Week 6 | BioTech + Art

Joe Davis and his work of BioArt has challenged the way I view biology through the artistic lens. As a bioengineer major, I've never really thought how aesthetic biology can be. For example, the concept of his putting a galaxy in the ear of a mouse through the information sequence of 3,867 DNA base pairs was so ingenious to me. [1] Captivated by his work, I researched further of his related artworks and stumbled upon an interesting environmental microbiology report discussing the art of bacteria.


Figure [1] Joe Davis in his Interview From Yale

Specifically, in this journal report, the art that caught my eye the most was "Petri Art." Started in the early 30's by Alexander Fleming, Petri Art is the use of pigmented microbes to paint various objects such as toy soldiers and ballerina figurines. [2] The reason why this stood out to me was because its a microscopic form of art that can be seen with the naked eye. Ordinarily, a microscope is needed to examine a microbes which I believe serves as a barrier to a true understanding of bacteriology because a person is required to view it through a filtered lens. However, this Petri Art circumvents that in an aesthetic manner highlighting the reality of our microscopic world.


Figure [2] Petri Art by Pellissippi State Microbiology Students

Another thing that challenged my view of BioTech was the research lab SymbioticA. This lab was established in 2000 by Professor Miranda Ground, Professor Stuart Bunt, and Oron Catts and fosters interdisciplinary study that is free of demands and constraints from the current culture of scientific research. [3] I think that this is a perfect example of the juxtaposition between the arts and the sciences and also represents the "Third Culture" coined by Charlie Percy Snow in our week one unit. That is scientist and who are also artists and artists who are also scientist create work that belongs in both fields.


Most notably, the experiment under SymbioticA that was the most influential to me was Blood Wars by scientist Katherine High. In essence, her research pits white bloods from differing immune systems in a duel and are captured through time-lapse microscopy. [4] This echoes the "Petri Art" and furthers my understanding of our cellular world as the living thing that it is. The personification of our tiny world provides the strongest bridge to a more intimate level of understanding that cannot be attained through a textbook.

Figure [3] Jacket Grows From Living Tissue
Another field of research that caught my eye was nonother than the co-founder of Symbiotica, Oron Catts herself. Particularly, her work with Victimless Leather opens my mind to the possible applications of biology. The project centers of the idea of lab-grown 'leather' through a custom-made perfusion chamber in order to culture cell lines on a biodegradables polymer matrix. [5] She is literally growing leather material! The implications of this on our fashion industry, environmental consumerism, and animal rights is vast. It raises the question that if we can produce the skin of a cow, whose to say that we can't also create the milk or meat of one too. 

    References

[1] Hussain, Zareena. Science as Art Unites Disciplines: Artists Use Microbiology as a Medium for Art - The Tech. http://tech.mit.edu/V120/N26/bioartists.26f.html. Accessed 6 May 2021.
[2] Barras, Frédéric. “Art and Microbiology: Encounters of the Third Type.” Environmental Microbiology Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 2019, pp. 29–34, doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.12717.
[3] The University of Western Australia. About Us. https://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/home/about. Accessed 6 May 2021. 
[4] Solon, Olivia. “White Blood Cells Pitted against Each Other in ‘Blood Wars.’” Wired UK, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/blood-wars-art-science-exhibition. Accessed 6 May 2021.
[5] At 70, Body Modification Artist ORLAN Is Still Reinventing Herself - Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-70-body-modification-artist-orlan-reinventing. Accessed 6 May 2021.

Image Sources
[1] Carey, Brainard. Joe Davis | Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX. https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/joe-davis/. Accessed 7 May 2021.
[2] Author. “Pellissippi State Microbiology Students Create Intricate Art Using Bacteria.” Pellissippi State News, 9 Dec. 2019, https://sites.pstcc.edu/news/2019/12/09/pellissippi-state-microbiology-students-create-intricate-art-using-bacteria/.
[3] “Victimless Leather.” The Tissue Culture & Art Project, https://tcaproject.net/portfolio/victimless-leather/. Accessed 7 May 2021.


Comments

  1. Yichen ZhuMay 9, 2021 at 1:46 AM

    Hi,
    you are really giving a nice blog. I like the different perspectives you write about in different paragraphs. I was surprised to find the widespread notion of art in biotechnology. Scientists and artists sometimes show same qualities and people sometimes may become both of them. I agree with your point very much. Thanks!

    Yichen Zhu

    ReplyDelete

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