angela fragkou
PhD Thesis
Athens School of Fine Arts
2019-2023
Artistic Research on the correlation between visual arts and bio sciences
Summary
This research proposal is situated in the broader context of new media, technology and life sciences Art, a relatively recently developing branch - with this structure - of contemporary Art. However, it constitutes a rapidly developing field of research, as at the beginning of the 21st century, it emerges as a formal subject of academic study, highlighting initiatives and emphasizing the desire to link biotechnology and art.
This study raises questions about the ways in which art and biotechnology, commence from different starting points, negotiate their interrelationships of interaction and identification and develop (or not) common breakthroughs and complementarity. It is based on theoretical perspectives, artistic practices, public experiments, developed in the last decades, within the theoretical framework of the aforementioned common space, with Snow, Pickering, etc. as key representatives.
The space in which the research will be developed is the digital space of representation of these experiments (simulation), which has already been exploited by Art, and the physical fields of evolution of the cases to be studied in the thesis. Algorithmic structures are characterized by specific colors and actions, and exhibit an automatic genetic evolution.
The main data collection methods include case studies, semi-structured interviews with artists and scientists, literature review of the field and the creation of a database, while the analysis will be based on the comparative study and qualitative interpretation of the data, with a focus on innovation and the expression of biotechnological reality in visual terms.
KEYWORDS: new media, digital representation, bio-art, artificial art, bio-materials, bio-science, hybrid models, experimentation in art
Introduction
The bio-artist can introduce research questions, producing work that transcends conventional notions of Art, Science and Technology, contribute to innovation in the use of new media, adopt and enrich laboratory scientific practices, thus highlighting the creation of a common place, engaging researchers and laboratories in the production of works of Art. It is along this imaginary line of pushing the boundaries of the interaction between the arts and life science and technology, under the umbrella of interdisciplinarity, that the current effort is moving. It considers the possibility of creating an experimental methodology in Art that manages to express the achievements of biotechnological reality, and moves on its own terms, without discrimination, through the use of a wide range of cognitive tools, biological and digital media, between the spectrum of visual arts and life sciences; motivated by the writer's interest in the positive methodologies and New Media adopted by contemporary visual language, through her dual capacity as a biochemist and new media visual artist. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the exploration of an innovative experimental space, through the qualitative tools of artistic research, with the help of digital media and scientific experimentation.
Theoretical framework
Throughout history, art has been influenced by advances in bioscientific developments, from anatomy to agronomic applications. However, in recent years, the rapid development in biotechnological research has inspired many artists who create through the use of structures or elements of the life sciences, such as microorganisms, living organisms, plant and animal tissues, in collaboration with scientific institutions and laboratories, adopting the same techniques, resulting in the constitution of a contemporary artistic practice. The legitimate question arises as to what is contemporary art looking for in the life sciences? How do two disciplines, which continue to be publicly perceived as distant from each other, simultaneously continue to collaborate, resulting in an innovative academic and artistic endeavor? What is the process of osmosis that plays a regulating and catalytic role, in that it has the power to ultimately reform artistic practice into an effective tool for understanding and enhancing ongoing biotechnological research? According to Nagel, the subjectivity of consciousness is an irreducible feature of reality, without which we could not do science, and it must occupy a fundamental place in any credible worldview, as important as that occupied by objectivity. But how is the role of the artist shaped, responding to current scientific developments and choosing to adopt an artistic practice based on scientific methodologies e.g. biotechnology, molecular biochemistry and research in genetics and pharmaceutical nanotechnology? In fact, at the moment, the artist who turns to biotechnology is in fact critically engaging with the technologies of life, stimulating creative and scientific thinking and contributing to new technologies and research questions. In this way, a basis for future interdisciplinary collaborations is developed, and a new space is constructed in which individuals and communities from different backgrounds can engage. In short, the bioscience laboratory is not the only place for biotechnological research today. Referring to interdisciplinarity, to bio-art in particular, and to the role of the bio-artist, in general, in its ability to reflect the bioscientific developments we are experiencing, there are excellent references that could have an impact on the sociological, cultural and environmental shaping of the interpretive process of the world. But do they succeed? Or is there a selective transfer of evidence, leading to an awkward interdisciplinary effort that insists on self-referentiality? How is biotechnological reality reflected in the hybrid artistic approaches of a multiprismatic grey zone? In what way does the complementary use of technology, of multimedia, as bridging tools, due to software relevance, enter the picture? The changes in perceptions of bio-art over the last decade, focusing on leading scientific institutions and artistic works, illustrate the complexity of this path and highlight the awareness of the importance of a new effort to highlight the compatibility and special interest at the interface of the intersection of the two disciplines. It can be concluded, from the above, that the programmatic position of the art research under development lies in the redefinition of space from the perspective of artists and scientists, through the emergence of experimental methods and their New Media-Technologies in Art.
