Inside Out: Prosthetic Organs as Wearable Art (original) (raw)
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Artnodes, 2023
Over the last three decades, the rise of new conceptualizations around the human body in connection with technology and machines has led to the development of new art practices in parallel with technological advances in the fields of biology, medicine and computing. This paper examines the human body in art contexts where biotechnology plays a relevant role in the generation of new conceptualizations around the human body topic. Thus, re-contextualized in social and cultural spheres and technical terms, the body will become redesigned, revamped, or augmented through the use of technological advances ranging from plastic surgery to robotic prosthetics. The human body is our vehicle of direct interaction with the environment. Its modification, alteration or expansion implies a redefinition of the existing limits between our corporality and the environment itself. Not only in the physical sense, but metaphysical and social. Hence, the introduced artists and strategies blur these limits and establish new relations through the body as a physical and social entity. In the search of new boundaries far beyond socio-cultural and natural limitations, they will reach new social, perceptual and conceptual statuses, far beyond aesthetic practices, focusing on the generation of political and social debates.
For a coexistence with the more-than-human: making biomaterials from a philosophical perspective
Sustainability n.15, 5464, 2023
This paper discusses the domain of do-it-yourself (DIY) biomaterials applied to design, by analysing aims, speculative value and aesthetics emerging from this encounter. From a transdisciplinary perspective, the convergence of post-anthropocentric philosophies with systematic experiments in two different laboratories, located in Italy and China, demonstrates how design practices can contribute to new forms of human–nature relationships, highlighting a pluriverse way to understand life. Because of the dual approach of philosophical theories and hands-on experiments, biomaterials become tangible tools which change the very idea of “designed objects”: they assign to artefacts circular, living, and integrated properties, thereby placing them within the notion of an ecosystem. Nevertheless, beyond bio-based properties, the three most interesting qualities emerging from this theoretical–practical study are (1) 1:1 scale of production, (2) organic-formless aesthetic, and (3) multi species coexistence. We argue that through such a model of bioproduction, the designer can assume the role of catalyst for a post-anthropocentric vision, dismantling the feeling of separation, alterity, and not-belonging between the human and the nonhuman, between objects and organisms.
Prosthetics Imagery: Negotiating the Identity of Enhanced Bodies
‘Prosthetics Imagery: Negotiating the Identity of Enhanced Bodies’ is an explorative journey of an art gallery space, following social narratives of perfecting the human body through technological intervention. It is an invitation to re-consider notions of ‘normality’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘beauty’. Motivated by the need to create an open, transdisciplinary debate on the controversial subject of human enhancement, I argue that bioart can be used as tactical media for exposing the sociocultural narratives that currently frame technical development. For exploring how ‘identity’ becomes a poly-semantic concept, negotiated at the intersection between biology and technology, my chosen case-study is the HUMAN+: The Future of Our Species (2011) exhibition from Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin – namely the artistic photo series by Howard Schatz of Aimee Mullins and her designer-signed prosthetics.
Bio-revolutions: radical change, design cultures and non-humans
2021
This paper explores the interface between culture, design and biology. It draws on methodologies and existing literature on Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies to argue that despite predictions of biotechnologies bringing about revolutionary change in design disciplines, there is a risk of bio-design becoming a ‘failed’ revolution, similar to that of personal computers. To counter this, we introduce the biomaterial probe, a methodology that enables designers to find potential opportunities, challenges and limitations of introducing living systems in the practice of design
Design and biotechnology:an exploration of the possibilities of objectifying living organisms
The Journal of the School of Design Issue number 4 , 1996
In this paper I will look at current artistic trends, as well as recent developments in biotechnology that in the future may transform living organisms into objects. The concept of technological progress as a part of a linear perception of history that may exceed its limits is analysed, and the need for re-evaluating the concept of progress is emphasised. The role of biotechnology in technological progress, as well as the potential of biotechnology to change our perception of progress by applying natural processes in most basic terms, is highlighted. The relationship between art and technology is examined and shows that in some cases art explores technological advances before they occur. The work and the views of body artists Stelarc and Orlan are discussed, as well as those of some other artists. Bioethics is introduced as a scholarly way to examine biotechnological development, and it's revealed that not much has been done in respect to issues that are not directly connected to humans. This area seems to be where design can come in and explore the prospects of living objects and their manipulation. The need for a closer relationship between design and biotechnology, in order to produce a better future, concludes this paper.
Biopower imagined: Biotechnological art and life engineering
2017
We are witnessing profound changes in our societies via biosciences, biotechnologization, and digitalization. The influence and application of specific engineering rationality and cybernetic perspectives to the complex systems of living structures and to the language of biology are integral parts of our cultural environment. The biotechnological reproduction of life, bodies and cells, as well as AI-equipped machines, has become normal and sometimes even technically routine in contemporary societies. The biotechnologization of society and the engineering of life have also significantly influenced contemporary art fields, practices and projects. The crucial analytical scope for this article is a specific biotechnological art field – bio art. Bio art includes the works of artists who are intrigued by working with living or semi-living tissues and biotechnologies. Using specific artworks, mainly by Louis Bec, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, and Biononymous, the text investigates current forms of power over life – biopower – that imagine, classify, and govern our societies today, even on molecular and genetic levels. The text analyzes artistic reflections of the processes by which people are governed mainly as the derivatives of the body, biological and genetic data sets. In this context, the article explores artworks inspired by specific biopolitical engineering rationality and surveillance practices enabling naming, fabricating and dealing with life which is synthesized, ethnicized and monitored.
Anthropology in Action, 2017
The body as an anthropological nexus of sociocultural norms and conventions has been discussed at length in the humanities and social sciences. However, within the worlds of industrial design, an important player infl uencing an understanding of the body within a design process has been neglected and that is the industrial designer. Our main thesis considers designing as an anthropological, sociocultural and physical praxis, in the midst of which stand person(s) engaging within their material environments. We argue that, as an interdisciplinary dialogue with anthropologists and designers alike, the industrial designer could pursue a broader perspective than the classic techno-practice perspective, which deliberately detaches the social qualities of human action with the aim of changing user behaviour through the use of medical products. Instead, we propose an understanding of industrial design practice(s) that considers the improvisational and interwovenness of peoples and practices and what this means for att uning industrial design practices accordingly.