingly shaped by algorithms, and looks closely at how validation culture operates across digital platforms.

The title, VALIDERINGSSØPPELET, is Norwegian for "The Validation Garbage," and accounts for this version’s research and development in Norway. The use of a Norwegian title anchors the work in this context while signalling its critical stance: it brings attention to what gets left out, pushed aside, or made invisible by systems that constantly rank and measure online users. The phrase captures the emotional and cultural residue of digital life, especially for those who don’t align with dominant expressions of identity.

Digitally-drawn giclee print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Installation of nine frames, 332(h) x 242 (w)cm
1 of 1. Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

PERFECTION / SPECULATION at The Vigeland Museum

A central component of the project, PERFECTION / SPECULATION at the Vigeland Museum, features a series of interviews staged at the museum with thinkers from the fields of speculative design, media theory, and bioethics, including Natasha Vita-More, Mark Jarzombek, Lev Manovich, and Lucy McRae. These dialogues unfold amidst Vigeland’s canonical sculptures, reflecting how both normative and non-normative bodies have always been shaped by inherited visual cultures and emerging technological ideals.

Multi-Channel Moving Image 15:00 Mins, Variable Dimensions Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - PAH foto/Peacock/RAM

PERFECTION / SPECULATION IDENTITY MAP

The research was developed in collaboration with The Vigeland Museum, queer live programming initiative Karmaklubb*, and fellow residents of the PRAKSIS programme, whose co-developed interview questions mapped out a collective inquiry into the cultural, psychological, and political implications of body optimisation. A fold-out IDENTITY MAP publication accompanies the project, juxtaposing speculative future-body prototypes with theoretical insights, bridging past artistic legacies with speculative futures.

Double Sided A1 Map
Folding into 297 (h) x 105 (w) Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

“It has transcended the modern critique of the Kardashians—that we often see them as being fake, or being a symptom of a certain type of malaise. When in reality, the post-digital sees all people like that: for the post-digital, we’re all Kardashians.”

Mark Jarzombek (USA) is a Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

“In psychological terms beauty is homoeostasis, so I would never want to be a perfect person or perfect being because if so, then I’d have no place to go.”

Natasha Vita-More (USA) is the Executive Director of Humanity+ Inc., Founder of H+ Lab, Author of The Transhumanist Manifesto, and designer of Primo Posthuman.

“I think that one of the beauties of speculation is that you can prototype and map out scientific “what ifs” and ask questions. What if this happens? Do we want it?”

Lucy McRae (UK/AUS) is a science fiction artist, filmmaker, inventor and body architect. She is a Visiting Professor at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI_ARC)

“However, maybe we shouldn’t blame the algorithms, because people basically copy each other, don’t they? Very few people are original; maybe one in a million. Most people don’t have time to carve out their own path, or they aren’t brave enough to think for themselves— so they copy one other.”

Lev Manovich (RU) is the Presidential Professor at the Graduate Centre, City University of New York (CUNY), and Founder and Director of the Cultural Analytics Lab

PERFECTION / SPECULATION IDENTITY MAP [Future Body Prototype Sketches]
Double Sided A1 Map Folding into 297 (h) x 105 (w)
Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/PRAKSIS

WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US - I

WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US is a series of digital sculptures, each animated to blink, breathe, and twitch with a lifelike presence. Over the course of ten minutes, each character undergoes a gradual transformation, morphing into five distinct ideological representations of an idealised or “perfected” self, presented as an experimental exercise in sculptural digital bodybuilding.
Developed using human models and enhanced through post-production techniques, the characters engage the viewer directly, locking eyes with the camera in a way that evokes Masahiro Mori’s concept of the Uncanny Valley—the psychological space where the line between a healthy human and a robot blurs, unsettling the viewer’s perception. This installation raises critical questions: Who might you become if you could design yourself in any conceivable way? How does new media shape our self-perception, and what roles do society and technology play in this ongoing process of self-mediation? WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US invites viewers to contemplate the intersection of technology, identity, and the human form, challenging the boundaries of how we see ourselves in the digital age.