Analysis of Methodology
In an attempt to approach the two spaces equally, qualitative research was chosen as a methodological tool. The development of the exploratory case study allows for a better understanding of the extended research area of innovative actions. Qualitative data collection is enhanced, through exploratory semi-structured interviews and field-based artistic research. Exploratory case studies of the visual approach to biotechnological experimental processes were developed in collaboration with relevant bioscientific and artistic stakeholders. The research is complemented by data collection through a literature review and the development of a database consisting of the data archives.
The research is developed in two levels:
1. Comparative study and literature review of sources. Field review, research of printed and electronic materials, recording of reports, institutions, actions. Subcategorization of primary material, based on technological, life science tools. Brief supervision of some writing projects, selection based on innovation, originality, use of new media. Organization of material in data files, creation of a database for sector mapping.
2. Artistic research through case study of contemporary biotechnological experimental processes and semi-structured interviews of bio-artists and bioscientists. The experimental process is an object of experimentation, a movement of re-framing, a new signification of space. During content analysis, qualitative data interpretation is followed, based on a theoretical framework.
Experimental course of research on structural color, carried out by the biotechnology team of the i-GEM Global Genetics Competition, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Creation of an experimental site for interdisciplinary approaches, "3D Biohub", a partnership between a 3D computer laboratory and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Integration of bio-scientific developments of structural color research and 3D printing technology in the production of artworks. Use of innovative biomaterials in 3D printing, New Media, digital modelling of scientific research outputs (symbolic and visual level), theoretical analysis of a different perspective of a purely scientific and innovative experiment, visual mediation and communication of biotechnological achievements in society through visual arts.
Use of nanotechnology targeted drug delivery nanosystems (dendrimeric compounds) and colloidal nanocarriers for therapeutic purposes. Recording of experimental process by digital means and research semi-structured interviews of a research group of participants, conducting research at the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, PharmacySchool of Health Sciences, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. On-site artistic research of new media mentioned above and the possibilities they offer to Art.
Formulation of research questions
The research questions of the thesis are open-ended, oriented in a general direction, flexible and can be modified or reformulated, if necessary, during the research process:
The central question is:
What is the course of the "schematization" that occurs between biotechnology and the life sciences, in terms of the organization and shaping that takes place, in the process of interpreting the world?
The sub-questions that automatically arise are the following:
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What is the role of biotechnologies as a New Medium in the creation of works of Art and vice versa?
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What is the process followed to create new hybrid models in Art, in such a way as to express biotechnological reality?
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What is the field of connection between life-artistic actions-bioscience-technology, being seemingly contradictory disciplines, in terms of the issue of mixing disparate categories, in the attempt of a movement without distinction?
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In relation to the above, what are the issues of mediation, integration, compatibility, special interest that arise and that constitute the beginning of a process of osmosis?
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What is, to date, the course and development of bio-artistic actions, which intertwine innovatively, in positive terms, with life sciences and technology?
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What is the role of the development of new technologies, involved in the decoding of biological signals and the diffusion of bio-information, over an unlimited spectrum of multimedia, as an object of experimentation in Art?
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What is the use of biochemical properties such as repeatability, frequency, time dependence, interaction with the environment, in a similar way, occurring in biological, chemical and molecular systems, for its transformation and description into visual information?
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