The BioArt Initiative

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Arts Department
Center for Biotechnology and
Interdisciplinary Studies
“Bio Art does not permit itself to be nailed down with
a hard and fast definition of the procedures or
materials that it must employ. Even if we can
consider the ‘manipulation of the mechanisms of life’
as its medium, this assumes a very wide variety of
forms both with respect to discourse and technique.”

Hauser, Jens. "Bio Art - Taxonomy of an Etymological Monster",

in Ars Electronica 2005.

The BioArt Initiative is a collaborative research project

between Rensselaer’s Arts Department and the
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
(CBIS). This project proposed to lay the foundation
establishing RPI as a premiere institution for the
synthesis of emerging biotechnological research and
media art practice. The initiative brought together
RPI’s cutting-edge biotechnology resources with its
world-class electronic arts community.

Inside flap back cover image: “Embracing Animal” by Kathy High

The BioArt Initiative
An experiment.
BioArt Curators

Kathy High, Daniela Kostova, Richard Pell, Boryana Rossa

The BioArt Initiative
The BioArt Initiative was an interventionist project
examining the ethics and aesthetics of engineering life.
The project started in March 2007 and took place in the
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
(CBIS), a research center at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (RPI), a university located in Troy, NY 300 km
north of NYC.
The project was initiated by a group of artists interested
in issues of ethics and aesthetics integral to the
emerging field of biotechnology. These "cultural
interruptions" occurred alongside the research and
practices taking place at the CBIS. The goal was to
bridge the gap between the specialized discourse of the
life sciences and the public understanding of its social
and cultural implications. This goal was facilitated
through a series of art exhibitions, lectures and
residencies where artists would collaborate with biotech
researchers - all to grow the area loosely referred to as
"bio-art" and create a working facility for artists to use.
The goal to join together scientists and artists within a
research environment was borrowed from the ground-
breaking model of SymbioticA in Western Australia, and
inspired by the work of artist collective Critical Art
Ensemble which "explores the intersections of art,
technology, radical politics and critical theory". The
BioArt Initiative was only one of a few projects of its
kind in the U.S., and it quickly brought together a vital
community of artists, scientists and cultural workers
interested in being a part of it, both within the RPI
community, as well as nationally and internationally.
This report, written by the artists/curators of the project,
will document some of the remarkable exhibits and
lectures that have taken place over the past year and a
half, and to share what we are able to take away from
this experience.
Our exhibitions took place in the Center for
Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, a very large
building with a lot of interesting possibilities and open
public spaces. As a brand new building that had not been
designed with Art as one of the represented disciplines,
we immediately encountered challenges. Building policy
prevented us from hanging anything from the walls, and
fire codes dictated we use very specific flame-retardant
materials. As there was no means to compensate
researchers for their time spent with artists, most were
unwilling to offer access to their labs or the expertise of
graduate students. Some scientists and public safety
officials were concerned with "untrained" artists working
in the lab. Fortunately the head PI and the Director of
CBIS likened artists to incoming Freshmen students who
were also given access to the facilities despite their
expertise/training, thus defending artists' ability to learn
the protocol and respect the guidelines. Despite these
challenges, we were able to overcome many of the
obstacles.
In order to build up some social synergy between artists
and scientists, we organized several "BioArt Mixers".
These were social events with food, drink and live
musicians that took place in the CBIS building. These
parties were a place to meet and informally discuss
ideas and were hugely successful and celebratory. The
mixers allowed these different social worlds of scientists
and artists to easily collide, and were where some vital
collaborations were born.
BioArtists and scientists from around the world were
brought to RPI to lecture and exhibit their work and
research. The lectures were open to the public and were
attended by a mix of art, science and engineering
students and faculty. Lecture topics discussed such
issues as: the role of art and science to society; the
ethics of engineering life; the history of artificial
habitats and more.
Many of the artists who came to lecture also exhibited
artwork in the CBIS. These artworks ranged from purely
representational works that use the tools of science to
create provocative imagery, to documentation of living
artworks, performances and installations that involve
actual living organisms.
A primary goal of the BioArt initiative was to bring
artists into the lab and begin learning the tools and
processes common to the practice of biological research
and biotechnology. The intention was to work towards
demystifying some aspects of biological research and to
help scientists to reflect on their research in a broader
cultural context. At least one artist was successful in
building a mutually supportive and lasting working
relationship with a research scientist in the CBIS. In
another instance, an entire course in BioArt, "VivoArts",
was able to make periodic use of biology facilities and
benefit from workshops led by several researchers on
campus. This course may well serve as a model for
initiating future interdisciplinary relationships between
the arts and sciences.
economic rationalities and the political discourses that
keep us on a development path calibrated to the needs
of the few and the powerful."
(http://pnau.wordpress.com/)
Or rather, will science and art find a way to collaborate
to bring people into both these discourses to explore,
experiment and intervene?
Perhaps the examples of the BioArt Initiative's successes
and challenges point out the very prophecy that Brian
points to in his quote.
We are still trying to find a model for the BioArt
Initiative that can work in the U.S. that might be
somewhere between SymbioticA's artist-in-residency
labs and the home kitchen bio lab. At this time, the
BioArt Initiative has completed its first round of
programming and depleted its initial funding. We hope
to find alternate models to sustain such interdisciplinary
work in the future and hope that this document of our
progress may help us make it a reality.

