Bioart inspires thought

The Biofilia Lab of Aalto University launched in 2012. Biofilia acts as a fertile ground for research and experiment, in-situ prototyping, and creative work. It’s open for students, artists and researchers and provides a possibility to explore biotechnology in dialogue with scientists and researchers from a range of fields.

In 2020, Biofilia produced an exhibition Outré: Encounters with non/living things, which showcased six experimental bioart projects. The projects in the exhibition engaged with wetware, living bio media, and  biological matter such as bacteria, non-human species, living cells and scientific tools and techniques. 

The ethical and aesthetic commentary introduced by the artists, researchers and artscience practitioners participating in this exhibition raised new questions and  discussions on the world we live in and how we understand it: including speculations on life, in/organic and extra/terrestrial matter(s), materiality, and knowledge systems or living systems. These projects were able to reveal the different entangled relationalities in the interplay of human and nonhuman agency as well as a radical uncertainty of our ontological status. Where exactly does the one ends and the other begin?

The growing interest in biomaterials and natural processes is reflected in the fields of research, design and art. This year, Aalto ARTS Books published a book ‘Art as we don’t know it’. Check it out here.