Michelle Barker, Australia, 2000, CD-ROM/Installation

Præternatural is an interactive CD-ROM that covers an expansive period of time from the seventeenth century through to the present. Rather than a textbook-accurate historical and contemporary account of the monstrous, the work presents a critical genealogy that is based on myth, perception and overall, the concerns of a given society at a given time. Inevitably, it is designed to critique contemporary attitudes towards notions of bodily and physical acceptability. The interface for Præternatural has adopted the metaphor of the microscope and the viewer can explore areas that address historical values in relation to cybernetics, genetics and evolution allowing viewers an opportunity to reflect on historical and contemporary debate around these issues.

Sound Design: Panos Couros