4k Digital Sculpture Moving Image 10 mins
1 of 5. London, 2023
Photo Credit - Peacock/RAM

WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US - I, II, IV
4k Digital Sculpture Moving Image 10 mins
1 of 5. London, 2023
Photo Credit -PAH foto/Peacock/RAM

VALIDATION SKETCH I
Digitally-drawn giclee print and pencil on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
29(h) x 42(w) cm. 1 of 1. Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit -Peacock

VALIDATION SKETCH II
Digitally-drawn giclee print and pencil on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
29(h) x 42(w) cm. 1 of 1. Oslo, 2023
Photo Credit -Peacock

PERFECTION / SPECULATION at The Vigeland Museum
Multi-Channel Moving Image 15:00 Mins, Oslo 2023

THE VALIDATION JUNKY 2023

PRAKSIS X RAM
Dedicated to Daniel Remkall Slotvik 1989-2023
Creative Director, Adam Peacock

VALIDERINGSSØPPELET
Drawing, Adam Peacock
Production, PRAKSIS

PERFECTION / SPECULATION at The Vigeland Museum
Creative Direction & Concept, Adam Peacock
Production, PRAKSIS
Research Agenda Lead, Adam Peacock
Research Agenda Questions, Marte Aas, Jonathan Armour, Louis Alderson-Bythell, Trinley Dorje, Adam Peacock, Erika Stöckel, Bobby Yu Shuk Pui
Interviewees, Lucy McRae, Lev Manovich, Mark Jarzombek, Natasha Vita-More
Interviewer, Adam Peacock
Videography, Katharina Gellein Viken, Charles Kriel
Edit, Adam Peacock Studios
Location, The Vigeland Museum
Production Assistant, Bobby Yu Shuk Pui

PERFECTION / SPECULATION IDENTITY MAP
Document Design & Concept, Adam Peacock Studios
Production, PRAKSIS
Copy Edit, Adam Peacock, Rachel Withers
Research Agenda Lead, Adam Peacock
Research Agenda Question Development, Marte Aas, Jonathan Armour, Louis Alderson-Bythell, Trinley Dorje, Adam Peacock, Erika Stöckel, Bobby Yu Shuk Pui
Research Visits, BioArt arena in Norway (NOBA), Bioteknologirådet (The Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Henry Moore Foundation, Menneskeverd (Human Dignity)
Online / In-Person Research Presentations, Department of Archaeology Human Evolutionary Studies University of Cambridge, NFU - Norsk Forbund for Utviklingshemmede (The Norwegian Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities), Kreftforeningen (Norwegian Cancer Society), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Printing, Nilz & Otto Grafisk

WE ARE WHAT THE INTERNET MAKES US I, II, IV
Creative Direction & Concept, Adam Peacock
Photography, Lighting, Styling, Post-Production, Adam Peacock
Makeup and Prosthetics, Tamara Dickson-Jones
Production Assistants, Celia Tang, Dian-Jen Lin, Isabela Branca Gygax, Lara Gill
Model, I, Wing Yue Leung
Model, II, Hermione Fallon Callow
Model, IV, Thomas Wade Nichols

SELECTED PROJECT ENGAGEMENT

2023, [We Are What The Internet Makes Us, Character I], Exhibited at Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland
2023, [Full exhibition] , Exhibited in a Solo show at RAM Gallery, Oslo, Norway
2023, [Full exhibition], Feature by Kunstavisen (The Art Newspaper), Oslo, Norway
2023, [Full exhibition], Feature by CLOT Magazine, London, UK
2024, [VALIDERINGSØPPELET] Lumen Prize Finalist, Still Image Category, Lumen Studios London
2024, [VALIDERINGSØPPELET] Lumen Prize Finalist, Carla Rapoport Award, Lumen Studios London

Supported by Oslo Kommune, Kulturdirektoratet

With thanks to Nicholas John Jones, Kristian Schrøder
Ashley Austin, Carlos Pez, Chris Lynch, John Duff, Matthias Reichert, William Ainsley, Wei Hen Yui

Please click here for the press release PDF

GENETICS GYM

FASHION SPACE GALLERY, UAL
LONDON, 2016-20

GENETICS GYM is a speculative design project investigating how biotechnology and digital media co-produce new ideals of beauty, identity, and bodily optimisation.

