week 6 Biotech+Art

Life is always an expressive form of art, as mankind has depicted aspects of daily life, as seen through paintings, novels, films, and theatre.  William Shakespeare's famous quote from his comedy As You Like It "All the world's a stage" means that life itself is a performance and is thus expressive by itself. With the progresses in the biological sciences, aspects of bio-art can involve working with cells, organismal  bodies, and its tissues directly while others can involve using scientific imaging. As Stephanie Walden states, some of these aspects can be controversial such as Eduardo Katz's green fluorescent bunny. Katz's engineering of the fluorescence gene into a bunny is similar to what scientists do in research studies of mice. Katz's work is controversial since it appears that he is manipulating a mammal for what seems artistic purposes. However, he does justify his actions, showing that the artist's use of transgenics and other biotechnological methods is  a way to make social commentary about the relationship of human society with transgenic organisms.

Katz's green fluorescent bunny

Other bio-artists such as Paul Vanouse also help to educate the public about the strengths and weaknesses of science. According to Vanouse, television shows and media such as CSI overplay the accuracy and speed of using DNA as a way to identify individuals. Vanouse's work Suspect Inversion Center shows this problem, where Vanouse uses his own DNA and molecular biology techniques to repeatedly recreate the DNA evidences presented in the OJ Simpson trial.

Suspect Inversion Center exhibit

Thus artistic biotechnology can be considered as artwork similar to a traditional painting or sculpture; it would be valued similarly to other works of art, which is based off of the uniqueness and message it is trying to get across.  This would be different from other technologies since this art is not meant to serve as a technological item to be used such as a computer or a phone. Regulations should still apply to bio-artists similar to what scientists follow since both groups face similar risks in their work. I have seen fellow scientists and artists described this week work with human cell lines that can carry infectious diseases. According to James Gibson from UCLA's Environment, Health, and Safety, regulations should be followed for the safety of personnel carrying out the work, the public, and the reduced suffering of certain organisms. From my experience these regulations are very strict and involve a large stack of paperwork. The famous movie Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg is a good commentary on limiting creativity. Its message of limiting creativity if it can harm others that the public and I got is simple, but important.

Jurassic Park demonstrates the dangers of unchecked creativity

References

Gibson, James. "Q&A: James Gibson on Lab Safety at UCLA." UCLA Newsrom. UCLA, 23 July 2014. Web. 9 May 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fnewsroom.ucla.edu%2Fstories%2Fq-a-james-gibson-on-lab-safety-at-ucla>.

Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough. Universal Studos, 2000. DVD.

Shakespeare, William. "As You Like It: Entire Play." As You Like It: Entire Play. MIT, 1993. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://shakespeare.mit.edu/asyoulikeit/full.html>.

Vanouse, Paul. "Suspect Inversion Center (SIC)." Suspect Inversion Center (SIC). 2013. Web. 9 

May 2015.  < http://www.paulvanouse.com/sic.html>.

Walden, Stephanie. "BioArt: Is It Art? Is It Science? Is It the Future?" Mashable. N.p., 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://mashable.com/2013/10/29/cutpastegrow-bioart/>.