About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Washington Press

ISBN-100295990082

ISBN-139780295990088

eBay Product ID (ePID)109119869

Product Key Features

Number of Pages224 Pages

Publication NameBioart and the Vitality of Media

LanguageEnglish

SubjectConceptual, Mixed Media, Life Sciences / Biology, Subjects & Themes / General

Publication Year2010

TypeTextbook

AuthorRobert E. Mitchell

Subject AreaArt, Science

SeriesIn Vivo: the Cultural Mediations of Biomedical Science Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.5 in

Item Weight10.4 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width7 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2009-043907

Reviews"A sustained meditation on bioart as an art practice that stitches together concepts of life and concepts of affect, concepts of vitalism, and concepts of mediation." Eugene Thacker, author ofAfter LifeandBiomedia"Well-written, lucid, unpretentious, and admirably concise in format and presentation, this book is an original and innovative contribution to the fields of comparative media studies and science and culture studies." Cary Wolfe, Rice University and author ofAnimal RitesandWhat is Posthumanism?

Dewey Edition22

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal701/.05

Table Of ContentAcknowledgments Introduction: Living Art 1. Defining Bioart: Representation and Vitality 2. The Three Eras of Vitalist Bioart 3. Bioart and the Folding of Social Space 4. Affect, Framing, and Mediacy 5. The Strange Vitality of Media 6. Bioart and the "Newness" of Media Notes Works Cited Index

SynopsisA precise and rigorous exploration of the conceptual underpinnings of an art form that has at times been both troubling and controversial, Bioart -- art that uses either living materials (such as bacteria or transgenic organisms) or more traditional materials to comment on, or even transform, biotechnological practice -- now receives enormous media attention. Yet despite this attention, bioart is frequently misunderstood. Bioart and the Vitality of Media is the first comprehensive theoretical account of the art form, situating it in the contexts of art history, laboratory practice, and media theory. Mitchell begins by sketching a brief history of bioart in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, describing the artistic, scientific, and social preconditions that made it conceptually and technologically possible. He illustrates how bioartists employ technologies and practices from the medical and life sciences in an effort to transform relationships among science, medicine, corporate interests, and the public. By illustrating the ways in which bioart links a biological understanding of media -- that is, "media" understood as the elements of an environment that facilitate the growth and development of living entities -- with communicational media, Bioart and the Vitality of Media demonstrates how art and biotechnology together change our conceptions and practices of mediation. Reading bioart through a range of resources, from Immanuel Kant's discussion of disgust to Gilles Deleuze's theory of affect to Gilbert Simondon's concept of "individuation," provides readers with a new theoretical approach for understanding bioart and its relationships to both new media and scientific institutions.

LC Classification NumberN72.B56M58 2010