Framed through fashion theory and critical design, the project equates ‘genetic strength’ with the ability to train machines to perceive attractiveness online, presenting five fictional body-customisation brands as provocations. Developed during the 2016 Designer in Residence appointment at the Fashion Space Gallery at London College of Fashion (UAL), the work examines how digital media reshapes the body silhouette, shifting the act of 'fashioning' the body into new, algorithmically governed terrains.

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.

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. 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 sculptural installation, video, graphic illustrations, research documents, and a techno-soundtrack, GENETICS GYM 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

GENETICS GYM – BRAIN-BODY-SOCIETY
The initial sketch investigates how cognition of beauty or appeal can be understood as a system of mathematics, semiotics, and signals, mediated through neurobiological responses and their connection to subjectivity and bodily adaptation.

Digitally-drawn giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag,
London 2016,
80 × 120 cm. Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – INSTALLATION
Video Still

Over a 10-minute cycle, the five characters stand side by side, blinking, breathing, and twitching to a bespoke techno soundtrack. Every two minutes, the soundtrack morphs, with each character evolving into a new ideological representation of beauty or aspiration, what the project terms "brands", offering a shifting matrix of speculative identities driven by consumption logic and aesthetic ideology.

Digitally-modified video portrait, prosthetics and makeup, digital video projection, 4K, 10 mins, London 2017, 700 × 250 cm, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM –BODY SCANNING WITH FACIAL TRACKING: CHARACTER FIVE

To develop the aesthetic, each character was tested using scanning technologies.

Digital image (video still, London 2017, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – INSTALLATION
Video Still

Visitors stand before five projected bodies, each blinking, breathing, and subtly moving. Filmed at full human scale in 4K and looking directly into the camera, the figures invite the viewer into a moment of intimate, critical reflection. By meeting their gaze, the viewer is prompted to consider how technology is shaping aspiration, identity, and who we are being conditioned to become.

Digitally-modified video portrait, prosthetics and makeup, digital video projection, 4K, 10 mins, London 2017, 700 × 250 cm, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – BRAND QUADRANT

In critiquing branding and its ideological function, GENETICS GYM borrows the quadrant model commonly used in market research to map and study competing brands. This framework is reimagined to construct five fictional body-customisation brands, each embodying a distinct ideological representation of self. Within this system, characters edit themselves according to the traits offered by each brand, satirising fashion marketing’s role in selling aspirational, optimised identities. The quadrant is structured along two axes: ‘self-centred’ to ‘community-centred’, and ‘visionary’ to ‘populist’. These axes reflect broader tensions between sustainable responsibility and mass consumption, between radical innovation and cultural conformity. The fictional brands shift and fluctuate, but remain positioned in relation to one another, forming a speculative landscape of identity production in an age of identity optimisation.

GENETICS GYM – CHARACTER ONE / FIVE BRANDS
Composite Video Still

Five brands applied to each character:
Brand 1 – Unsustainable Luxury ‘Self-Centred Populist’
Brand 2 – Punk ‘Manifesto-Visionaire’
Brand 3 – Beautiful Yet Vapid ‘No-Substance-Visionaire’
Brand 4 – Mainstream ‘Basic-Pleaser’
Brand 5 – Community-Focused ‘Communo-Consumer’

Digitally-modified video portrait, prosthetics and makeup, digital video projection, 4K, 10 mins, London 2017, 700 × 250 cm, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – BRAIN-BODY-SOCIETY, CHARACTER TWO

Building on earlier Brain–Body–Society sketches, each character is accompanied by an illustration mapping their body, brain, and cultural coding onto an architectural–mechanical system. These hybrid diagrams explore how identity can be visualised as an engineered interface between physiology, cognition, and social ideology. For Character Two, this system is further developed into a three-dimensional volume, abstracted into a sculptural form.

