Art in Biology

Found this in my archives. Posting here for posterity. Original date: 15.02.2018

I often have conversations about very random topics that get me deeply involved in what is being discussed. One such conversation I had was with an arts student at ZHdK. He gloriously proclaimed that everything is art and everyone’s profession is art, ergo, everyone was capable of art. Now this is the dilemma I was facing – I didn’t consider myself very “artsy”, so to say. So, to accept his worldview, I would have to see art in what I did as a biologist or convince him that it wasn’t really art. After all, I am quite incapable of gazing at a plain orange piece of canvas or any other expression of “modern art” and finding any meaning in it. But this conversation got me thinking – what if biology really is an art? It is indeed an erudite appreciation of all that is natural. I believe I can speak for most natural scientists when I say that it was fascination coupled with an incurable sense of curiosity that drove us into the unceasing conquest for unravelling the machinations of nature.

Surely, biology can be thought of as an art. There is a feeling of awe in a spider spinning its web, beauty in the way kinesins “walk” on a microtubule and enigma in the process of meiosis. With a world of wonders surrounding us and as “devotees” of this wondrousness, I thus decided that I was henceforth going to claim biology as my art. One has only to take a look at the number of people who argue that the earth and its entire system was built by intelligent design for sufficient proof. While this is not necessarily the case with nature, it lies testament to the fact that everybody – whether they are Darwinists or otherwise, are able to see art in biology.

Be that as it may, nature’s beauty is visible to everyone and cannot be claimed by biologists as being their own. Art needs creation and biologists have been creating art for centuries on end now. Consider the case of a 18th century naturalist or entomologist. He would walk out into the forests or hills and catalogue butterflies, moths, birds, plants and lots more through, yes you see where I’m going with this, drawings. Famous 19th century naturalist Ernst Haeckel is well-renowned for the dissemination of Darwinian principles among the scientific diaspora through his lectures and artwork. Many of his published multi-coloured illustrations of flora and fauna in “Kunstformen der Natur” were the first of its kind, describing in detail various levels of organisation in animals, some of which remain the type specimen depictions for species to this day.

Not just in the mysteries of the natural world but also in man-made biological creations, there is a lot of artistic potential. Of late, biologists have taken to artistic expression through their biology. One such example is that of the Tardigotchi. We have all heard of the Tamagotchi – the little lime-sized device that let you have a virtual pet and engage in its care and upbringing. The S.W.A.M.P. group, in association with Tiagro Rorke, have managed to couple this famous contraption from the early 90s with the tiny “water bear” – Tardigrade. Essentially, it is a marriage of the real and virtual worlds. It has a viewing lens to view a magnified image of your pet 0.5mm long Tardigrade and on the other side, a screen that allows the user to take care of their pet.

Another instance of the union between art and biology can be seen in Loren Kronemyer’s installation. She writes words or draws on surfaces using pheromones that attract ants. The ants draw the picture for her and she captures their movements using time lapse photography. The result is a living portrait of the word “TRUTH” or a depiction of the brain, among other possibilities.

There are many more people challenging the boundaries between art and science, spearheading the union of both fields – fields that have, for many centuries, kept culture and human imagination fascinated. So, don’t beat yourself up for not knowing what kind of paint was used on the Mona Lisa, you have your own form of art!

Tardigotchi: the magnifier (left) and the virtual interface (right)

Ants align with pheromone drawings

Videograb from project MYRIAD

Picture from Haeckel’s book showing Siphonophorae

Haeckel, Ernst: Kunstformen der Natur. Leipzig und Wien : Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, 1899-1904. ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Rar 10308, http://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-59154 / Public Domain Mark

Kenyon, Matt. Studies of Work Atmospheres and Mass Production. http://www.swamp.nu/projects/tardigotchi/

Kronemyer, Loren. (2012) MYRIAD: Exploring Insect Communication / Free Range Gallery, Perth. http://rubicana.info/portfolio/myriad/