Bioart
Bioart is an art practice where artists work with biology, live tissues, bacteria, living organisms, and life processes. Using scientific processes and practices such as biology and life science practices, microscopy, and biotechnology the artworks are produced in laboratories, galleries, or artists' studios. The scope of bioart is a range considered by some artists to be strictly limited to "living forms", while other artists include art that uses the imagery of contemporary medicine and biological research, or require that it address a controversy or blind spot posed by the very character of the life sciences.
Bioart originated at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century. Although bioartists work with living matter, there is some debate as to the stages at which matter can be considered to be alive or living. Creating living beings and practicing in the life sciences brings about ethical, social, and aesthetic inquiry. With his essay “Biotechnology and Art” from 1981, Peter Weibel introduced the term bioart, and defined an art movement that uses biological systems as a means of artistic expression.
The creation of living beings and the study of the biological sciences bring with them ethical, social and aesthetic questions. Within Bio Art there is a debate about whether any form of artistic engagement with the biosciences and their social consequences should be viewed as part of the art movement, or whether only such works of art, that were created in the laboratory are classified as organic art.
Overview
Bioart is often intended to highlight themes and beauty in biological subjects, address or question philosophical notions or trends in science, and can at times be shocking or humorous. One survey of the field, Isotope: A Journal of Literary Science and Nature Writing, puts it this way: "Bioart is often ludicrous. It can be lumpy, gross, unsanitary, sometimes invisible, and tricky to keep still on the auction block. But at the same time, it does something very traditional that art is supposed to do: draw attention to the beautiful and grotesque details of nature that we might otherwise never see." While raising questions about the role of science in society, "most of these works tend toward social reflection, conveying political and societal criticism through the combination of artistic and scientific processes." Works of bioart are most often seen as a contribution to the social, political and economic questions that arise from scientific research, however at times contribute and make advancements in research.Artists in laboratories
While most people who practice bioart are categorized as artists in this new media, they can also be seen as scientists. In bioart, artists often work with scientists, and in some cases they are scientists themselves. While some artists have prior scientific training, others must be trained to perform the procedures or work in tandem with scientists who can perform the tasks that are required.Historical bioart
In previous centuries artists dealt more critically with the images from the life sciences and understand them not only as a mere illustration of biological findings, but as a process linked to the time and the respective style vocabulary. Leonardo da Vinci born 1452, renowned for masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, was deeply invested in the intersection of science and art. To produce accurate and realistic art, he conducted firsthand, extensive studies of anatomy by dissecting around 30 human cadavers, sometimes dissecting multiple bodies in a single day. His pursuit of knowledge across the sciences, including detailed studies of plants, optics, and light, was driven by Da Vinci's goal to enhance his artistic representations. Leonardo da Vinci's deep exploration of human anatomy and movement anticipated modern robotics, as he connected anatomy to engineering and designed automata that mimicked human motion.Ernst Haeckel was a German biologist, zoologist, and artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who used art to illustrate his scientific findings before macrophotography and photographic microscopy. He meticulously recorded the hidden intricacies of natural forms through his vibrant and stylized drawings. His celebrated publication "Kunstformen Der Natur" from 1904 is regarded as a "visual encyclopedia" of living organisms even to this day. His work fusing biology and art, not only promoted Darwinism in Germany but also deeply influenced art, design, and architecture of the early 20th century.
Contemporary bioart
The concept of transgenic art was coined in 1998 by Eduardo Kac and refers to an art form “which works with genetic methods to transplant synthetic genes into one organism or natural genetic material from one species into another and thus to create unique living beings.” Already before this definition, Reiner Maria Matysik presented an art project in 1986 named Rekombination The goal of transgenic art is to create organisms that carry foreign DNA within them. In Kac's vision, art can continue evolution and make an actual creation of new living beings. Eduardo Kac's best-known works include Genesis, The Eight Day and GFP Bunny which he commissioned in 2000 as the creation of a transgenic GFP rabbit. "The PR campaign included a picture of Kac holding a white rabbit and another rabbit photographically enhanced to appear green."Symbiotica developed one of the earlier art/science laboratories for artists interested in working with bioart methods and technologies. Some of the founders of SymbioticA, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr also founded The Tissue Culture & Art Project. Since the early 1990s, The Tissue Culture & Art Project has been working with the artificial production of biological tissue whereas the cell culture serves as an artistic medium. The works of TC&A deal, among other things, with foods bred foods, tissue-growing clothing, sculptural forms from fabric culture and the changing relationship between the living and non-living company, among other things. Within the framework of their artistic research, the artists have developed the term “Semi-Living” to describe a new category of life that was created in the laboratory.
In 2003, The Tissue Culture & Art Project in collaboration with Stelarc grew a 1/4 scale replica of an ear using human cells to create the Extra Ear project. The project was carried out at Symbiotica: the Art & Science Collaborative Research Laboratory, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia. In 2006, Marc Stelarc had the first of two experimental surgeries to have his “Ear On Arm” implanted. The second surgery was to implant a microphone in the implanted ear so it could hear. The implanted ear then projects the sound to other parts of the world, so people could listen into what the ear on arm was hearing. He has connected it to the internet, which further connects his bio to technology but also opens the possibility of being hacked. The project took over 12 years.
In 2004, Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin's The Molecular Gaze also helped establish the integration of molecular biology with artistic practice.
In 2009 the project Bulletproof Skin by Jalila Essaïdi received international attention for integrating spider silk from GM goats into human skin tissue. The work provoked debate about possible military applications as bullet-resistant skin, and helped bring the bioart movement into mainstream awareness through global media coverage such as CNN, FOX and the BBC. The success of the project led Jalila Essaïdi to establish of the BioArt Laboratories foundation in Eindhoven, later recognized as the national research institute for the biological arts in the Netherlands. Together with MU Hybrid Art House and ZonMw the foundation co-founded the international Bio Art & Design Award, which for over a decade fostered collaboration between leading research institutes and artists. Each year three winners received €25,000 in funding, amounting to over €825,000 awarded during the program’s run. The foundation and award played an important role in the development of the bioart movement by structurally linking emerging artists with scientific laboratories and enabling projects that later gained international recognition at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the Venice Biennale, and the Museum of Modern Art.
In 2015-2016 Amy Karle created Regenerative Reliquary, a sculpture of bio-printed scaffolds for human MSC stem cell culture into bone, in the shape of a human hand form installed in a vessel. In 2019, Karle made The Heart Of Evolution, a 3D printed heart featuring a redesigned vascular system to potentially improve the heart's functionality and mitigate the impact of embolism. In 2024 she created an interactive artwork Echoes From the Valley of Existence, which sends DNA samples converted into powder and encased in a polymer into space.
Bioart continues to evolve into the 2020s to address issues of environmental sustainability and social justice.