“Turning the Invisible Visible”: Transdisciplinary Bioart Explorations in Human-DNA Interaction

Abstract

Hybrid interactive systems that combine living and digital components can engage, educate, and inform users, and are of growing interest in the HCI community. Advances in synthetic biology are transforming what is possible to do with these living media interfaces (LMIs). Bioart is a practice in which artists, often using synthetic biology methods, work with living organisms to creatively explore the human relationship with nonhuman organisms. We present results from an interview study with expert bioartists as well as our hands-on experience in a bioart project where we created poetry-infused wine by encoding and inserting a Persian Sufi poem into the DNA sequence of living yeast cells. We find that engaging in bioart practice generates transdisc iplinary fluency with implications for access and activism and our understanding of the qualities of living media. We further explore the qualitative aspects of interacting directly with DNA and implications for sustainable futures.

“Short on time and big on ideas”: Perspectives from Lab Members on DIYBio Work in Community Biolabs

“…Cluck [13] found that DIYbio practitioners, as they create new spaces for their work, are "re-assembling what constitutes the means of production of scientifc knowledge (a "laboratory")". As such, the sites of DIYbio practice, whether they be a private residence [70], a non-biowork-oriented hackerspace [44], or an artist's studio [29], are both laboratories of technoscientifc work and, we suggest, the "laboratories" in which distinctly DIYbio ways of doing and knowing are explored. We believe that through Figure 3: An example community biolab team project workfow.…”

“…DIYbio has been highlighted as not only a productive subject of study, but also as a new area of HCI research practice [23]. The specifc DIYbio practices of bio art [4,29,45] and open source laboratory hardware [22] have been explored in HCI research. Microbes themselves have been promoted as novel design materials [5] or as living computers with which HCI researchers should be engaged in developing new conceptions of-and tools for-active design [59].…”

"Short on time and big on ideas": Perspectives from Lab Members on DIYBio Work in Community Biolabs

“…In recent years, HCI researchers have begun to explore DIYbio, accepting its latent invitation to re-imagine the interaction space of human and non-human organisms with diverse machines and materials [4,44,45]. This has involved studying DIYbio practitioners operating outside of HCI [4] as well as integrating DIYbio into HCI practice [23,29], and design research into systems that could support DIYbio work by better meeting the interests and contexts of practitioners [21,22,26] .…”

“…Cluck [13] found that DIYbio practitioners, as they create new spaces for their work, are "re-assembling what constitutes the means of production of scientific knowledge (a "laboratory")". As such, the sites of DIYbio practice, whether they be a private residence [70], a non-biowork-oriented hackerspace [44], or an artist's studio [29], are both laboratories of technoscientific work and, we suggest, the "laboratories" in which distinctly DIYbio ways of doing and knowing are explored. We believe that through Figure 3: An example community biolab team project workflow.…”

“…DIYbio has been highlighted as not only a productive subject of study, but also as a new area of HCI research practice [23]. The specific DIYbio practices of bio art [4,29,45] and open source laboratory hardware [22] have been explored in HCI research. Microbes themselves have been promoted as novel design materials [5] or as living computers with which HCI researchers should be engaged in developing new conceptions of-and tools for-active design [59].…”