Bio-Tech and Art

In this weeks agenda, we talked about Bio- Tech and Art. This is definitely an extension of week 4's subject on health and art, of course taking it to a much deeper and complex level. In viewing the bio-tech as a whole, there comes a lot of controversy due to the very questionable science that comes to play. This is where art comes to play. When thinking of creating some thing new, something genetically enhanced or made is art because of the use of creativity and outside factors that come into play. This comes at many levels such as food, animals and even the ideas of humans. Some interesting art comes from the Natalie Jeremijenko in where she has created nature like states in the city. Through her environment clinic "People come in with their environmental concerns and get prescriptions for environmental health solutions and advice."

The most interesting part in all of this is that artists are being allowed into science labs now and are working closely with these scientist. This part of bio-tech also plays into the role of robots (although different in the making process) the thought of altered humans can be both scary and scientifically artistic. In an article by the business insider, they state "From previous studies of the genome, Hsu says we can estimates that there are probably about 10,000 of these gene variants associated with intelligence. If we can tweak each of these to their "smart" version, so that they contribute a tiny bit to higher intelligence, we could engineer human beings who 'exhibit cognitive ability which is roughly 100 standard deviations above average. This corresponds to more than 1,000 IQ points.'" Just think, the use of science as well as art contributing to a new humans.

Sources
"Genetically Designed Babies Are Within Reach. Should We Do It?" Science Vibe. 20 Mar. 2015. Web. 11 May 2015.