Week 6: BioTech + Art

This week's topic of Biotech + Art was close to home for me. As a bioengineering major, I am constantly exposed to the breakthroughs science is making as well as the ethical implications each breakthrough has. To my surprise, however, I found genetic engineering was one of many topics that make this field so controversial. One of the artists I found particularly interesting was George Gessert, who experimented with making different hybrids of irises. The artist notes how he was fascinated in using Darwin's natural selection principle to help create exotic plants for his showcases. Below are some of the irises he manipulated for his art. I found it fascinating how he was utilizing a quite fundamental genetic principle of Mendelian genetics to showcase as an art piece. It's almost like Gregor Mendel, considered the father of genetics, could have done this with his famous experiment with peas!





One of the most surprising artists for me, however, was ORLAN. After watching the short lectures in class summarizing her work, I still did not know exactly what this artist did for a living. Upon further investigation, I found that this artist is quite the controversial one. From standing outside the Grand Palais and portraying herself as Madonna, a slot machine, and a whore to embracing plastic surgeries as part of her carnal art pieces, ORLAN is the epitome of showcasing the human body as an art form. Though her art has garnered international attention and has quite profound meaning, it made me wonder where we might have to draw the line as to how much of the human body we can use to still deem it respectful. Her art, as seen in the image below of a plastic surgery she included in the successful surgeries collection, is raw. Instead of shying away from the controversy surrounding plastic surgery, she embraces it and showcases it. Overall, it was quite a different representation of art I was never exposed to before.



Images
1. http://juliacowell.blogspot.com/2015/11/george-gessert-iris-project-artist.html
2. http://revolutionbio.co/bioart/bioart-through-evolution-george-gessert/
3. https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/whats-on/news/orlan-part-patient-unsw-galleries

Resources
1.“George Gessert: Genetics and Culture.” Audio Microscope: Joe Davis : Genetics and Culture,
geneticsandculture.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w02/gc_w02_gessert.htm.
2.“Bioart through Evolution: George Gessert.” Revolution Bioengineering, revolutionbio.co/bioart/bioart-through-evolution-george-gessert/.
3.Science News. “Green Light: Toward an Art of Evolution by George Gessert.” Science News, 23 Sept. 2013, www.sciencenews.org/article/green-light-toward-art-evolution-george-gessert.
4.Leddy, Siobhan. “How ORLAN Turned Plastic Surgery into Feminist Art.” Artsy, Artsy, 7 Aug. 2017, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-70-body-modification-artist-orlan-reinventing.
5.“ORLAN AND THE TRANSGRESSIVE ACT.” ORLAN: IS IT ART?, Stanford University, web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Orlan/Orlan2.html.