Weird Science

2001 -- From code-work genome-cracking to the creation of super life forms in labs bypassing the Darwinian struggle for existence, the advent of the biotech revolution is already changing the way we perceive the living world. After millennia of small, incremental steps of discovery, humans are finally beginning to outsmart nature. And with many hands playing God -- investing in products of genetic engineering -- it only seems fitting that some devilish pranksters have come to the surface, turning the frivolity of their imagination solvent through the manipulations of organic life forms.

In this blurry threshold between art and science, Adam Zaretsky, 32, stands in the foreground, playing with bacteria, mutating genes, splicing tissues, running his experiments to their ultimate absurdist conclusions -- and ultimately poking fun at contemporary morality.

At a time when most of his peers in the creative arts are running around in circles and beating their heads against abstract walls in an attempt to figure out exactly what art is or should be, Zaretsky and several others like him are determining what art will look like in the future.

"The lack of a defined aesthetic in the arts provides us with the eclectic fecundity to guarantee iconoclasm in a situation which could all too easily lead to the erasure of the same," says Zaretsky. "We are major players in a sort of offshoot of the art scene insofar as we are not making art about biology, we focus on bringing our artistic ideas to life."

He is part of a team of quasi-scientists-slash-artists from Boston called "bioartists," a new breed of creative visualists who utilize molecular biology as their medium for instigating a new form of "interactive art." Projects have included an attempt to put a map of the Milky Way into the ear of a transgenic mouse and engineering elements of DNA code that when properly deciphered provide a symbolic rendering of the vagina.

Zaretsky became engrossed in biotech artistry in 1998, when, as a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he heard a research affiliate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) speak about applying the techniques of science to art. Enthralled, he followed the man to Cambridge. That guy was Joe Davis, the father of the bioart movement.

Davis managed to secure support and interest from researchers in various Boston institutions like MIT, Harvard, and Boston University for his bioartists. While the universities offer the bioartists bench space in their laboratories, the artists aren't funded by these institutions, which makes recruiting bioartists more difficult and puts a moratorium on many of their endeavors. "The current funding system is set up to support bygone ways of art," bemoaned Davis in an earlier interview.

With Davis' help, Zaretsky attained a two-year unpaid appointment to work at MIT tracking how different frequency sound waves influence an E. coli strain. For one of his experiments, Zaretsky played the music of cocksure balladeer Engelbert Humperdinck to his bacterial matters for two days straight. A possible explanation for the seeming increase of production of antibodies, Zaretsky anticipates, is that being subjected to loud, really awful lounge music for such a long time may bother the cells. "They may produce antibiotics to fight against a perceived enemy the only way they know how," he suggests. This he affectionately calls the "Humperdinck Effect."

For the self-proclaimed "mad scientist," the exploration of the unknown is about human curiosity. "This is something artists and scientists share," Zaretsky declares.

A case in point, he wants to bring his art projects into the nightlife arena. There is talk in the bioartist community of BJing ("biological jockeying") at clubs and raves. Bringing bioart into the party circuit via live video feed of various cell cultures projected on screen will be the next step to aid in the production of an altered state of consciousness. Or so Zaretsky believes. "It just seems obvious that the imagery of the macrocosm and the microcosm are the organic counterparts to the 3D-rastered VR abstraction video feeds that we are used to at these events," he says. "As artists and scientists ... we wonder and consider ourselves free to test the limits."

Zaretsky's take on genetic research is similar to that of his colleague Eduardo Kac, the assistant professor of art and technology at the School of Art Institute of Chicago who co-created Alba, the infamous, transgenic, glow-in-the-dark rabbit. Zaretsky wants to draw the attention of the public to the often-overlooked enterprises of the biotech industry -- the artistic endeavors that he and other bioartists bring to life by molecular biology.

"Maybe [what I do] is shock art in the sense that it's like hitting people over their heads with their own taboos," says Zaretsky. "It could be considered a non-propagandistic exposure of what exists. In a day and age where the technology is becoming accessible for freestyle genetic engineers to make their sculptural ideas come alive at home and on a limited budget, why not try your hand at expressing yourself through life sculpting?"

Q + A with Adam Zaretsky

Velocity: What are your personal feelings about the post-era or ultra longevity?

Zaretsky: Once post-humanity hits the market, the usual dilemma will confound us. A monopolization of the market by three major companies with the same basic product will lead to a sort of eugenic homogenization. Alternative gene therapy and baby-design therefore takes on a more radical role than mere personal expression. This will be the only insurance that we retain a divergent genome. That means that piercers, tatooers, and radical body artists may be are only hope against what looks like an attempt at a commercial master race.

Velocity: Is there any utilitarian aspect to playing with genes?

Zaretsky: Yes, of course. The medical applications are already apparent. That does not mean that all the uses are based on use-value. We have a market driven world economy. Consumers and advertisers are both extremely fickle so what makes it on the mass market isn't always the most useful product.

Velocity: Do you like the human race? Where does fucking with genetics stop? Or does it?

Zaretsky: I love the human race, live and uncensored. All of our craziness and foolishness is part of a wild and ridiculous process of evolving in a moral vacuum. All of our inventions reveal a deep sense of inquisitiveness and all of our social systems show a deep sense of disorganization. These two, together with our fine-tuned bodies with funny stuff like nipples and pimples and hair, proves that we are amazing! There is a moral limit that has been suggested. That is, not to disrupt the hereditary cascade of Homo sapiens. In other words, try not to fuck with your great-grandchildren's genes today. If you genetically alter your testicles or ovaries, then all consecutive generations that emanate from your eggs or seeds will carry your personal alteration. This is called engineering the human genome and it is one of the big debates worth watching at the UN. The real question is will this be labeled as a crime against humanity or as a great advance in medical science?

Velocity: In the ethical arena, what parts of the human are worth preserving?

Zaretsky: That is a matter of taste. Good taste is a matter of debate.

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