It’s difficult to think of biotechnology without thinking either of Dr. Frankenstein screaming “it’s alive” as his monster begins to twitch or the ubër-scientists solving all manner of crime in CSI in the time it takes to order a cheeseburger.
And like any mythology or stereotype, it can be difficult to see through the haze created by popular media and understand biotechnology and its lesser-known cousin bioart.
But an upcoming workshop, symposium and performance event – BioARTCAMP: A Rocky Mountain Expedition in Art and Biology – at The Banff Centre will help explain both bioart and biotechnology, which both rely on using life forms as tools or living technology with cheese and wine making as two simple examples.
Jennifer Willet, professor at the University of Windsor School of Visual Arts and director of INCUBATOR: Hybrid Laboratory at the intersection of Art, Science and Ecology, is leading a group of 20 artists, scientists and students in building a temporary portable bioart laboratory at the Castle Mountain Wilderness Hostel, located on the Bow Valley Parkway.
“I worked for years in labs, and when I see science portrayed on television and in the general media, it is always sterile, perfect and clean, and that virtual vision of the biotech negates complex ethical interspecies inter-relations.
“It is not like CSI at all, especially biology labs, they are often dirty, smelly and there’s lots of bubbling fizzing life forms,” Willet said, adding it is also not like Dr. Frankenstein at all either.
Instead, Willet, a visual artist whose work lives in both the world of art and of science, said biotechnology is much more like cooking, composting and gardening, all of which involve a cycle of life and death involving different organisms.
“When I’m in bio labs I really realize we are involved in this interspecies relationship and I’m one of the organisms in that space and some of those relationships are mutually beneficial and some of those interactions are mutually detrimental.
“A lot of my artwork is about making other visions of biotechnology that are not rooted in CSI that allow the general public to see for themselves that this science implicates us as an organism in addition to economy and technology and progressive visions of the future.”
BioARTCAMP is hosting a one-day art and science fair, complete with a barbecue and live music, at the Castle Mountain Wilderness Hostel Wednesday, July 27 from 1-5 p.m. as an opportunity for the public to learn more about biotechnology and bioart by talking to the scientists and artists and experiencing their research first-hand.
“The goal of this project is to incorporate metaphors of ecology and sustainability into our vision of the biotech future,” Willet said.
One of the projects that will be highlighted at the art and science fair is the work of Bulent Matus, a scientist at the University of Windsor, who will bring materials he has developed that can detect small amounts of hydrogen sulphide given off by cancerous cells.
Willet said Matus plans to use this material to test the air and water quality around the Castle Mountain hostel to see if it works in a natural environment.
While it will not say if the air and water is clean, Willet said it could help Matus learn if his work has an application outside the lab.
“It’s not so much about telling people if the air is clean or dirty, but it is more about looking at a technology transfer as something he is using in his lab at Windsor which has applications in the ecological sciences,” she said.
On the art side, for example, Banff resident Angus Leech intends to write country and western songs about science fiction and biotechnology which he’ll share at the open house, along with what Willet called “mutant s’mores”.
A documentary film crew will be at the art and science fair filming the events.
Attendees at the BioARTCAMP science and art fair will also get a take-home experiment to grow their own bioart project.
“What they are going to see when that grows is something that is really beautiful and a little smelly, multicoloured microscopic life forms that are going to multiply until they become visible.
“At that very small moment they are going to realize that we are covered, we are like an atmosphere of microbes on our bodies and in our homes,” Willet said.
Through all of this, Willet said she hopes to draw attention to the benefits and detriments of interacting with life forms – even if they are microbes – on a regular basis.
After all, it is something humans do on a daily basis, even though we are usually not aware of that.
Willet is also including ethics into BioARTCAMP as both bioart and biotechnology are intrinsically connected to a robust code of ethics and ethical conundrum.
“The difference with biotechnology and other technologies is that it is involved with directly manipulating life forms towards human ends, which is different from manipulating inorganic materials,” she said.
And it is no different for bio-artists, who are held to the same ethical standards as the scientists who work with life forms.
For example, Willet said she does not work with vertebrates as these organisms have a certain level of self-awareness and can feel pain.
“It’s a form of art that involves biology as its media and intrinsically that implies an ethical component,” she said. “One of the reasons I wanted to do it in Banff National Park, is that it is the biggest Petri dish in Canada and it has been an ongoing experiment for 100 years now. I want to see what happens when we control the environment and what is let in and taken out of this park.”
With Parks Canada’s permission, Willet and her colleagues will be collecting a small amount of material, such as water from the sulphur hot springs, for their projects and research that will become part of a travelling museum exhibition.
BioARTCAMP is also hosting a speakers series Jeanne and Peter Lougheed building room 204 on July 30-31 from 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. to share the work of each artist and scientist involved with the project. Entrance to the speakers’ series is free, but registration is required. Contact [email protected] to register.
For more information go to www.bioartcamp.blogspot.com or at www.banffcentre.ca