The inquiries that the BioArt Initiative projects brought http://arts.rpi.edu/bioart

to the table raise questions about the obvious need for
further exchanges. Both artists and scientists need to
reflect upon the cultural and communication basis for
these collaborations. The fact that the representational
works were better received than those involving "wetlab"
techniques is no surprise here. To challenge what critic
Brian Holmes calls the "glittering spectacles of
technoscientific progress" we need new strategies and
modes of collaboration. As Holmes states: "To do this
requires a precise and far-ranging awareness of what's
happening at the cutting edges of social change, where
the new technological environments are invented and
installed in daily experience. But it also requires a
capacity to confront the managerial techniques, the
Thank you!
The BioArt Initiative would like to thank the following
people for their support:

Robert Linhardt (PI, Acting Director of the Center for

Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies)
Glenn Monastersky (Director of Operations, CBIS)
Kathy High (Co-PI, Associate Professor, Arts)
Rich Pell (Co-PI, Assistant Professor, Arts)
Daniela Kostova (Head Curator)
Boryana Rossa (Arts PhD)
Ted Krueger (Associate Dean of Architecture)
John Harrington (Dean of Humanities, Arts and Social
Sciences)
Wolf Von Maltzahn (VP of Research)
Joseph Banks (Architecture graduate student)
Mary Anne Staniszewski (Associate Professor, Arts)
Chris Bjornsson (Director of Microscopy, CBIS)
Douglas Swank (research scientist, CBIS)
Don Moore (Director of Communications, HASS)
Judith Frangos (Media Librarian, RPI)
Nancy Roberts (Administrative Associate, CBIS)
Joelle Willis (Administrative Coordinator, CBIS)
Sonny Rataul (Facilities Engineer, CBIS)
Seana Biondolillo (Studio Engineer, Arts)
Oleg Mavromatti (visiting artist)
Adam Zaretsky (Arts PhD)
Jung Yoon Lee (Arts MFA)
Jim Finn (Arts MFA)
Julia Reodica (Arts MFA)
Olivia Robinson (Arts MFA)
Jesse Stiles (Arts MFA)

The BioArt Initiative was made possible through an

EMPAC Seed Grant and additional support from the
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
and the Department of the Arts.
Exhibits
01

