Week 6 BioTech+Art
Life itself is a valid expressive medium for me because life expresses the diversity among and within different species. The meaning inherent in the use of transgenics, mutilation, mutation, recombinance or selective breeding as an artistic technique is based on this belief. As Professor Vensa mentioned in the lecture, Eduardo Katz considered these modifications of life as an expansion of the present practical and conceptual boundaries of artmaking to incorporate life invention (Kac 2000).
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| GFP Bunny http://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=19376 |
Although artistic media and technologies have created some controversies, the value they have brought are enormous. As Ellen K. Levy mentioned in the reading of “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications,” art can challenge the status quo in a longer-lasting way through provoking consideration of the limitations and legal ramifications(Levy 2011). For instance, artists have explored some of the conditions that define life and its implications for legal rights and property. In 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined that genetically engineered microorganisms are patentable. The case of Chakrabarty v. Diamond allowed Chakrabarty to manufacture his oil-eating bacterium and extended the definition of what is considered patentable to living organisms that have been genetically altered (Levy 2011).
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| A new group of oil-eating bacteria have been discovered in the Mariana Trench https://newatlas.com/oil-eating-bacteria-mariana-trench/59279/ |
As a student major in biochemistry, I am fascinated by the role artists had played in the journey of scientific revolutions. In the reading of “meanings of participation: Outlaw Biology?” Chris Kelty mentioned the creativity of Outlaws, Hackers, Victorian Gentlemen breeds creativity (Kelty 2010). Artists working in biomedia and artificial life really led to more innovations. For instance, the "GFP Bunny" created by Eduardo Kac, had lead to development of “transgenic art,” which can contribute to the field of aesthetics by “opening up the new symbolic and pragmatic dimension of art as the literal creation of and responsibility for life” (Kac 2000).
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| The blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2012-photomicrography-competition/the-blood-brain-barrier-in-a-live-zebrafish-embryo |
The controversies that have been raised by biotechnology are pieces of evidence that biotech is inherently different from how other technologies are evaluated. As it is mentioned by Levy, “Biotechnology is a place where political, economic, legal, and scientific interests meet, and artists can promote discussion about these issues.”
As to the question, “should the restrictions be more or less stringent for artists using biotechnology than for scientists in industry/academia?’ I believe that there should be equally stringent with sufficient training and peer oversight, adequate regulation, and professional controls. Ultimately, I believe that human creativity should be restricted by ethics and risks.
References:
Diamond v. Chakrabarty, digital-law-online.info/cases/206PQ193.htm.
Levy, Ellen. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.”Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts. Eds. Margot Lovejoy, Christiane Paul, and Victoria Vesna. University of Chicago Press: 2011.
C.M. Kelty, Outlaw, hackers, victorian amateurs: diagnosing public participation in the life sciences today, Jcom 09(01) (2010) C03
Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 12 May 2019.
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