Week 6: BioTech + Art

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Biotechnology has been utilized in art as a way to explore the ethical implications and push the boundaries that biotechnology presents.“Modern biotechnology provides breakthrough products and technologies to combat debilitating and rare diseases, reduce our environmental footprint, feed the hungry, use less and cleaner energy, and have safer, cleaner and more efficient industrial manufacturing processes (BIO).” 

(Smith and Resko)


One way this boundary is pushed is with the Embracing Animals exhibit by Kathy High. She bought three rats in an effort to try to make them live as long as possible.“They have been microinjected with human DNA that sets them up for a precondition to be autoimmunity challenged (Embracing Animal).” The lab that they’re in is special so that humans can observe them. This exhibit was made to introduce the work they had done to the public and to show its effects. This is one of the projects that really explores the ethical side of biotechnology because scientists forced a human disorder into rats.

Pictures from the laboratory exhibit. (Embracing Animal)


Another way this is pushed is by the artwork by Eduardo Kac called the GFP Bunny.“Kac named the rabbit Alba, who became the first new mammal in the history of art, thus sparking the international recognition of Bio Art (Kac).” Alba sparked public interest because of the visual appeal, but also raised questions about the ethics of genetic manipulation. Alba served as an intersection between science and art.

(Kac)


Joe Davis is an “Artist-Scientist” at George Chruch’s Lab at Harvard Medical Scool in Harvard Genetics. He has contributed to may projects in BioArt, including getting silk moths to spin silk that could metallize with metallic gold. In 2015, he and a colleague created the first bio-metalized silk. According to Davis, those same materials can be used to take up heavy metals from contaminated groundwaters (NOVA PBS Official).

Davis giving a workshop to show the metallized silk process. ( (“26-28-2016 the Alchemy of Silk - Joe Davis (US)”)


Not all biotechnology projects deal with animals. An ongoing project that has been going on since 1991 is an attempt to use plants to remediate heavy metal contamination in soil. “Revival Field began as a conceptual artwork with the intent to sculpt a site’s ecology (Mel Chin).” This project explores the relationship between art, science, and the environment.

(Mel Chin)




Works Cited

BIO. “What is Biotechnology? | BIO.” Biotechnology Innovation Organization | BIO, https://www.bio.org/what-biotechnology . Accessed 7 May 2025.

Embracing Animal. “Rat Love Manifesto.” Embracing Animal, https://www.embracinganimal.com/ratlove.html . Accessed 7 May 2025.

Kac, Eduardo. “GFP Bunny - Alba.” Eduardo Kac, https://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor . Accessed 7 May 2025.

Mel Chin. “Revival Field – mel chin.” mel chin, https://melchin.org/oeuvre/revival-field/ . Accessed 7 May 2025.

NOVA PBS Official. “Scientist? Artist. Pirate! Who Is Joe Davis?” YouTube, 10 September 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GkZt00Qics . Accessed 7 May 2025.

Smith, Jonathan, and Elena Resko. “Humble Beginnings: The History of Modern Biotechnology.” Labiotech.eu, 23 December 2020, https://www.labiotech.eu/in-depth/history-biotechnology-genentech/ . Accessed 7 May 2025.

“26-28-2016 the Alchemy of Silk - Joe Davis (US).” Mediamatic, 15 December 2016, https://www.mediamatic.net/en/page/285093/26-08-2016-the-alchemy-of-silk---joe-davis-us . Accessed 7 May 2025. 

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