Aesthetic Strategies of BioArt at the Intersection of Art and Science: A Case Study on the Tissue Culture & Art Project

BioArt emerged in the late 20th century as an art practice primarily exploring developments in the life sciences such as genetic engineering or tissue culture. It does this by employing “moist” media in the form of living organisms that evolve, transform, and die. The resulting artworks are ephemeral in nature and often require laboratory environments to survive. Accordingly, collaborations between scientific institutions and bioartists are common, despite artists often taking a critical stance toward the production of knowledge under capitalist conditions. By specifically examining the context and aesthetic properties of selected BioArt works by the Tissue Culture & Art Project (Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr, and Guy Ben-Ary), the thesis aims to expand the current body of research largely concerning the ethics and ontology of BioArt.

Central to the study are the visual and material qualities of laboratory environments, the processual character of “living” (or “semi-living”) artworks, and the contingency inherent in working with biological matter. All of these are often deliberately staged and performed through performed rituals and the careful mediation of reception through visual markers employing the iconic and indexical qualities of scientific apparatuses as well as traditional iconographies.  Drawing on the work of Robert Mitchell and Ingeborg Reichle as well as Umberto Eco and Nicolas Bourriaud, the aesthetics of BioArt involving organic living matter are analyzed through a case study of four works by TC&A: “Semi-Living Worry Dolls”, “Pig Wings”, “Disembodied Cuisine”, and “Victimless Leather”.

The works are understood as expressions of rematerializing tendencies in contemporary art, in which life itself is explored as a medium with specific aesthetic qualities. They are employed to address fundamental questions about the role of science in society, the boundaries of artistic practice, and ultimately the meaning of life.