ABOUT

The film installation of Life Eternal can be viewed here. This website began as a series of performance-lectures for the spring of 2020. The pandemic, however, brought those plans to an abrupt end. It was coincidental that I had spent the last few months researching stories of immortality, while thoughts of my own mortality settled into the daily routine. The stories of eternal life are many: the literary works of Gilgamesh or Dorian Grey, the Russian Bio-Cosmists or Google’s Calico project. The three presented here – Juan Ponce de Leon, Henrietta Lacks, and James Bedford – stand out as highly contested narratives among the many others. Whether it’s their facts or their meaning, it’s always a sea of competing voices eager to give their own interpretation. My own texts come at a time when our grand narratives, truths, and cultural canons are being overturned. In this context, how do I make sense of these stories I now find myself obsessed with? Perhaps it’s not surprising that the themes of colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism jump out so vividly from them given our current moment. These texts are an invitation to consider a path humanity may choose to pursue – similar to space colonization – as we enter an age of limitless faith in technology.

BIO

Salvador Miranda is a Mexican-Canadian artist and filmmaker. His work explores grand narratives and the images of our visual culture that (re)produce them.

CREDITS

Text and Concept: Salvador Miranda
Web Design: Alexander Roidl
Sound Design: Evan Prosser

Supported by CBK Rotterdam
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts

IMAGE CREDITS ↓

Juan Ponce de Leon Images
Background Image: Wikimedia Commons , under the creative commons cc-by-sa 3.0 license
Image 1: Achille Guerra, Arrival of Columbus in America, under Public Domain
Image 2: Michelangelo, Sistene Chapel, under Public Domain
Image 3: Eugenio Ruidiaz y Caravia, Portrait of Juan Pone de Leon, under Public Domain
Image 4: unknown, Painting of Spanish and Slaves, under Public Domain
Image 5:Boston Public Library, Statue of Juan Ponce de Leon, under Public Domain
Image 6: Newberry Library, Statue of Juan Ponce de Leon, under Public Domain
Image 7: Theodor de Bry, Christopher Columbus arrives in America, under Public Domain
Image 8: Emanuel Leutze, Storming of the Teocalli by Cortez and His Troops, under Public Domain
Image 9: Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of a Man said to be Christopher Columbus, under Public Domain
Image 10: Emauel Leutze, Christopher Columbus on Santa Maria in 1492, under Public Domain
Video 11: Christie’s auction page for signed Ponce de Leon letter page
Image 12: Charles Napier Kennedy, The Fountain of Youth, under Public Domain
Image 13: Lucas Cranach Der Jungbrunnen, Fountain of Youth, under Public Domain
Image 14: John Vanderlyn, Landing of Columbus, under Public Domain
Image 15: Codex Kingsborough, an indigenous Mexican complaint, under Public Domain
Image 16: Wikicommons user Riandi, Mangrove Everglades, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license
Video 17: Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la Florida
Image 18: Maestro della Manta, The Fountain of Youth, under Public Domain
Image 19: William Haussoullier, The Fountain of Youth, under Public Domain
Image 20: Gregory H. Revera, Full Moon, under under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Image 21: Unknown, Death of Juan Díaz de Solís, under Public Domain
Image 22: Unknown, Death of Juan Díaz de Solís, under Public Domain
Image 23: Daderot, Juan Ponce de León tomb, under Public Domain

Henrietta Lacks Images
Background Image: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Apoptotic HeLa cell, under Public Domain
Image 1: Henrietta Lacks, Courtesy of the Lacks family
Image 2: Historic American Buildings Survey, Virginia, under Public Domain
Image 3: Historic American Buildings Survey, Virginia, under Public Domain
Image 4: Library of Congress, Johns Hopkins Hospital, under Public Domain
Image 5: Library of Congress, Operation, under Public Domain
Image 6: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Mississippi Ku-Klux in the Disguises, under Public Domain
Image 7: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, under Public Domain
Image 8: Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of Johns Hopkins Medical Institution, Dr. George Otto Gey, under Fair Use
Image 9: National Institutes of Health, HeLa Cells, under Public Domain
Image 10: Mariantonietta L., HeLa Cells, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Image 11: Wikicommons user 8x57is, HeLa Cells, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Image 12: Gerry Shaw, HeLa Cells, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Image 13: Wikicommons user Arnatbio, HeLa Cells, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Video 14: Archival footage of Dr. George Gey, under Fair Use
Image 15: Henrietta Lacks, Courtesy of the Lacks family
Image 16: Robert Thom, Illustration of Dr. J. Marion Sims with Anarcha, under Public Domain
Image 17: Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life, under Public Domain
Image 18: Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, under Fair Use
Image 19: HBO, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, under Fair Use
Image 20: Wikicommons user Emw, Henrietta Lacks marker, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

James Bedford Images
Background Image: Wikimedia Commons , under the creative commons cc-by-sa 3.0 license
Image 1: Ria Novosti/Science Photo Library, Leonov's Spacewalk, under Fair Use
Image 2: New York Times Magazine, August 12, 1945, under Fair Use
Image 3: Cryonics Freezing, Photo courtesy of Alcor Life Extension Foundation www.alcor.org
Image 4: PRmachine, David Merlini frozen in ice, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Image 5: unknown
Video 6: Apollo Moon Landing, under Fair Use
Image 7: Robert Nelson, Photo courtesy of Alcor Life Extension Foundation www.alcor.org
Video 8: Google maps of Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Image 9: Anders Sandberg, Alcor Life Extension dummy, under the creative commons cc-by-nc 2.0 license
Image 10: Anders Sandberg, Alcor Life Extension dewars, under the creative commons cc-by-nc 2.0 license
Video 11: Websites of cryonics organizations
Image 12: Dewar, Robert Nelson, Photo courtesy of Alcor Life Extension Foundation www.alcor.org
Image 13: Andrei Sokolov, Cosmism, under Public Domain
Image 14: Mike Mac Marketing, Artificial Neural Network with Chip under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
Image 15: NASA, Artemis astronaut, under Public Domain
Image 16: Wikicommons user Tiq, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Image 17: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Nanotechnology; Fluorescent Nanodots, under Public Domain
Image 18: James Bedford, Robert Nelson, Photo courtesy of Alcor Life Extension Foundation www.alcor.org