Art In The Biotech Era

How do we arrive at a definition of this new art form that utilizes the merging of genetics, art and information technologies, and which has been augmented in its means and accented in its direction through this 'interdisciplinary' interaction?

Bioart -- art that uses either living materials (such as bacteria or transgenic organisms) or more traditional materials to comment on, or even transform, biotechnological practice -- now receives enormous media attention. Yet despite this attention, bioart is frequently misunderstood. Bioart and the Vitality of Media is the first comprehensive theoretical account of the art form, situating it in the contexts of art history, laboratory practice, and media theory. Mitchell begins by sketching a brief history of bioart in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, describing the artistic, scientific, and social preconditions that made it conceptually and technologically possible. He illustrates how bioartists employ technologies and practices from the medical and life sciences in an effort to transform relationships among science, medicine, corporate interests, and the public. By illustrating the ways in which bioart links a biological understanding of media -- that is, �media� understood as the elements of an environment that facilitate the growth and development of living entities -- with communicational media, Bioart and the Vitality of Media demonstrates how art and biotechnology together change our conceptions and practices of mediation. Reading bioart through a range of resources, from Immanuel Kant�s discussion of disgust to Gilles Deleuze�s theory of affect to Gilbert Simondon�s concept of �individuation,� provides readers with a new theoretical approach for understanding bioart and its relationships to both new media and scientific institutions.

Evolution has gotten us this far. Design may take it from here. Aimed at raising awareness about genetic engineering, biotechnologies, and their consequences through the lens of art and design, Art's Work in the Age of Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures is an art-science exhibition curated by Hannah Star Rogers and organized by the NC State University Libraries and the Genetic Engineering and Society Center, and shown at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, in the physical and digital display spaces of the Libraries, and on the grounds of the North Carolina Museum of Art. By combining science and art and design, artists offer new insights about genetic engineering by bringing it out of the lab and into public places to challenge viewers' understandings about the human condition, the material of our bodies, and the consequences of biotechnology. Exhibition participants include Kirsten Stolle, Paul Vanouse, Adam Zaretsky, Joe Davis, Emilia Tikka, Emeka Ikebude, Jennifer Willet, Charlotte Jarvis, Maria McKinney, Ciara Redmond, Aaron Ellison, David Buckley Borden, Joel Ong, and others.

Tissues, Cultures, Art narrates the twenty-five years of collaborative and sometimes provocative artistic practice and scholarly thought of Catts & Zurr, who pioneered the use of regenerative biology techniques to create Semi-Living art using living cells, tissues, and technological surrogate bodies. Through hands-on work in biological laboratories, the authors researched concepts such as partial-life and DNA-Chauvinism and explored the fantasies of living in a technologically mediated victimless utopia. The authors delve into life’s resistance to reductionism, systemisation and control, asking whether there is something unique to life without the need to resort to metaphysics. Their practices reach beyond the confines of art and are often cited as precursors to the cellular agriculture and biofabrication industries. Through a hybrid of personal reflections, poetics, and anecdotes with a more rigorous, scholarly approach – all illustrated with artworks - the authors present a critical view on the use of life as a raw material for human manipulation.

Bringing the concept of contamination into dialogue with affect theory and bioart, Agnieszka Wolodzko urges us to rethink our relationship with ourselves, each other and other organisms. Thinking through the lens of contamination, this book provides an innovative approach to understanding the leaky, porous and visceral nature of our bodies and their endless interrelationships and, in doing so, uncovers new ways for thinking about embodiment. Affect theory has long been interested in transmission or contagion but, inspired by Spinoza and Deleuze, Affect as Contamination goes further, as contamination is concerned with the materiality of bodies and their affective encounter with other matter. This brings urgency to the notion of affect, not only for bioart that works with risky bodies but also for understanding how to practise our bodies in the age of biotechnological manipulation and governance. Using challenging and transgressive bioart projects as provocative case studies for rethinking affect and bodily practice, Wolodzko follows various 'contaminants' from blood, hormones and viruses to food, glitter and plants. This takes the form of both personal accounts of encounters with the contaminations of bioart and critical analyses of aesthetic, material and technical objects, with each one highlighting in different ways the risky and uncertain nature of contamination. Affect as Contamination is an urgent and original meditation on just what it means to be living, and practising our bodies, in an era where biotechnology contaminates all aspects of our lives.

A visually striking, authoritative survey of the crossover between art and biotechnology by an expert in the field In an era of fast-paced technological progress and with the impact of humans on the environment increasing, the concept of “nature” itself seems called into question. Bio Art explores the work of “bio artists,” those who work with living organisms and life processes to address the possibilities and dangers posed by biotechnological advancement. A contextual introduction traces the roots of bio artistic practice, followed by four thematic chapters: Altering Nature, Experimental Identity and Mediums, Visualizing Scale and Scope, and Redefining Life. The chapters cover the key areas in which biotechnology has had an impact on today’s world, including ecology, biomedicine, designer genomes, and changing approaches to evolutionary theory, and include profiles of the work of sixty artists, collectives, and organizations from around the world. Interviews with eight leading bio artists and technologists provide deeper insight into the ideas and methods of this new breed of creative practitioners.