The BioArt Initiative catalog - Kathy High

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


An experiment.

BioArt Curators 

Kathy High, Daniela Kostova, Richard Pell, Boryana Rossa


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 


(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 groundbreaking 

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. 

The inquiries that the BioArt Initiative projects brought 

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 

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. 

http://arts.rpi.edu/bioart

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 


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: 


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: 


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 Ecoli, 

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 


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 


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 


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 


Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Kathy High and Chris Bjornsson 

(Residency) 

2007 (work in progress)

07 


Boryana Rossa, Oleg Mavromatti, Kathy High and Chris 

Bjornsson (Residency) 

2007 (work in progress)

08 


Caitlin Berrigan 

Chocolates modeled on the 3D structure of Hepatitis-C virus 

served at Performance. CBIS (Residency) 

2007

09 



Invitation to Performance, CBIS (Residency) 

2007

10 



Performance, CBIS (Residency) 

2007

11 



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 


Soyo Lee 

2008

17 


Soyo Lee 

2007

18 


The Illuminated Veil 

Chris Bjornsson & Badri Roysam's Lab 

2008

19 


Sleeping Golem II 

Geoff Bjornsson 

2008

20 


The Space of Disgust 

Birgitta Bjornsson 

2008

21 


The Space of Disgust 

Birgitta Bjornsson 

2008

23 

Waste To Work. Everyman's Source. 

Daniela Kostova and Olivia Robinson 

2008

Lectures and Events

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 


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) 


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 , , and 

. 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 


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 


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 


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 


CBIS Terrace 

2007

26 


Poster. 

2007

27 

iGEM: International Genetically Engineered Machines 

competition 

Peter Woolf 

2007 

28 

Transgeneography 

Richard Pell, Center for PostNatural History 

2007

29 

Bioteknecronomicon 

Philip Ross 

2008 

30 

An Indiscrete Life 

Boo Chapple 

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 


DNA Extraction 

2008 

35 


DNA Extraction 

2008

36 


2008

The Rensselaer BioArt Initiative 

March 2007 - June 2008

The BioArt Initiative catalog - Kathy High

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