Biomedia: The Role of the Artist when Biology is the New Media

by Marta Lwin

Biology is the new media, dissected, synthesized, manipulated like a dj playing with sampled music. Nature has been broken down into scientific symbols, objectified, codified, and patented creating recombinant possibilities that push the boundaries of our perceived separation of technology (human made systems) and nature. When biology is the creative medium of scientist, what are the implications of this trend, and how do artists fit into this paradigm?

What is the role of the artist in an age when 'creatives' are now genetic engineers? Where major cultural changes are determined not by art but by science, most recently synthetic biology scientists.

The AP news wire reported this week that using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, scientific researchers say they were able to make headless flies jump, walk, flap their wings and fly, rendering these headless beings the first remote controlled insects in the world. Is this a step towards the utopia cyborg world described by Donna Haraway[1], where humans and nature merge with the use of technology to escape the confines of duality? Will this type of integration afford us the freedom from a world that is bound by it's ridged structures rigidly differentiating nature from humans, male from female?

While new hybrid organisms are created, merging technology with nature, who gets to make the decisions about them and what are their agendas? Scientists, often funded by large institutions with links to for profit corporations and government, are at the leading edge of this creative venture. And since these are corporate interests at play, is the new biomedia an attempt at enhancing life on this planet, an attempt at evading mortality, scientists extending their knowledge into the realm of synthetic biology, or a profit driven venture.

In the 1950's (to the present), with movements such as the Futurists, Situationalists, Dada, and Fluxus, it is has become the role of the contemporary artist, the outsider, to look at the implications, exploit and reveal the larger story of what agendas are at play, and to reflect on implications of this ever pervasive and important trend. Artist have been able to give us an understanding of ourselves and our world, by providing an insight into the nature of reality, with greater insight then a scientist tethered by a restraining institutional approach. Using imagination, communication skills, creativity, the artists plays out scenarios, pushes theory to conclusions, and allows us to visualize implications, beauty and possibility. Artists are diverse and undisciplined, thereby able to play the outsider game, even if they work within the confines of institutions.

Since the MIT Synthetic Biology Conference last June 2004, more information has become available to scientists explaining genetic network design, parts fabrication, characterization, and assembly as well as directed evolution and evolutionary optimization strategies. This remarkable ability for scientists to extend their scientific resources to the control and manipulation of nature is unprecedented and is the latest cultural zeitgeist.

These exciting, if controversial, innovations speak to a future where science triumphs over nature, and humans are able to extend their will with unprecedented control. Synthetic forms of biology promise the ability to use biology as a technology to process information, materials, and energy as we desire according to its proponents. In this instance, scientist are creating a paradigm where biology is seen as information, a symbol, a part, creates an abstract view of nature, one that works in a laboratory, but creates a greater illusion of control and power, removing us further from the present and our reality. Through biomedia, scientists have abstracted and fragmented our relationship to nature to such an extent that we are no longer living in the present, but the future.

Further, scientists have been developing, controlling, and creating behind closed doors, with a closed door, proprietary system.

Artist working within the context of Biomedia, experimenting with growing skin, genetic engineering, genetic algorithms, can have a fresh and unrestrained approach to their application. Biotechnology is becoming an amateur hobby activity, with kits, and parts available for sale gaining popularity the way early computer kits did back in the 70‘s. It is this small band of people who are turning Biomedia into an open source activity.

Art is a cultural activity able to broaden the discussion about the genetic engineering, the genome, human nature and future. It is also the tradition of art to engage with the deeper ideas of science. To demystify the sciences, unlike TV programs, museum exhibits, which enhance the mystification of biotechnology, genetic science and biology and often alienate the viewer. Further, artists can counter the power of wealthy industry to mold opinions that deliberately distort our view of reality.

Taking an integrated approach to exploration, which optimizes existing natural systems offers us the possibility for creativity, innovation, and experimentation beyond our current imagination, and it is my belief that it will be the artists who can bring us a step closer to our present biological reality.