Week 6: Biotechnology and Art 
Andrea Streips

I found this week’s topic very interesting because for many years I have studied the array of controversies regarding biotech, human modification and genetic engineering. I found it fascinating that biotechnology is defined as “the use of biological process, organisms, or systems to manufacture products intended to improve the quality of human life. “ This statement is a bit concerning because it demonstrates how there truly is an obsession of imperative improvement and whether or not humans are over obsessing about the amount of improvement that is being worked on.  Gary Wenk is a concrete example of this through the way he exclaims how food and everything else that is consumed, should be considered a drug because most substances put into the human body have drug like side effects. Wenk delves into how different foods contain active ingredients that influence our neurotransmitters that could or could not contribute to an addictive quality. Soda and chocolate are main examples substances that contain ingredients that may possibly release neurotransmitters in our brains similar to serotonin, which makes us feel calmer and more at ease. This is why when final season comes around, so many students (at least every single one of my roommates) stress eats frozen yogurt, chocolate, bread, or side because for a short period of time they feel less anxiety and relaxed.

            Steinken was also an interesting example because of his experience in breeding plants and the correlation he demonstrates through human aesthetic preferences and evolution. In addition, Professor Vesna provides an array of genetic engineering and experimental studies, like jellyfish gene transplant into a rabbit that is justified by the purpose it has. Adding on to this, I felt that Kathy High and her Blood Wars project was very peculiar, yet educating because it heightened how blood can be viewed as an art. Blood has always been interconnected with negative connotations, such as death or violence, but now it can be perceived as an enabling aspect of art. Now blood can evoke art and an element of beauty that has never been understood before.

Works Cited

Kathy High: visual/media artist, independent curator, educator. Web. 28 Apr 2015. Link.

Roberts, Richard. "GMOs are a key tool to addressing global hunger." The Boston Globe: Opinion. 23 May 2014. Web. 28 Apr 2015. Link. 

Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

Vesna, Victoria. "5 BioArt pt3." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May. 2012. Web. 10 May. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&t=41&v=3EpD3np1S2g>.

 Wenk, Gary. "Seed Magazineabout." This Is Your Brain on Food § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. Web. 11 May 2015.