Metabolic Arts Gathering: Curatorial Notes

Twenty years ago, artist Suzanne Anker and science and technology studies scholar Dorothy Nelkins published The Molecular Gaze (2004), a treatment of the social and artistic phenomenon of the gene as a cultural touchstone [1]. Despite the omission of many notable bioartists and other contemporary artists working in genetics and with lab techniques more broadly, the book proved an important clearing house for concepts to look for when examining art dealing with genetics. While the hype and promise around the Human Genome Project may have dissipated, the concept of reading provocative contemporary artworks for scientific content with a critical edge remains important. In our present moment, we propose the concept of metabolism as a way of reading a number of contemporary artworks because of the various ways contemporary artists have shown interest in this subject, from the microbiome/holobiont to …