Day 1 – Monday 16 November

by Girish Sagaram

Throughout the world, a growing number of artists and designers are investigating science and technology and its implications for society and the environment. Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr of SymbioticA are leaders in this field. Together they created the Tissue Culture and Art Project which is concerned with combining scientific knowledge with artistic practice and revealing “inconsistencies in regard to our current attitudes to life”.

Today Oron along with Greg Cozens join a diverse group (listed here) of artists, designers, architects and communicators at the RMIT Applied Science department’s Digital Wet Labs. Together we will be investigating the biological sciences and the artistic implications of the conception of life as technology.

We begin the first day with an overview, presented by Oron, of the theoretical framework of bio-art, the work of the Tissue Culture and Art Project as well as the work of other bio-artists. We are introduced to the concept of the ‘semi-living’ sculpture, the strange ontological phenomenon of ‘partial-life’ and a new type of body, the ‘techno-scientific body’ to contain these new kinds of life. We are presented with the idea that life itself can be treated as not only the subject of art but also the medium and practice of art.

“We overlook only too often the fact that a living being may also be regarded as raw material, as something plastic, something that may be shaped and altered.” — H. G. Wells 1895

Oron’s presentation highlights the fact that many of these technologies are quite old, but are only recently being used by artists as material for their work. Part of the reluctance on the part of artists seems to be the ethical implications of manipulating life. One of the themes that continually resurfaces is the question of how the use of living organisms or tissue for art differs from the everyday manipulation of animals in agriculture or the use of living tissue for ‘hard’ scientific purposes. As Oron and Ionat ask in “The ethical claims of Bio Art: killing the other or self-cannibalism?” : “How do bioartists deal with the ethical paradox of using/manipulating life for the creation of cultural commodities that questions the human treatment of life?”

As an architect a key question that arises from this presentation concerns the self identification of the work as ‘art’ and perceived line between the role of the artist as opposed to the designer. What role do designers play in this territory? Designers to some extent are part of the techno-scientific world as well as the artistic, engaged in using technology to address the practical needs, desires and problems of everyday life as well as to generate meaning. How can design thinking be used to communicate or highlight this new understanding and relationship to ‘life’, and to address the hitherto hidden or uncertain implications of biotechnology?

Scientific knowledge and technological discoveries have always influenced architects, but in recent years architecture has become increasingly concerned with scientific discourse through its intimate relationship with digital technology and a deepening interest in the aesthetics of emergence and complexity. The possibility of producing new knowledge through an engagement with ‘wet’ technologies such as synthetic biology and tissue culture is very exciting, but what are the implications of using ‘life’ as a material for architecture?

These and many more questions must be put to one side as we form into groups and begin our first practical foray into the world of bioart with the construction of home-made sterile hoods. These ‘laminar flow’ hoods are standard equipment in microbiology and biomedical labs where biological materials need to be worked with in a sterile environment.

Our hoods on the other hand are constructed from mostly everyday items such as garbage bags and plastic storage tubs. The importance of effective filtering to produce a sterile air environment is the biggest challenge due to the the rough and ready (not to mention extremely rushed) nature of the exercise, but equipment such as this is being used by bioartists and amateur biologists in garages and kitchens all over the world.

The photos below illustrate some of the varied approaches of the groups in manufacturing sterile hoods. One image shows an incubator rather than a hood. This is another key tool of the do-it-yourself bioartist, in this case constructed from items bought from an aquarium shop wrapped with bubble wrap.

The final activity of the day is the collection of samples from various surfaces to test for the presence of bacteria. Samples are taken using long cotton swabs which are wiped over the surface to be tested and then ‘scribbled’ over the surface of an agar medium in a small petri dish. These are sealed up with strips of parafin wax film and put in an incubator. We’ll check back in a few days to see what nasties are lurking around campus on service counters, toilet doors, ATMs and bellybuttons. The exercise makes me hyper-aware of the concept of germs, something I never obsessed over before. From this experience and the overall concern with sterility associated with the lab environment, I regularly find myself having to resist the compulsion to wash my hands.