Biotech + Art

For non-science majors, how could we simplify “biotechnology?” For beginners, think about the machines used in hospitals. Those were invented and manufactured by doctors and engineers who discovered a need for them to help aid the medical field. When this study intersects with art, we enter a world called “bioart.” This field is the practice where artists use living matter combined with scientific background to reconstruct life.

Biology is the new medium, replacing the traditional such as photography, film, or watercolors. Bioart no longer derives solely from our post-genomic era, but foregrounds what comes next. In envisioning new forms of biological transformation, bioartists scrutinize contemporary bioethical issues to the point of controversy.

For me personally, when I think of art and biotechnology, digital imaging of cells and bacteria come to mind. It’s easy to only view these images as a real life representation of regular bodily components. However, their natural beauty is a form of great art to the human eye. Due to this aesthetic quality, I find Joe Davis’ work extremely unique and special – his ability to tame lightning and direct it to specific sculpture for variations in colors is one of the most genius mediums of art I have studied. To be able to harness one of nature’s most powerful weapons as an artistic instrument is both daring and respectable.

Another bioartist that I respect is Kathy High. She spent months on her conceptual art project: Blood Wars. It was cool how she was able to represent the “fight” between different blood cells in the blood wars. She looks at the biological reaction of competing human white blood cells and also questions traits inherited through blood. This project is a competition in an ironic simulated tournament where different individuals’ white blood cells vie for dominance on the petri dish. This project playfully engages with debates about blood traits and the powerful histories of blood. It helps bring a better understanding of the processes of blood cell division, cell staining, immune cells and the functioning of the immune system, time-lapse microscopy and laboratory protocol.

A good deal of bioart explores the reality of our human bodies and an image that represents what we’re really made up of. The artists teases our curiousity of natural components by forming it into a metaphorical figure.

[1] Vesna, Victoria. "BioTech + Art PT1." BioTech and Art. UCLA. UCLA, Los Angeles. 9 May 2015. Lecture. 

[2] Robinson, Gavin. "MIT Professor building a lightning-harnessing tower as memorial." Geekcom.n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.

<http://www.geek.com/news/mit-professor-building-a-lightning-harnessing-tower-as-memorial-576927/>.

[3] High, Kathy. "Blood Wars." Kathy High: Visual/media Artist, Independent Curator, Educator. Web. 9 May 2015. <http://kathyhigh.com/project-blood-wars.html>.

[4] Miranda, Carolina A. "WEIRD SCIENCE: BIOTECHNOLOGY AS ART FORM." ART NEWS. 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 9 May 2015. <http://www.artnews.com/2013/03/18/biotechnology-as-art-form/>.

[5] Solon, Olivia. "Bioart: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Using Living Tissue as a Medium." Wired. 28 July 2011. Web. 9 May 2015. <http://www.wired.com/2011/07/bioart/>.