In the Presence of the Body 2

Curated by Boryana Rossa

2007
BioArt Exhibits
04/18/07 - 06/18/07
Exhibition:
In the Presence of the Body 1
Curated by Boryana Rossa, CBIS Atrium and West Hall Gallery 111
Screening Series, Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Images 4,5
Artists: Stelarc and Nina Sellars, Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr, Guy
Ben-Ary, Tanya Visocevic, Bruce Murphy (SymbioticA Research
Group), Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Anton Terziev, Katia
Damianova (Ultrafuturo), Eduardo Kac, Paul Vanouse, Shawn
Bailey / Jennifer Willet (BIOTEKNICA), Kathy High, Adam
Zaretsky, Critical Art Ensemble w/ Rich Pell, Dmitry Bulatov,
Julia Reodica. MEART Team (SymbioticA, Steve Potter's Lab
(Georgia Tech)).
One of the initial exhibitions was a collection of documentation of
bioart works displayed with the aim of introducing the university and
the local community to the collaboration of art and science as a field
that stands as a mediator between scientific research and society. The
artists who participated in this show work as part of the emerging field
of BioArt, an essential part of the wider genre of art and science
collaboration.
The ethics of the “newly created bodies” and their interaction with the
anthropocentric society are addressed by the collaborative project
MEART - The Semi Living Artist. MEART is a geographically detached,
bio-cybernetic research project and an installation distributed between
two (or more) locations in the world. Its “brain” consists of cultured
nerve cells that grow and live in the neuro-engineering lab of Dr. Steve
Potter, at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Its “body” is a
robotic drawing arm that is capable of producing two-dimensional
drawings.
07/1-09/30
Exhibition:
In the Presence of the Body 2
Curated by Boryana Rossa, CBIS Atrium
Screening Series, Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Images 1,2,3
Artists: Bio-Kino: Guy Ben-Ary, Tanja Visocevic, Bruce Murphy
(hosted by SymbioticA Australia), Julia Reodica (USA), Eduardo Kac
(USA), Paul Vanouse (USA), Ultrafuturo: Boryana Rossa, Oleg
Mavromatti, Katia Damianova, Anton Terziev (Bulgaria/Russia)
and Where are the Dogs Running (Russia)
In part II of this exhibition “the body” is explored through works made
by artists from around the world. These artists engage with wet
biology practices, or “bio-performances”, like tissue culturing and
genetic engineering, not only to create their artworks but also to
understand and critically evaluate the application of scientific research
in the society.
07/15/07 (ongoing)
BioArt Residency:
The Mirror of Faith
Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Kathy High and Chris
Bjornsson CBIS Labs
Image 6, 7
One of the first projects from the BioArt Initiative residence program is
a collaboration of artists Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Kathy High
and biologist Chris Bjornsson. This residency is a long-term project
that involves gene sequencing, microscopy, genetic modification of E-
coli, theoretical research, documentation of scientific/artistic process,
and installations in a public space. The Mirror of Faith relates to the
research of the molecular biologist Dean Hamer on the genetic
predisposition of human spirituality.
10/15-11/15/08
Exhibition:
Icarus Flux
Video by Craig Tompkins, CBIS, Bruggeman Conference Lobby, CBIS
Image 14
Craig Tompkins was a second year MFA candidate from the Arts
program at RPI. His 6 min. video presented the myth of Icarus as an
aesthetic treatment to the concept of bodily alteration and
transformation.
10/28-12/01/07
Exhibition and BioArt residency:
Sentimental Objects in Attempts to Befriend a Virus
Caitlin Berrigan, CBIS Atrium
Images 8,9,10,11
Caitlin Berrigan, one of the first artist-in-residence in the BioArt
Initiative, presented the ongoing series "Sentimental Objects in
Attempts to Befriend a Virus" a site-specific installation and poster
exhibition. For a week, Berrigan occupied the lobby area at CBIS with
her geodesic "viral domes" resembling the hepatitis C virus and other
viruses. During the occupancy, she had a series of "tea parties" to
discuss the works she created using the formal aesthetic of the viral
protein structure as the basis for each.
11/15/07-01/30/08
Exhibition:
Sensing Terrains
Patricia Olynyk, CBIS Atrium
Lecture, Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Images 12, 13
Patricia Olynyk presented "Sensing Terrains" with the BioArt Initiative,
a print series with large scale scanned electron micrographs of sensory
organs mixed with enlarged details of Japanese garden spaces. These
silk prints hung throughout the CBIS building and are now in the
permanent collection of CBIS.
12/15/08-01/15/08
BioArt Residency:
The Juche Idea
Jim Finn, CBIS
Image 15
During his residency Jim Finn worked with researchers from the CBIS
to create a sculpture made of live fly media that later was used for the
movie "The Juche Idea". The movie follows Jung Yoon Lee, a young
video artist invited to work at a Juche art residency on a North Korean
collective farm.
03/03-03/21/08
Exhibition:
Light of Reason and Dead Butterflies
Soyo Lee, CBIS Atrium
Lecture, Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Images 16,17
Images of butterfly wing dissections. MFA student, Soyo Lee, was able
to create an exchange with CBIS scientist, Dr. Douglas M. Swank, to
work in his laboratory. She traded her skills dissecting insect muscle
structure for microscope and materials use. As component of her MFA
Thesis exhibition Lee raised live butterflies in a public lab.
03/24-06/24/08
Exhibition:
Essence: Transfigure
Chris, Birgitta and Geoff Bjornsson, CBIS Atrium
Lecture, Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Images 18,19,20,21
Chris Bjornsson, Director of the Microscopy, in collaboration with Badri
Roysam's Lab produced large scale prints of microscopic confocal
images of rat brain tissue. The wide view shows the display of Chris'
prints and his brother, Geoff Bjornsson's sculpture on left. This artwork
was commissioned by Chris Bjornsson through the BioArt Initiative.
05/15/08-06/15/08
BioARt Residency:
Waste to Work. Everyman's Source
Olivia Robinson and Daniela Kostova
Exhibition of culminating work at Schenectady Museum & Planetarium,
Schenectady, NY
Images 22,23
Combining the practices of scientists and artists Daniela and Olivia
developed sweat-powered batteries using sweat collected from
different kinds of physical labor. The electricity produced by the
batteries illuminates an LED map of the world at night representing the
centers of energy consumption.
02

Custom exhibit design

Ted Krueger, Joseph Banks

School of Architecture
03

In the Presence of the Body 2

Curated by Boryana Rossa

2007
04

In The Presence of the Body 1: MEART

Installation.
Presented at CBIS as documentation only.
2007
05

In The Presence of the Body 1: MEART

Installation.
Presented at CBIS as documentation only.