Digitally-drawn giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, London 2017, 80 × 120 cm, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – BRAND 3 – BEAUTIFUL BUT VAPID ‘NO SUBSTANCE VISIONAIRE’
(First GIF excerpt) Characters One, Two, Three
(Second GIF excerpt) Characters Three, Four, Five

The aim of the art direction was to strike a balance between aesthetic impact and ethical and psychological complexity. Five human models of varied ethnicities, genders, and body types were curated over an extended casting period. Models were selected for visual diversity and their ability to embody speculative narratives around genetic optimisation, with the understanding that their bodies would be digitally altered. Each participant was fully aware that their appearance would be heavily edited and was chosen for their understanding of and comfort with the project’s conceptual and aesthetic goals. To evoke hyperreality, extend the notion of bodily objectification, and amplify the imagined traits of each character, all body hair was removed using prosthetics and digital editing. A conscious decision was made to show nipples across all bodies, regardless of gender presentation, treating each subject identically and challenging social constructs around the censorship of female anatomy. Genitalia was deliberately covered, noting the limitations of distributing photorealistic bodies online and the potential impact this could have on the project’s accessibility beyond its initial exhibition context.

The resulting crafted body aesthetic was a sculptural form, allowing ethnicity, frame, and body type to remain central visual markers. Referencing Masahiro Mori’s 1970 theory of the uncanny valley (the unsettling space between recognising someone as a healthy human or a robot), the characters return the viewer’s gaze, prompting discomfort around what has been altered. It was important to work with real human models, rather than CGI avatars, because visual success lies within looking into the character’s eyes and feeling an empty human connection, or sadness, that only a living body can communicate. Subtle movements, including blinking, twitching, and breathing, further enhanced their sense of presence. Influenced by 16th-century still-life lighting, contemporary CGI, and emotionally raw portraiture, the art direction invites reflection on how digital media and bioengineering are reshaping ideals of human beauty, character, fragility and strength.

Digitally-modified video portrait, prosthetics and makeup, digital video projection, 4K, 10 mins, London 2017, 700 × 250 cm, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – BODY STRATEGY
Research Document Installation

Research document explaining the rationale behind the body silhouette forms. The document maps five characters, each with distinct genetic conditions, including body types, gender expressions, sexualities, ethnicities, personalities, and embodied tensions, and combines them with five branded consumption ideologies. The five characters, combined with five ideologies, produce a matrix of twenty-five unique body-morphed portraits, visualising how identity might be shaped under different ideological conditions.

A1 printed research document on custom Perspex stand, London 2017, Edition 1/100

GENETICS GYM – MENU

The document features a genetic ‘menu’ of 23 offerings, used to construct the speculative body-morphs. Developed in collaboration with researchers from the UCL Institute for Women’s Health and the MSc Reproductive Science and Women’s Health programme at UCL, the menu operates on a sliding scale of scientific feasibility. Each item was cross-referenced against published scientific literature and assigned a feasibility rating from 0 to 5, ranging from 0 (scientifically implausible or “bonkers”) to 5 (plausible according to current research and achievable using existing technologies such as CRISPR or epigenetic editing). This calibrated approach maintains a level of scientific rigour while allowing space to explore visually poetic and conceptually arresting body silhouettes, using the wits of speculative design. In the top-right corner, a pair of cherries references a retro milkshake diner menu, satirising the ease with which consumers are invited to ‘select’ enhancements, highlighting the unsettling possibility of altering one’s body or cognitive disposition with the same casualness as choosing an ice cream. At the bottom-right of the menu, a discreet tag reads “! WARNING: RISK OF DEATH”, intended to read as a dark reminder that such choices, while aestheticised, carry profound ethical, biological, and psychological implications.

GENETICS GYM – BODY STRATEGY DETAIL

The genetic ingredient list is mapped across all 25 body portraits, showing which components are applied to each form. Each body is assigned a scientific feasibility score, calculated as a composite of the genetic modifications required to produce each body. Behind the grid, a contour map generates a topographical landscape of feasibility: elevated regions indicate bodies that lie beyond current scientific reach, while lower areas correspond to those that could feasibly be edited today. Even at level 5, such modifications are often constrained by legal and ethical frameworks that vary across national and cultural contexts. This layered visualisation invites viewers to critically navigate a speculative body terrain, defined by the interplay between scientific possibility, political permissibility, and cultural desirability.

