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A01H: Cyanotypes of New Plants or Processes for Obtaining Them

Using a visual language stemming from early photography, Louis Porter shows genetically modified plants and the ownership claims that large companies put on them. The way in which we capture the beauty of nature is historically fundamentally connected to how we define and lay claim to it, both in research and in commerce. Companies like Monsanto and Bayer often receive bad press because they patent (in particular genetically modified) plants, yet a law that makes this possible was already passed in America in 1930. The last part of the title of this series is the same as a patent category of the United States Patent and Trademark Office: New Plants or Processes for Obtaining Them. Based on the illustrations of patented plants from the institution’s public database, Louis Porter made a series of cyanotypes, a photographic process that creates a cyan-blue print. In doing so, he refers to the emergence of the technical representation and classification of fauna: Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions by Anna Atkins was published in 1843, and is widely regarded as the first publication with photographic images.

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