Biotechnology and Art

Kepler's Nested Polyhedra

During the mid-twentieth century, artists began exploring the realm of biotechnology and vastly expanded their pallet to include nature, the human body, and genetics. As Bio-artists began working directly with biologists, the ethical implications of artists meddling with genetics rose to the surface. The public began to question whether or not using genetically modified animals was okay for science, let alone for recreational art (Vesna, pt.1).

Bio-art’s main objective is to comment on the ethics of biotechnology being done in labs and artists like Joe Davis have taken eccentric standpoints. He has developed many projects from constructing Kepler’s nested polyhedra out of amino acids to designing an audio-microscope that transmits light information into sound, giving organisms their own acoustic signature. He takes scientific concepts, like self-assembling molecules, and puts them in his art like his primordial clock, which he intends to be self-assembling alarm clock (Vesna, pt.1).

Davis's Strategy for Alien Communication

Perhaps Davis’s most famous and controversial piece of bio-art was his idea to put a sign of human life into a bacterial genome and release it into space. He worked with microbiologists to insert microvenus into the genetic makeup of e coli in order to communicate with other life forms (Vesna, pt.1). His art pressures the viewers to ask deeper questions like what is life? And what does it mean to manipulate life into something we desire?

SymbioticA's Drawing Robotic Arm

Some of the bio art that was more fascinating to me was the art that explored semi-living objects. SymbioticA is a bio-art group that explores tissue culturing and focuses on semi-living projects. They constructed a robotic arm that was run by the activity of goldfish neurons. This interface of a biological neural network to a remote robotic drawing arm was incredibly interesting to me, but I imagine quite controversial due to its utilization of a living organism’s neurons (Vesna, pt.2).

Stelarc's Third Ear

Once piece that really struck me was Stelarc’s third ear, a sub-dermal implant made of cultured human cartilage with an implanted microphone. This ear was meant to address the barriers between living and nonliving things (Levy). Bio-art has developed as one of the most dramatic statement-making ways of doing art. It poses important ethical questions like should living material be used for artistic ends? Or where should we draw the distinction between living and non-living? These questions play an important role in all of our human experiences and I believe should be explored further.

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Vesna, Victoria. "5 BioArt Pt2." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 9 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&v=MdSt-Hjyi2I#t=31>.

Vesna, Victoria. "5 BioArt Pt3." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 9 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&v=3EpD3np1S2>.