[ISEA2018] Paper: Jongcheon Shin, Siwon Lee & Joonsung Yoon — Bio Art as a Trading Zone: A Creolized Art Form of Biology and Art

Abstract

Keywords: Bio art, Trading zone, Creolization, Shared context, Microbial art
project

This paper explores the identity of bio art in terms of trading between an artist and a bio lab and looks into the creation process of bio art through the concept of creolization, in order to consider bio art as a creolized art form of biology and art. The American physicist Peter Galison refers to the term ‘trading zone’ as the boundary binding together the heterogeneous subcultures and considers ‘creolization’ as the process by which the interaction among different disciplines builds a new interdisciplinary field. Galison’s concepts can be applied to bio art where art and biology interact. Bio art is a trading zone that leads trading activities between an artist and a bio lab. Within the trading zone, artists and scientists trade their own goals on the premise of a shared context. As a result, the creation process of bio art shows creolization
occurring within the trading zone.

  • Jongcheon Shin, Media Art in Aesthetic Technology Lab, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea
  • Siwon Lee, Fiber Science Design, Graduate School of Dankook University, Yongin, Korea
  • Joonsung Yoon, Tianjin Normal University / Global School of Media, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea

Full text p. 38-42