Hello Everyone! I'm posting to prod some initial discussion and also to share a couple of links.
After our first class, I must admit that I was initially caught up in the mechanics or the what-is-possible-as-an-artist-ness aspect of our introduction to bio-art. On a personal note, the last time I took any sort of biology class was my first semester of college. I had always enjoyed biology and thoroughly enjoyed the labs/experiments that went along with it. When push came to shove, and I realized I couldn't be a dedicated student of every field, the humanities nudged out any room for meaningful exploration of the sciences. From there, I became an armchair student of science, looking at the sciences through an art/humanities lens. This class presents itself as a bridge between two fields.
After completing the readings for Wednesday's class and doing some research on both bio-art and related topics of interest, I've been thinking less about experiments in the lab and more about approaches (on the conceptual level) to biological and neurological topics that interest me. While I still harbor an interest in conducting hands-on experimentation, the issue of ethics in bio-arts practice has made me look ahead a bit more cautiously. The Stracey article points out that Victimless Leather's existence is partially due to the sacrifice of fetal cows and that the florescent molecules in GFP Bunny may actually be toxic. Ultimately, Stracey states that bio-art is "least successful...when science is reduced to mere aesthetic spectacle," and most successful when it "can show that life is more than brute matter and more than the sum of cells, proteins or genes..." I'm not sure I have the best words for my thoughts at the moment, but these seem like good thoughts to govern how I - personally - will move forward as an artist in relation to the sciences. As we move forward, I wonder if anyone in the class already has rules set-up to govern what he/she will/won't do in bio-artistic practice. Let's say the sky is the scientific limit and you, as an artist, can clone or genetically modify an animal or life form... would you do it? Would you set up restrictions for yourself? When would/wouldn't it be OK to clone, modify, etc.? Any thoughts?
Moving on... I should note that the photo I've included in this post is of a schizophrenic mouse (supposedly). As an artist, some of my interests include mental illness and, more recently, autism. I found several articles online about scientists at Duke, MIT, and the NIH who've created transgenic mice that mimic behaviors of humans diagnosed with schizophrenia and autism. The humanities/arts side of me kicks in with a number of questions -- questions I may explore this semester...
Next.... I wanted to post a couple of links. A site that I enjoy is io9.com . It's a hodgepodge of science and pseudo-science and science fiction that can get the creative brain churning. Specifically, I found a fun article on the site yesterday about nanobots taking over the world: http://io9.com/5836916/when-the-world-ends-will-you-be-covered-in-grey-goo
Also - in terms of food - a number of articles appeared earlier this year about a food printer. So...here it is...food for thought (bad pun, I know) : http://www.physorg.com/news199080001.html
