Seven Aesthetic Traits of Biological Art

Biological art generates two main types of discourse: technical and socio-political-ethical. The technical discourse categorizes works by fabrication process—biological art (E. Steichen, G. Gessert), biotechnological art (SymbioticA), genetic art (J. Davis, B. Ballangée), and transgenic art (Eduardo Kac). The socio-political-ethical discourse questions value systems. Despite a limited corpus, seven emerging characteristics have been identified: art of the invisible (material but not directly perceptible, requiring explanation); art of belief (verification requires identical scientific methods, impossible for viewers); art of the continuum (anti-anthropocentric, blurring species boundaries, creating semi-living objects and transgenic organisms); art of duration (time-consuming to 'raise', paradoxically mortal and immortal); aesthetics of attention and responsibility (Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr); challenging nature-culture separation (Marta de Menezes' butterflies are both artwork and nature); and reintroducing representation rejected by contemporary art (Natalie Jeremijenko's Touch as representation of human).