Week 6 Blog

The techniques that scientists apply to delving into the inner structures and functions of living organs are sometimes considered as artistic techniques. Meanwhile, some question about the morality and ethnics of these techniques such as transgenetics, mutation, selective breeding with animals and so on. As well, there are also a group of people questioning about the aesthetics of using these living tissues as a medium. 

The picture describes a prototype of a stitchless jacket grows in a bioreactor of The Tissue Culture & Art Project. 

As professor Vesna mentioned in lecture video,  since rats have the similar evolution history with human beings, rats are often used in biological experiments to test changes under varied changes. Transgenic rats of unimagined shapes are the eventual real results of these medical and biological studies. Although there is a voice questioning about the humanism of the experiments for rats abuse, the idea of using rats and changing rats still spreads in scientific field and artistic field. The new wave for artists is to  to experiment with using biological structures as a medium.

 In the journal they showed a picture of a mouse with what appeared to be a human ear growing out of its back. The Vacanti mouse was a laboratory mouse that had what looked like a human ear grown on its back. The "ear" was actually an ear-shaped cartilage structure grown by seeding cow cartilage cells into a biodegradable ear-shaped mold and then implanted under the skin of the mouse, then the cartilage naturally grew by itself. By this famous experiment, some scientists realized that life can be used as a raw material. Not only ears, in the future, life can actually produce more and valuable organs. This technology can be used in organ transplantation. 

These kinds of studies arouse many discusses. Many open-minded people support such researches. As well, some people believe these researches are abusing animals and are non-humanistic. In my opinion, I support a thought in the end of the article Bioart: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Using Living Tissue as a Medium, "The idea is to engage with people, involve them in the ethical decision-making and encourage them to understand some of the scientific pursuits being illustrated by the artworks, be it bioengineering or stem cell research." Whether there should (or not) be limits for human creativity should still be discussed. Although those studies will keep going on without any power to stop them, the discussions should continue. I think the truth will come out after being discussed over and over again. 

Sources:

The Tissue Culture and Art Project: http://tcaproject.org/

Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications:
http://nanobioart.artscicenter.com/hybrid/sites/default/files/Ellen_Levy_BioArt.pdf

Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

“SymbioticA.” The University of Western Australia. 20 Aug 2012. Web. <http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/>.

"Bioart: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Using Living Tissue as a Medium."Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital. Web. 09 May 2016.

"Ear Mouse." The Famous Pictures Collection. 2013. Web. 09 May 2016.

“The Manifesto.” The Tissue Culture and Art Project. 2009. Web. <http://tcaproject.org/>.