From cave walls to canvas to computer screens to the petri dish, today a new strain of artist is blurring the lines between the lab and the Louvre, using genetic material as a medium. It’s not science fiction, it’s called transgenic art and it’s one of the latest movement in galleries around the world.
Throughout history, art has pushed technology, and technology has fueled new art. Breakthroughs in gene splicing and DNA manipulation are allowing artists to take their work in new, and chillingly controversial directions: like glowing green bunnies and packaging a woman’s eggs as human caviar. In an age of cloning and genetically modified foods, their unconventional exhibitions are raising new questions, and more than a few eyebrows.
Guests:
Joe Davis, bio-artist and research associate at MIT
Ruth West,
lecturer at UCLA Department of Design / Media Art
Robin Held, curator of “Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores
Human Genomics,” an exhibition of genomic art