GENETICS GYM – THEORETICAL CONTEXT
Research Document Installation

A second research document outlines five key drivers that define the theoretical scope of the project: Genetic Tech Development, Photographic Tech Development, Shift in Media and Human Interaction, Shift in Public Anxiety, and Perception of Disability (1975–2045). Together, these drivers establish the socio-technical foundations for the emergence of a speculative Genetics Gym, proposing that such a product is not as far-fetched as it may initially appear. By tracing convergences across biotechnology, representation, and cultural anxiety, the study positions the Genetics Gym as a plausible, if provocative, response to current trajectories in optimisation culture and identity engineering.

A1 printed research document on custom Perspex stand, London 2016, Edition 1/100

GENETICS GYM – BRAIN-BODY-SOCIETY CHARACTER FIVE

For Character Five, the Brain–Body–Society system is extended into a three-dimensional volume and abstracted into a sculptural form, translating their internal logic into a material artefact that imagines an architecture for the complex mechanisms embedded within the cognition of appeal.

Digitally-drawn giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
London 2017, 80 × 120 cm, Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM – CHARACTER FIVE
Brand 3: Manifesto-Visionaire - GIF excerpt

Within the remit of GENETICS GYM, beauty isn’t limited to physical appearance; it also includes how an individual might perceive and interpret the world. For Character Five, under the Manifesto Visionaire brand, the body modulates genes linked to synaesthetic expression (scientific plausibility: 3.5/5), allowing the character to experience the world through altered sensory perception. In this context, beauty becomes a coping mechanism and a way of shaping one’s embodied perception of reality to better support mental and emotional wellbeing in a society of constant optimisation.

Digitally manipulated video portrait, prosthetics and makeup, digital video projection, 4K, 10 mins, London 2017, 700 × 250 cm. Edition 1/1

GENETICS GYM - FURTHER DETAIL

As part of the research phase, a public programme entitled Designing Sex was conceived, curated, and led as an interdisciplinary research residency at London College of Fashion. This included a symposium that brought together experts across genetics, public health, speculative design, plastic surgery, and digital culture to collaboratively imagine how cultural attitudes, digital aesthetics, and emerging biotechnologies might converge into future identity products. Contributors included Prof. Joyce Harper and Dr Helen C. O’Neill (UCL), Dr Agi Haines (CogNovo Lab at Plymouth University), Duncan Stephenson (Royal Society for Public Health), Dr Barry M. Jones (Royal College of Surgeons), and Henrique Mathias (Feeld). The event staged a post-disciplinary dialogue around beauty, body image, synthetic biology, and algorithmic desirability, raising urgent questions around reproductive ethics, gene editing, digital dating, and cultural aesthetics.

Following the symposium, a Speculative Body Workshop invited selected students from LCF and UCL, across fashion, psychology, and genetics, to explore self-redesign through speculative prototyping. Ideas generated, ranging from neotenic body edits to visual synaesthesia and golden-ratio-driven biometrics, informed the development of the five characters within The Genetics Gym. The workshop also surfaced disturbing continuities between contemporary optimisation cultures and early eugenicist aesthetics, reinforcing the need for critical frameworks in the face of accelerating biotechnologies.

GENETICS GYM has been recognised internationally for its critical engagement with genetic technologies, identity politics, and speculative design. Cited in public debates on CRISPR ethics and featured in the BBC iPlayer documentary DNA + Beauty, the project has contributed to broader cultural conversations on algorithmic bias, bodily autonomy, and the aesthetics of enhancement in the context of emerging genetic and artificial intelligence technologies. Its nomination for the S+T+ARTS Prize by Ars Electronica in Austria led to a series of international exhibitions and public programmes, including presentations at Science Gallery Melbourne, Dublin, and Monterrey, each accompanied by talks, symposia, and interdisciplinary panels.

