Week Six

This week’s topic was hard for me to come to terms with my feelings about Biotechnology and Art. I do believe that life to an extent is a valid expressive medium. A human has the responsibility of deciding whether their life (and their life alone) is a valid expressive medium. I do not think others should decide for other people or animals if their life is a valid expressive medium. I think it is inhumane to use someone else’s life for art without verbal or written consent. An example of this would be GFP Bunny Alba who is a “chimerical animal that does not exist in nature” (Kac) infused with the proteins and genes of a fluorescent jellyfish back in her time as an egg in her mother’s womb (Vesna Lecture 1). This art form has been transferred into other animals such as mice, rats and the new “Glofish”. The GloFish and others brought up the question of “should living material be used for artistic ends”  and the issue of consent (Levy P. 9).

Selection of GloFish

The use of transgenics, mutilation, mutation, recombinance, and selective technique is originally used for scientist to discover new things in the science field but then came into the art realm as artists began to learn these techniques from scientist to add literally a part of themselves or others to art. (Vesna Lecture 1). These technologies and art forms are defined in many people's terms as inhumane and even sometimes brutal. Depending on the person though, this could be beauty and an evolutionary art form. These artistic technologies are not valued as deeply as their scientific counterparts. People find it hard to see the use of these technologies in art. People nowadays, when it comes to biotechnology, see these tools and techniques as strictly limited to the scientific profession and have a closed mind when others come in to use these tools in the art realm.

Word Cloud of Common Biotechnology Terms

On the other hand, Artists are taking advantage of their ability to use biotechnology in their art and are crossing boundaries to get the results that they desire. This crossing does create good but does not outweigh the bad. There should be standards set for artists and scientist when it comes using biotechnology to manipulating living organisms. The results could be disastrous. Eventually, we could have something like a real “Planet of the Apes” misshape if artist and scientist continually abuse biotechnology in art. 

Rise of the Planet of The Apes Movie Trailer

Works Cited

Apeswillrise. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Official Trailer (HD)." YouTube. YouTube, 15 Apr. 2011. Web. 09 May 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Z_D9Grh18>.

FCHS. "Biotechnology." FCHS STEM ACADEMY. FCHS ACADEMY, n.d. Web. 09 May 2017. <http://www.fchsstem.com/biotechnology.html>.

GloFish. "GloFish® Display." Born Brilliant! They're Not Injected or Dyed. GloFish, 2017. Web. 09 May 2017. <https://www.glofish.com/about/glofish-display/>.

Kac, Eduardo. "GFP Bunny." GFP BUNNY. KAC, n.d. Web. 09 May 2017. <http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor>.

Levy, Ellen K. Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications. Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-22. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "5 Bioart Pt1 1280x720." YouTube. UCOnline, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 May 2017. <https://youtu.be/PaThVnA1kyg>.