Dive into your Gene Pool!Dive into your Gene Pool!
All In The Mind
Evolution, mutation and transformation -- what do these themes evoke for you? Genes mutate, but so do bodies, brains and cultures. Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and dive into the Gene Pool. We invited you to upload sounds, stories, and images to Radio National's social media site, Pool (http://pool.org.au), and to mutate and remix those of others. Catch All in the Mind's remix of your remixes!
29:57•28 Nov 2009
Gene Pool Remix: Evolution, Identity and Strange Beauties
Episode Overview
- Evolution is presented as a continuous process affecting genes, bodies, cultures and personal identity.
- Surreal poems highlight how self-hatred and the shadow self can shift towards acceptance and self-love.
- Contributors question whether natural selection is a creative force and how it relates to beliefs about God.
- Commentary links consumer culture and narcissism to deeper evolutionary drives for status and reproduction.
- RMIT student projects show how gender identity and audio technology both change and adapt over time.
“So from self-hatred, you can evolve in a sense of self-love.”
What drives someone to seek a life shaped by evolution, change and identity? This episode of *All In The Mind* throws you into ABC RN’s "gene pool" experiment, where poetry, philosophy, science and sound art all swirl together to mark the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s *On the Origin of Species*.
You’ll hear writer Boris Glickman share surreal, Kafka-inspired pieces like "Revelata Dysmorphologia" and "Revelata Subterranea", where a man becomes a boil and shadow selves lurk as beautiful eel-like creatures in the sewers. As Boris explains, he’s "always interested in growing and changing, reaching for the next layer", turning themes of self-hatred, self-acceptance and identity into vivid, dream-born narratives. His reflections as a Soviet-born migrant adjusting to life in Australia add another layer of personal change to the mix.
The episode also pulls in other contributors who riff on Darwin, religion and science, including a playful piece where "the bible meets *Origin of the Species* in no man's land for peace talks" and questions such as "Is natural selection a creative force?" The tension between faith, physics and the search for truth runs through several segments, with some voices admitting they became disillusioned with formal science and turned to writing instead.
You’ll get a glimpse of consumer culture through an evolutionary lens too, with commentary on narcissism, status, "work and shopping" and how our urge to display ourselves might tie back to reproductive success. Third-year media students from RMIT add intimate and inventive work: a documentary on the gender journey of a transgender person known as "Y", and a playful mash-up charting the evolution of audio technology from phonographs to modern sound.
It’s all stitched together by host Natasha Mitchell into a lively, experimental collage that treats evolution as something that shapes bodies, brains, behaviours, cultures and stories alike. If change touches every corner of life, how might your own ideas about identity, faith and progress be shifting right now?
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