The Art of Tissue Engineering

At ASCUS we are delighted to welcome renowned bio artist Oron Catts from SymbioticA, the first research laboratory of its kind enabling artists and researchers to engage in wet biology practices, to ASCUS Lab this month!

Image credit: semi-living steak by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, 2003

The Art of Tissue Engineering
5:00-9:00pm, Thursday 22nd Mar 2018

The idea of growing products rather than manufacturing them has been explored and critiqued through the notion of the semi-living by the Tissue Culture and Art Project (TC&A) since 1996. It stems from the developments in biomedical research in the 1990s; in particular tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The premise was that we can evoke the latent regenerative abilities of the biological body to grow organs and tissues either inside or outside of the biological or techno-scientific bodies.

Over the last two decades, Tissue Engineering (TE) started to be considered as a technology that can be used for other ends. Since 1996 Oron Catts has used TE for artistic purposes and was the first person to grow, serve and eat a piece of in-vitro meat. In this workshop we will attempt to isolate viable bone marrow stem cells from the bone of an animal that has been dead for some time, obtained from the local butcher. To do this we will cover some of the main techniques of TE while exploring the broader cultural and artistic implications of using living tissue within a non-medical context.

The workshop was developed by SymbioticA – The Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, School of Human Sciences at The University of Western Australia.

About SymbioticA

About The Tissue Culture & Art Project (TC&A)

These evocative objects are a tangible example that brings into question deep rooted perceptions of life and identity, concept of self, and the position of the human in regard to other living beings and the environment. Through these objects and/or artworks the TC&A project are interested in the new discourses and new ethics/epistemologies that surround issues of partial life and the contestable future scenarios they are offering us.

Workshop Details

(please arrive 10/15mins before the start time as we will begin promptly at the advertised time)
 
*Concessions are for: full time students; unemployed persons, senior citizens, residents of Summerhall, and disabled persons. If you have booked as a concession you must provide proof of status on arrival.

If for reasons outside your control you have registered and are no longer able to make it then please make sure to cancel your registration so that someone else can take your space.