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The German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel once wrote that "war is progress, peace is stagnation."

It's a sad truth that many advances in technology — nuclear power, radar, GPS technology, the internet, even canned food — were prompted by the needs of the military in wartime.

That parallel march of war and technology has long fascinated Tanja London, a German-born, Salt Lake City-based dancer and performance artist who is exploring those ideas in a new work, "Save Your Own Skin," being mounted this weekend and next at Library Square.

Even back in the 1990s, London said in an interview this week, "I felt like the public space got militarized, but I couldn't put my finger on it." She felt it even stronger after the 9/11 attacks, as concerns over terrorism and long-running wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dominated the world's attention.

More recently, she came across the work of Dutch bio-artist Jalila Essaïdi, who in 2011 invented a "bulletproof skin," developed from spider silk. In one of Essaïdi's experiments, four layers of spider silk repelled a slowed-down bullet — suggesting the possibility that a few layers of spider silk could do the job of the 36 layers of Kevlar typically used in bulletproof vests.

Essaïdi, London learned, also used spider silk, taken from transgenic goats raised at Utah State University, to create a "bio-scaffold" that human skin cells could grow into. If fully developed, this line of research could lead to soldiers having genetic material grafted into their skin to create a form of bio-armor.

"You wouldn't actually be bulletproof, because your organs would be goulash," London noted.

London explores issues of morality and technology through her work, which she bills as a "thought exhibition and performance."

The first part, the exhibition, is a series of museum-style placards that discuss the good points and bad points of military-inspired technology.

One display talks about the preservation of food in cans — developed to feed Napoleon's troops on the march. This led to abundant, transportable products being distributed to places that wouldn't otherwise have them, but the proliferation of processed food can also be blamed for rising rates of obesity and diabetes.

Another display considers the development of methamphetamines, which were used to allow soldiers to stay awake and alert for long periods — but have led to addiction and death for many who use them.

For the second part, London has turned a Library Square storefront (what used to be the downtown location for Night Flight Comics) into a performance space, with room for about 20 spectators at a time.

In that space, she will give a three-part performance — with live music and sounds by Jason Rabb and Nick Foster — that explores and interprets some of the ideas with which she has been grappling.

In one part, she has created a symbolic representation of "bulletproof skin," a body suit pieced together from triangles made from blue foam-rubber sheets. In the finale, she moves her lithe 5'5'' body around, over and through a clear plastic inflatable "bubble ball" in an exploration of manmade space.

The performances are set for today and Saturday, and again on March 31 and April 1, at 7:30 p.m. The exhibition space will be open today through April 1. Tickets for the performance are $15, or $10 for students; tickets for the exhibition space are $7, or $5 for students. They will be sold at tanjalondon.com/save-your-own-skin or at the door. The location is at Library Square, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City, in the first storefront on the left in the crescent wall.

London hopes her work makes viewers think about the morality of war and the technological advances that come with it.

"In the end, with military products, a lot of ethical boundaries are pushed," she said.

She noted how splicing genes would have been considered taboo 20 years ago, but now things like transgenic goats producing artificial spider silk are viable possibilities.

"Is that what we call progress?" she asked.

Sean P. Means writes The Cricket in daily blog form at http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/moviecricket. Follow him on Twitter @moviecricket. Email him at spmeans@sltrib.com. —

'Save Your Own Skin'

Tanja London's "thought exhibition and performance."

Where • Library Square, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. The exhibition and performance space are in the first storefront on the left in the square's crescent wall (formerly Night Flight Comics).

When • Performances are Friday and Saturday, March 24-25, and again March 31 and April 1, at 7:30 p.m. The exhibition will be open through April 1.

Admission • Tickets for the performance are $15, or $10 for students; tickets for the exhibition space are $7, or $5 for students. They will be sold at London's website or at the door.