Eleni Gemtou
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
ORCID: 0000-0002-8543-3555. Email: egemtos@phs.uoa.gr.
Volume 13, Number 1, 2021 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n1.02
The Artistic Status of Bio-art
Abstract
This paper aims to define Bio-art by strengthening its artistic status through two distinct approaches. The first is based on the acceptance that the concept of Bio-art includes both the term “art” and the term “bio” that could stand for Biology, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. It is argued that despite its direct connection to scientific research, Bio-art is only partly linked to the methods of the pure science of Biology, while it stands closer to the technoscience of Biotechnology. However, while bio-artists often use scientific methods and techniques, they eventually focus on bioethical questions. To amplify the artistic status of bio-artworks, we claim that they are kinds of visual “enthymemes”, a term used by Aristotle to define incomplete rhetoric syllogisms linking all recipients to common questions. Our second approach is developed around Levinson’s intentional-historical theory, showing that Bio-art belongs to the evolutionary narrative of art and artistic intentions. We allege interconnections of distinct features of bio-artworks with artworks of different eras that in the context of a retrospective view are to be understood as having paved the way for the emergence of Bio-art.
Key words: Bio-art, Biotechnology, Bioethics, Metaphor-Enthymeme, Levinson’s intentional-historical theory