The project has informed institutional research at UCL and UAL, shaped the thematic and conceptual foundation of the PERFECTION / SPECULATION residency at PRAKSIS Oslo, and continues to be referenced as a model for socially engaged, speculative approaches to biotechnological futures. It has been exhibited at Fashion Clash Festival in Maastricht, presented as the opening keynote at Product Innovation Apparel in Milan, developed into speculative body workshops for the MA Fashion programme at the Royal College of Art, and informed future-facing curricula within the MA Fashion Futures course at London College of Fashion (UAL), where it shaped the Speculative Prototyping unit. It also informed teaching at the School of International Art in Beijing for the course Future of Fashion, Identity and the Metaverse. Its research was published by Bloomsbury in Crafting Anatomies: Archives, Dialogues, Fabrications, where it anchors a chapter on speculative design and the politics of bodily modification. It is regularly cited as a benchmark for post-disciplinary, socially engaged approaches to design, media, and biotechnology, particularly in the context of aesthetically led biofutures.

SINCE THE GENETICS GYM

Since the project was first shown at the Fashion Space Gallery at UAL in 2017, the landscape of applied genetic technology has shifted dramatically, moving from speculative design to mainstream application. These developments reflect ongoing culturally-negotiated concepts of desirability, health, and disability, forming a complex entanglement of aesthetics, ethics, and biopolitics:

In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the world by producing the first CRISPR-edited babies, modifying the CCR5 gene in an attempt to make them resistant to HIV. His actions were met with widespread condemnation and led to his imprisonment.
In 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Luxturna, the first in vivo gene therapy for a genetic disease, signalling a new era in the commercialisation of gene-editing technologies.
In 2021, the World Health Organization released its first global recommendations on human genome editing, calling for robust ethical governance in response to rapidly advancing technologies.
In 2022, Colossal Biosciences announced its intention to resurrect the woolly mammoth using CRISPR, reframing gene-editing as a tool of speculative ecological intervention.
In 2023, the UK announced plans to sequence the genomes of 100,000 newborns from 2024, triggering renewed public debate around consent, surveillance, and the commodification of genetic futures.
Also in 2023, the US National Human Genome Research Institute began funding research into the ethics of polygenic embryo screening, raising concerns about how such practices may reinforce inequalities by enabling the selection of socially privileged traits.
In 2025, early clinical trials of CRISPR-based treatments for rare metabolic and neurological disorders began enrolling patients in Europe and Asia, while AI-assisted genome interpretation tools saw widespread uptake in hospitals, prompting fresh concerns about algorithmic bias and the medicalisation of data-driven identities.

As the conversation continues, it’s important that wider publics join the discussion, not as passive recipients of scientific progress, but as active participants in shaping the ethical, aesthetic, and political frameworks that surround it.

GENETICS GYM

Commissioned by the Fashion Space Gallery

Creative Director - Adam Peacock
Project Management - Fashion Space Gallery Team

Research
Research Lead - Adam Peacock
Applied Psychology Consultant - Prof. Carolyn Mair (Psychology of Fashion, London College of Fashion)
Genetic Technology Consultants - Prof. Joyce Harper and Dr. Helen C. O’Neill (UCL Institute for Women’s Health)
Genetic Technology Research - Ashley Campbell, Liane Stein (MSc. Reproductive Science and Women’s Health, UCL)
Research Assistants - Dian-Jen Lin, Isabela Branca Gygax, Lara Gill (MA Fashion Futures, London College of Fashion)
Research Workshop Attendees, Design - Dian-Jen Lin, Hew Wang, Jo Cope, Siyang Meng, Voranida Rujekitnara, Yuqing Lai (MA Fashion Artefact, MA Fashion Womenswear, London College of Fashion), Anderson Dalle Laste (MA Graphic Design, London College of Communication)
Research Workshop Attendees, Psychology - Prof. Roberta Degnore (Fashion Institute of Technology NYC), David Adams, James Boag (MSc Psychology of Fashion, London College of Fashion)
Research Workshp Attendees, Genetic Technology - Dr. Helen C. O’Neill, Ashley Campbell, Liane Stein, Rachel Ho (MSc. Reproductive Science and Women’s Health, UCL)
Research Workshop Photography - Celia Tang (MA Fashion Photography, London College of Fashion)
Research Symposium Chairs - Adam Peacock & Lynne Murray (Director, Digital Anthropology Lab, Univeristy of the Arts London)
Research Symposium, on Social Policy & Mental Health - Duncan Stephenson (Royal Society for Public Health)
Research Symposium, on Genetic Technology - Prof. Joyce Harper and Dr. Helen C. O’Neill (UCL Institute for Women’s Health)
Research Symposium, on Synthetic Biology & Speculative Bodies - Dr. Agatha Haines (Cognovo Research Lab, Plymouth University)
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 (BA Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance, London College of Fashion)
Production Assistants - Celia Tang, Dian-Jen Lin, Isabela Branca Gygax, Lara Gill (MA Fashion Futures, London College of Fashion)
Technical Equipment - Adam Grice, Alex Burgess, Dimitrios Coumados, James Montgomery, Kate Allen
Model Casting - Adam Peacock
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