2007
06

The Mirror of Faith

Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Kathy High and Chris Bjornsson

(Residency)

2007 (work in progress)

07

The Mirror of Faith

Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Kathy High and Chris

Bjornsson (Residency)

2007 (work in progress)

08

Sentimental Objects in Attempts to Befriend a Virus

Caitlin Berrigan
Chocolates modeled on the 3D structure of Hepatitis-C virus
served at Performance. CBIS (Residency)

2007
09

Sentimental Objects in Attempts to Befriend a Virus

Caitlin Berrigan
Invitation to Performance, CBIS (Residency)

2007
10

Sentimental Objects in Attempts to Befriend a Virus

Caitlin Berrigan
Performance, CBIS (Residency)

2007
11

Sentimental Objects in Attempts to Befriend a Virus

Caitlin Berrigan
Installation, CBIS (Residency)

2007
12

Sensing Terrains

Patricia Olynyk
Installation, CBIS

2007
13

Orb II

Patricia Olynyk

2007
14

Icarus Flux

Craig Tompkins
single-channel video, CBIS

2007
15

Juche Idea

Jim Finn
BioArt Residency, CBIS

2007
16

Light of Reason and Dead Butterflies

Soyo Lee

2008
17

Light of Reason and Dead Butterflies

Soyo Lee

2007
18

Essence: Transfigure

The Illuminated Veil

Chris Bjornsson & Badri Roysam's Lab

2008
19

Essence: Transfigure

Sleeping Golem II
Geoff Bjornsson

2008
20

Essence: Transfigure

The Space of Disgust

Birgitta Bjornsson

2008
21

Essence: Transfigure

The Space of Disgust

Birgitta Bjornsson

2008
22
23

Waste To Work. Everyman's Source.

