John Tonkin—Meniscus
John Tonkin’s Meniscus Web events, including Elective Physiognomies, Elastic Masculini- ties, and Instant Eugenics, explore ideas relating to “the body, identity, and subjectivity.” Typically the viewer is confronted by an image, for example, of a face—and asked to make value judgments about the form. His Java applets then dynamically transform the face. The judgments sometimes affect what subsequent viewers will see.
On a deeper level, Tonkin seeks to comment on culturally defined norms about appearance and behavior and their ultimate manifestation in eugenics and genetic engi- neering. The linking of this cultural analysis with the technological form of genetic algorithms is an ideal combination: