Abstract:
Living works of bioart force an encounter with the visceral, ethical and embodied actualities
of bioengineering, through the liminal form of the non-human art subject. Intertwining and
intentionally confounding traditional dualisms of self/other, living/non-living and
subject/object, bioart challenges perceptions of living matter and human relationships with
other forms of life. Using a pluralistic approach, this thesis comprises of a descriptive,
theoretical and aesthetic exploration of bioart, which includes consideration of facture, uses
and application of biotechnological tools and processes in art construction, and the visual forms
of living bioart works, in addition to theoretical engagements with posthumanism, ethics and
new materialism. Furthermore, aesthetic notions of the abject and the uncanny, together with
understandings of the phenomenological art encounter are explored alongside these theoretical
considerations.
This research suggests that the use of living materials and tools of biotechnology by
artists is a purposeful act which intentionally challenges and critiques contemporary genetic
manipulation and uses of living materials. This critique is enabled through the visual, material
form of bioart, which appears to inhabit a new uncanny valley; producing a sense of eeriness
and a conflation of familiarity and unfamiliarity enabled through living materiality, bioart
places the viewer in a unique position of perceiving the artworks simultaneously as of the self
and other, thus enabling both critical and emotive perspectives. It would appear that this act of
transposing living matter into the role of art media can be perceived as being a transgressive
act, thus exposing a cultural double-standard whereby the artist is publicly scrutinised in ways
that bioscientists are not, despite using the same materials and processes. This, in turn, appears
to be an important aspect of bioart practices as it offers new perspectives for critique of extant
practices by disrupting the expectations of both scientific materials and what art should or can
be. Bioart offers a platform for discussing these questions and for facilitating an encounter with ideas and technologies that are often hidden or packaged palatably. Bioart is, therefore, a
confrontation with the values and processes of the Anthropocene, bringing the viewer face-toface
with the impressive yet accelerating power of current technological capabilities.