Daniela Kostova and Olivia Robinson

2008
Lectures and Events
24
BioArt Lectures and Events
03/15/07
Artist Talk:
Oron Catts (SymbioticA) and Shawn Bailey (BIOTEKNICA)
Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Image 31
Oron Catts presented his work as the founder and director of the
SymbioticA, the art and biotechnology collaborative research laboratory
based at the University of Western Australia. Shawn Bailey,
BIOTEKNICA associate with Jennifer Willet, presented documentation of
the tissue culture sculptures he produced during an artist residency at
SymbioticA.
04/12/07
Lecture and Social Event:
BioArt Mixer I
Artist Talks:
Julia Reodica, Boryana Rossa, Rich Pell and Alex Chechile
Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Image 28
In order to build up some social synergy between artists and scientists,
we organized several "BioArt Mixers". These were social events with
lectures, food, drink and live musicians that took place in the CBIS
building. These parties were a place to meet and informally discuss
ideas and were hugely successful and celebratory. The mixers allowed
these different social worlds of scientists and artists to easily collide,
and were where some vital collaborations were born. At this first BioArt
Mixer, the artist talks introduced the ideas of projects involving art and
science collaborations.
04/23/07
Artist Talk:
Steve Potter PhD (Georgia Tech,) Dr. Steven Kurtz (Critical Art
Ensemble), Adam Zaretsky (University of Leiden)
Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Image 4,5,32
Steve Potter presented the MEART: Semi-living Artist project. Steve
Kurtz discussed the history of biological warfare and Adam Zaretsky
discussed fears of mutation.
10/02/2007
Social Event:
BioArt Mixer II
Live Music Performances by Ryder Cooley, Jason Martin, Ross
Goldstein & Todd Chandler
BBQ and Bar, Outdoor Terrace, 2nd floor, CBIS
Images 25,26
This BioArt Mixer II provided food and drink on the outdoor patio at the
CBIS building. Musicians played to a very relaxed group.
10/03/07
Artist Talk:
(RE)embodying Biotechnology
Lecture by Jennifer Willet – Arts PhD Colloquium
West Hall
Contemporary biotechnologies are often portrayed as if all forms of
biological manipulation are genetic, and equivalent in protocol to data
entry command key-strokes <insert>, <delete>, <copy> and
<paste>. This blanket application of computational models to
instances of biotechnology provides a sterilizing affect, removing all
that is wet, bloody, unruly, and animal, from mass imaginations of the
biotech future. (RE)embodying Biotechnology argued for a more
holistic understanding of evolving biotechnologies through practical
means.
10/26/2007
Scientist Talk:
iGEM, a Competitive Race to Make Synthetic Organisms
Lecture by Peter J. Woolf, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departments of
Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of
Michigan
Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Image 27
Drawing from the field of Synthetic Biology and its premise to change
our world in the 21st century, Prof. Peter Woolf discussed how to
become involved in this change through the annual undergraduate
competition, the International Genetically Engineered Machines
competition (iGEM).
01/01/08 - 05/01/08
Interdisciplinary Course:
VivoArts: Biology and Art Studio Class
Kathy High and Adam Zaretsky
Images 33,34,35,36
A semester-long studio art course taught by High and Zaretsky
introduced students to the ethics and practice of working with life as a
medium. Originally designed by Adam Zaretsky, Vivoarts: Biology and
Art Studio course utilized five major avenues of study representative of
five ways in which Art and Biology join our cultural interpolation of the
life-world. The five major areas of study this class explores include:
Edible Art, Biology and Bio-Art, Art for Non-humans, Body Art, Ecology
and EcoArt.
01/15/08
Artist Talk:
An Indiscrete Life
Lecture and screening by Boo Chapple
Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Image 30
Boo Chapple gave a talk about her project concerning carbon
emissions and carbon trading systems where she discussed conceptual
and practical details of wearable carbon offset schemes, urine recycling
devices and a self-pharming system.
01/23/08
Artist Talk:
Sound, Matter, Flesh: A history of crosstalk from medicine to
contemporary art and biology
Lecture by Boo Chapple – Arts PhD Colloquium
West Hall
What does it mean to use sound as a means to engage with and
manipulate biological systems? How does sound differ to image as a
way of accessing and experiencing dynamic micro-material processes?
Boo Chapple traced a particular history of relations between sound and
the body (in a broad, biological sense), one that migrates across the
disciplinary boundaries of art, science and technology and arrives at a
contemporary nexus of projects that engage both with sound and the
life sciences.
02/25/08
Artist Talk:
Bioteknecronomicon
Lecture by Philip Ross
Bruggeman Conference Center, CBIS
Image 29
In this talk visiting artist Philip Ross traced a history of ideas that have
informed the popular imagination of biotechnology and alien life forms.
The representation of these biological phenomena were infused with
ideas refined in the Baroque period. While framing his own work within
these ideas, Philip charted a language that has binded the gardens of
Versailles to computer renderings of sub-cellular phenomena.
04/04/08
Artist Talk and Film:
Strange Culture
Lecture by Dr. Steven Kurtz with film screening of Strange Culture by
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Screening benefit and poster show, Christ Church, Troy, NY
Joint event by the Sanctuary for Independent Media and the BioArt
Initiative
Image 32
Renowned artist and SUNY Buffalo professor Steve Kurtz of Critical Art
Ensemble presented a benefit screening of "Strange Culture," a
documentary by Lynn Hershman Leeson, about an attempt by the
Justice Department to frame him as a bio-terrorist.
04/09/08
Social Event:
BioArt Mixer III
Live Music: RPI Chamber Orchestra, Michael Century, David
Gibson, Jesse Stiles, Willie The Moak, Timothy Sweeney, David
Scheffel. Light show: Jesse Stiles
Food and Bar, Inside Atrium, 2nd floor, CBIS
BioArt Mixer III provided food and drink in the Atrium of the CBIS
building. A variety of musicians, from rock and classical to avant garde
and DJ punk, played to an audience of students and faculty.
25

BioArt Mixer II

CBIS Terrace

2007
26

BioArt Mixer II

Poster.

2007
27

iGEM: International Genetically Engineered Machines

competition

Peter Woolf

2007

28

Transgeneography

Richard Pell, Center for PostNatural History

2007
29 30

Bioteknecronomicon An Indiscrete Life

Philip Ross Boo Chapple

2008 2008
31

Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr

Tissue Culture and Art Project

SymbioticA
32

Critcal Art Ensemble and Lynn Hershman

"Strange Culture" film and "Seized" installation.

2008
33

VivoArts Class

2008
34 35

VivoArts Class VivoArts Class

DNA Extraction DNA Extraction

2008 2008
36

VivoArts Class

2008
The Rensselaer BioArt Initiative
March 2007 - June 2008