Selected Project Engagement

2022, Exhibited at JUMPSTART Science Gallery Monterrey, Mexico
2021, Awarded nomination S+T+ARTS Prize, Ars Electronica Linz, Austria
2020-21, Forms the ideological and research frameworks for residency PERFECTION / SPECULATION, PRAKSIS Oslo, Norway
2020, Published as a chapter within Crafting Anatomies by Bloomsbury Academic
2019, Featured in Image.ie, Ireland
2019, Featured in The Irish Times
2019, Profiled in In Pursuit of PERFECTION, Science Gallery Dublin
2019, Exhibited at Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland, for PERFECTION
2018, Reviewed in The Conversation, Australia
2018, Featured in Art Guide Australia
2018, Featured in The Age, Australia
2018, Exhibited at Science Gallery Melbourne, Australia, for PERFECTION
2018, Awarded the 2018 Robert Garland Treseder Fellowship at Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, Australia
2018, Opening keynote speech at Product Innovation Apparel Milan, Italy
2018, Featured by BBC iPlayer in ‘DNA+Beauty’
2017, Interviewed by CLOT Magazine
2017, Exhibited at Fashion Space Gallery, London College of Fashion
2016, Genetics Gym Research agenda forms the reserch symposium ‘Designing Sex’ at Fashion Space Gallery, London College of Fashion

Project Support
Fashion Space Gallery UAL, Digital Anthropology Lab UAL, Institute for Women’s Health UCL

This project was made possible through the generous conversations, critiques, ideas, wisdom, energy, and patience of many individuals, including:
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

AP

THE VALIDATION JUNKY BOOK

TOXIC QUEER MASCULINITIES

THE VALIDATION JUNKY

THE VALIDATION JUNKY is an ongoing research-led project that investigates how identity, desirability, and the body are shaped and increasingly codified by digital infrastructures.

“In psychological terms beauty is homoeostasis, so I would never want to be a perfect person or perfect being because if so, then I’d have no place to go.”

PERFECTION / SPECULATION

PERFECTION/ SPECULATION
THE CONVERSATION

A series of public, research-led conversations addressed themes of digital identity, algorithmic desirability, and speculative aesthetics, featuring invited interlocutors including Prof. Mark Jarzombek (MIT), Dr Natasha Vita-More (Humanity+), Lucy McRae (SCI-Arc), and Prof. Lev Manovich (CUNY).

GENETICS GYM

AP

THE VALIDATION JUNKY BOOK

TOXIC QUEER MASCULINITIES

THE VALIDATION JUNKY

THE VALIDATION JUNKY is an ongoing research-led project that investigates how identity, desirability, and the body are shaped and increasingly codified by digital infrastructures.

“In psychological terms beauty is homoeostasis, so I would never want to be a perfect person or perfect being because if so, then I’d have no place to go.”

PERFECTION / SPECULATION

PERFECTION/ SPECULATION THE CONVERSATION

A series of public, research-led conversations addressed themes of digital identity, algorithmic desirability, and speculative aesthetics, featuring invited interlocutors including Prof. Mark Jarzombek (MIT), Dr Natasha Vita-More (Humanity+), Lucy McRae (SCI-Arc), and Prof. Lev Manovich (CUNY).

GENETICS GYM

PERFECTION/ SPECULATION
THE CONVERSATION