I am hoping this is some kind of parody of the nigh universal tendency for (relational/new media/ all?) art to resemble the collateral campaign in The Man Without Qualities. [cf Matthew Hyland's great article on Documenta in Mute a few years back]. But it might just be a second order symptom of the disease hiding behind the illusion of a cure.

Speculation and risk management, once the preserve of finance, have become defining traits of all facets of contemporary capitalism – from military planning to stem cell research. The Melancholic Troglodytes review two recent books exploring the expansion of this speculative logic

There are distinct ideological ties of continuity between these two contributions.

Last week Mute hosted an open discussion entitled 'Feeding Frenzy: Food, Fuel and Finance' in which we tried to connect the recent food crisis to a chain of 'crises' – first the credit crunch and, following hard on its heals, the unprecedented hike in fuel prices. We would like to continue this debate here with your help!

Signs of Life offers one of the first surveys of the emerging field of ‘bioart’. But, writes Betti Marenko, this book often reveals an art genre in danger of providing biotech with its ultimate PR tool, instead of the critique its production of new economically driven life forms so urgently requires