Work

Promise and Ontological Ambiguity in theIn vitroMeat Imagescape: From Laboratory Myotubes to the Cultured Burger

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: meat (IVM), also known as cultured meat, involves growing cells into muscle tissue to be eaten as food. The technology had its most high-profile moment in 2013 when a cultured burger was cooked and tasted in a press conference. Images of the burger featured in the international media and were circulated across the Internet. These images-literally marks on a two-dimensional surface-do important work in establishing what IVM is and what it can do. A combination of visual semiotics and narrative analysis shows that images of IVM afford readings of their story that are co-created by the viewer. Before the cultured burger, during 2011, images of IVM fell into four distinct categories: cell images, tissue images, flowcharts, and meat in a dish images. The narrative infrastructure of each image type affords different interpretations of what IVM can accomplish and what it is. The 2013 cultured burger images both draw upon and depart from these image types in an attempt to present IVM as a normal food stuff, and as 'matter in place' when placed on the plate. The analysis of individual images and the collection of images about a certain object or subject-known as the imagescape-is a productive approach to understanding the ontology and promise of IVM and is applicable to other areas of social life.

Source: Science as Culture

DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2016.1171836

Authors: Neil Stephens, Martin Ruivenkamp

Institutions: Brunel University of London, HAN University of Applied Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Semiotics and Representation Studies

Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $722

Funders: Wellcome Trust, Economic and Social Research Council, Seventh Framework Programme