Biotech + Art      
       This week, the unit was about BioTech innovations that have influenced the fusion of art into living organisms. This particular topic has raised a significant moral and ethical conversation.
For example, the work of Eduardo Kac, which he considered his art work, entailed albino rabbits that were injected a fluorescent protein found in jellyfish that made them glow in the dark with ultraviolet lights. The image below shows the work of Eduardo.
 This exact same experiment was replicated, it was first performed in the early 1900’s by Osamu Shimomura, in order to aid in research (i.e. understanding disease).

         Similarly, we also see the work of artist Martha de Menezes, which was also had a controversial outcome. She created her artwork by modifying butterfly wings. It became particularly controversial when it resulted in impairment to the butterflies’ wings. The picture below displays the butterflies and holes that resulted from her operation.
Lastly, we also get a glimpse of George Gessert’s work through flowers. He was particularly interested in hybridizing the irises of plants and disposing of unfavorable traits, making them more aesthetically pleasing to humans. He specifically wanted to dispose of these traits because he was investigating how we impact the evolution of plants. In turn, if we found them more attractive, they would be impacted in a different was as well. His work was in fact very contradicting, because when he modifies these plants he playing a major role on evolution. Below are some examples of the plants that he crossed.
In conclusion, animal rights activists are right in considering this manipulation abusive and therefore should be prohibited; especially when the purpose of manipulation is only for the purposes of creating an organism more appealing to us.

References
Kleinman, Arthur. "Illness Meanings and Illness Behaviour." Illness Behavior(1986): 149-60. Web.
Kelty, Chris. "Meaning of participation: Outlaw Biology?" (n.d.): 1-8. Web. 09 May 2017.

Levy, Ellen K. "Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications." (n.d.): 1-22. Web. 09 May 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. "Biotechnology + Art, Part 1." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web
https://youtu.be/PaThVnA1kyg

Vesna, Victoria. "Biotechnology + Art, Part 4." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qSc72u9KhI&list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7

Vesna, Victoria. "Biotechnology + Art, Part 5." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web
https://youtu.be/z7zHIdsFS3A?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Hello everyone my name is Christian Paul Lomeli. I am a third-year transfer student from Pasadena City College. After learning a little about Charles Percy Snow’s two cultures idea, I feel at this point in time our educational system has introduced the general basics of two cultures to all students. Its introduction is beneficial for exposing different topics to students, but it does have its flaws. It provides a bare minimum of information to spark an interest in students to pursue one or the other. From my experience, I do not believe this is a strong structure to guide students on a career path, because I have had some boring history classes in high school, but while in college I had great experiences learning about very interesting history topics that shaped the world we live in today. This course is related to my academic path by covering topics I enjoy such as art, science, and technology to help me gain a different perspective. My personal aspirations are to receive my degree i
Read more
Image
Robotics + Art             I was amazed to learn how long art and robotics have been coexisting and contributing to each other’s evolution. According to the Robotics + Art lecture by Victoria Vesna, artist have been drawing the physical structure of robots since the early 1900s that created industrialization. This machinery would become vital to mass production in many forms. One of the first successful machines prior industrialization was the printing press between 1440-1450. The creator Johannes Gutenberg was the first to mass produce the bible. The knowledge of reproduction spread and since has become a form of open source for the public. With a little knowledge and a ton of effort people started to replicate their own printing systems and other machine based items. The explosion of mass production has continued for centuries and there is no sign of it slowing down. Cars, planes, art, weapons, clothes, food, almost anything we can think of is mass produced with the help of m
Read more
Image
Event one               I attended The Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown Los Angeles. Half of the museum is featuring African American art from past to present by Kerry James Marshall. The other half is the permanent collection from the MOCA which contains post war art from a variety of artist. At first glance it was a challenge to observe the influence of math, robotics, and science in many of the paintings and sculptures. After spending some time observing the art, I was able to see past the paintings message and portrayal to see how the ideas behind the work originated from science and technology. For example, there is a piece that is quite large and has its own room called the Chromatic Fire by Thomas Hirschhorn. When walking into the room there is an attendant who gives a courtesy warning about violent graphics from war, and gang violence. The warning is much needed as some of the photography reveals true violence not exposed through mass media of decapitated
Read more