Week 6: BioTech + Art

This week's topic was fascinating, especially since I used to work with mice as lab animals. While I have heard various ethical debates on the scientific usage of mice and rats in research, this is the first time that I have seen them used as mediums of art. Personally, I think human civilization is built upon a foundation of the arts, and that anything to help our understanding of art should be equally as important as advancing the sciences. Therefore, while I do see the same ethical dilemma of using animals as subjects of experimental biotechnology, I do not see harm associated solely with it as a means of art.
Rabbit that was injected with GFP
Furthermore, I find Kathy High's projects very interesting. From her "embracing animal" project, it really highlights the similarities rats have to humans. Our evolutionary similarities are often overlooked because of how physically different we look from rats. However, this projects evokes a certain sense of empathy from the audience, as art can often have as an effect. On the other hand, her project "blood wars" is truly an intersection of art and science, as white blood cells are normally studied in the context of blood disorders in the medical field.
"Blood wars"
Lastly, I find it fascinating that certain artists have manipulated their own bodies as a display of art in biotechnology. As Professor Vesna mentioned in the lecture, a lot of this week's artists uses shock values in their work. I think the best example for me is Stelarc's third ear. While I have seen many different forms of body modification before, sights like this still surprises me. Similarly, there are people getting subdermal body modifications, adding horns to their foreheads, etc. It makes me wonder how far biotechnology will go in the future, and how that can affect our standards of beauty in modern society. 
"A third ear" on Stelarc's arm

1) “ART SCIENCE MEDIA.” ViewingSpace, viewingspace.com/.
2) Eduardo Kac. "GFP Bunny". <http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor>.
3) Kathy High. "Embracing Animal". <http://www.embracinganimal.com/>. 
4) Paul Vanouse. "Suspect Inversion Center". <http://www.paulvanouse.com/sic.html>. 
5) Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

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