Biotechnology and Art

The biotechnology industry has grown rapidly over the years as both medicinal practices and technology improve.  However, as biotechnology continues to improve, it also becomes more controversial.  Is it ethical to be tampering with the genes of future living organisms in order to achieve the desired effect?  One familiar artistic experiment involved transferring glowing genes cultivated from a jellyfish into fertilized eggs of a rabbit.  As the cells multiplied, so did the protein which caused the glow.  This brings up many ethical concerns over the use for other living organisms including humans.

George Gessert modified and hybridized irises to breed ones with only desirable traits.  If someone could do this with flowers, then human bioengineering could soon follow.  A good example of human bioengineering comes from the movie Gattaca.  The main plot of the movie introduces bioengineering in humans to achieve desirable traits such as intelligence and physical strength.  Of course, the moral of the story was that the desire and “heart” of a person determines the person’s fate more than his or her genes.  Even so, how close are we to start conducting this sort of natural selection.  This movie hints at a possible future for us with the progression of biotechnology.

 

A less controversial project based on biotechnology and art is Symbiotica's "Fish and Chips".  It involves the creation of art from the flow of a fish cell's internal activity.  The cell is connected to a mechanical drawing arm which traces out the neurons internal movement and is displayed as an artwork.  To me, this seems like a much less concern over ethics, since it doesn't involve altering a living organism's being.  However, one could also argue that connecting a mechanical device to the cells could be another case of "man versus machine" or "nature versus machine".

Restrictions for these ethical concerns will always be a controversial issue.  As technology grows, so will the specifics for what is ethical and what is not.  However, I think restrictions for artists should be similar to those of scientists using biotechnology since all involve experimenting with living organisms.  

Works cited:

"George Gessert (USA)." George Gessert (USA). N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2014.

"Gattaca Movie Review & Film Summary (1997) | Roger Ebert." All Content. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2014.

"2001-4 - MEART Rat Neuron Drawing Machine - SymbioticA (Australian/American) - Cyberneticzoo.com." Cyberneticzoocom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2014.

"5 BioArt Pt4." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 20 July 2014.

"5 BioArt Pt5." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 20 July 2014.