Videos
Digital Cultures of Species Revival | Sarah Bezan
De-extinction, or "zombie zoology," promises to revive extinct species through gene editing, backbreeding, and cloning. But as literary scholar Sarah Bezan argues in this talk, de-extinction science can't be separated from the generative fictions and cultural narratives that implicate the imaginary futures of our extinct species.
Beginning inside the control room of Jurassic Park, Bezan traces how digital cultures intersect with de-extinction science. She looks to artists whose digital works stage extinct species as ghosts, clones, and speculative test cases for ethical reflection, and to a wave of recent speculative fiction that link de-extinction to mind uploading and digital consciousness. These anticipatory futures transport the science of de-exctinction into versions of reality that may be seductive, diminished, or transcendant, inciting further lines of questioning which critically assess the moral and ethical implications of species revival: who gets a say in what is brought to life, and what future natures are we actually designing?
Sarah Bezan is a Lecturer in Literature and the Environment at University College Cork, and founder of the Cultures of Species Revivalism Research Group.
Recorded at FOTO ARSENAL WIEN as part of Vienna Digital Cultures 2026. Autotelic Foundation is Key Partner of Vienna Digital Cultures 2026, curated by Nadim Samman.