UNIVERSITY CITY SCIENCE CENTER BIOART RESIDENCY PROJECT
AT INTEGRAL MOLECULAR U NIVERSITY CITY SCIENCE CENTER BIOART RESIDENCY PROJECT AT INTEGRAL MOLECULAR
GENEROUSLY FUNDED BY:
2019 WINNER OF Business + Arts Partnership Award
ORGANIZED BY: BIOART RESIDENCY PROJECT
TABLE OF CONTENTS “ON A DAILY BASIS, SCIENTISTS EVERYWHERE HAVE AN IMPACT ON MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH, YET MUCH OF THIS IS NOT VISIBLE OUTSIDE THE SCIENTIFIC
OUR TEAM 06 COMMUNITY. WE HOPE THIS PROGRAM WILL BEGIN CHANGING THIS BY PROMOTING ARTISTS 08 SCIENTIFIC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC.” A well-suited partnership by angela mcquillan 13 -BEN DORANZ, CEO INTEGRAL MOLECULAR
THE ART OF SCIENCE by BEN DORANZ 15
a scientist‘s perspective by TOM CHARPENTIER 17 In 2017, the University City of how art – in this case, the Science Center, in partnership visual arts – and science can artists in the lab by cindy stockton moore 20 with biotech company Integral converge to communicate Molecular, established a new complex scientific concepts in artist-in-residence program a profound yet clear manner. known as the BioArt Residency. This program is designed The BioArt Residency was to get people excited about designed to improve the science; to educate the public understanding of science and about new developments in biotechnology in all of our biotechnology; and to explore lives, foster a creative dialog not only the health aspects, between artists and scientists, but also the social and cultural and create a direct positive implications of scientific impact on human health. This development. residency is an ideal example
»» COVER IMAGE: Oxytocin filled glass blown vials part of Heather Dewey Hagborg‘s Lovesick Project, credit: Tabb Sullivan »» IMAGE: Photograph from “Needle in a Haystack”, artist book by Laura Splan »» BOOK DESIGN: Angela McQuillan
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OUR TEAM
ANGELA MCQUILLAN - RESIDENCY DIRECTOR BEN DORANZ - PRESIDENT & CEO, INTEGRAL MOLECULAR
Angela McQuillan is an artist and the curator of the Science Ben Doranz is President and CEO of Integral Molecular. Dr. Center’s Esther Klein Gallery. With both scientific and Doranz co-founded the company in 2001 and has led all artistic backgrounds, Angela spent ten years working as a aspects of the company’s growth since its inception, bringing research scientist before pursuing an artistic career. With a five different technologies from research to market and specific focus in biology, she is well versed in the technical growing the company into a profitable commercial entity. He aspects of scientific discourse as well as the creative side is an inventor on six of the company’s patents, the principal of art and exhibition making, and has curated over thirty art investigator on over 20 NIH grants, and an author on over 100 exhibitions to date. Her work has been featured in prominent publications, including articles published in Cell, Science, and publications such as The New York Times, Forbes and SciArt Nature. in America. Dr. Doranz is an established life science entrepreneur previously responsible for directing the biotechnology MINA ZARFSAZ - RESIDENCY COORDINATOR program at the Port of Technology business incubator in Philadelphia and helping create startups at the Center for Technology Transfer at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Mina Zarfsaz is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and system Doranz earned a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from thinker who works across the fields of art, philosophy, digital the University of Pennsylvania where he led the discovery of technology, and design. She has worked for a diverse range the coreceptor for HIV (CCR5), an MBA at the Wharton School of organizations and educational institutions in different of Business where he won the business plan competition and capacities, from an educator, a mentor, to a curriculum co-founded the Penn Biotech Group, and a B.A. at Cornell designer and R&D coordinator. She has also been engaged University. with the MixLab‘s research in the field of Innovation Design at the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship of Montclair State University for over two years. Zarfsaz currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and holds teaching appointments at Temple University, and Moore College of Art and Design.
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ARTISTS
ORKAN TELHAN LAURA SPLAN
2017 2018 embroidered lace embroidered Doilies (Hepadna), computerized machine 30-day Microbial Simit Diet » » » »
Orkan Telhan is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and researcher whose investigations Laura Splan’s transdisciplinary work explores intersections of art, science, and technology. focus on the design of interrogative objects, interfaces, and media, engaging with critical Her conceptually based projects examine the material manifestations of our mutable issues in social, cultural, and environmental responsibility. relationship with the human body. She reconsiders representations of the corporeal with a range of traditional and new media techniques. Telhan is Associate Professor of Fine Arts - Emerging Design Practices at University of Pennsylvania, School of Design. He holds a PhD in Design and Computation from MIT‘s Splan‘s work has been exhibited at venues including at Museum of Arts & Design (New Department of Architecture. He was part of the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media York, NY) and Beall Center for Art + Technology (Irvine, CA). Her work is included Laboratory and a researcher at the MIT Design Laboratory. He studied Media Arts at the in the collections of the Thoma Art Foundation and the NYU Langone Art Collection. State University of New York at Buffalo and theories of media and representation, visual Commissioned projects have included soap residue paintings for the Centers for Disease studies and Graphic Design at Bilkent University, Ankara. Control Foundation, lace microbial forms for the Gen Art New Media Art Exhibition, and 3D printed sculptures addressing representations of HIV/AIDS for Davidson College. Telhan‘s individual and collaborative work has been exhibited internationally in venues Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times and including the Istanbul Biennial (2013), Istanbul Design Biennial (2012, 2016), Milano Design Discover Magazine. Splan’s essays and interviews have been published in Art Practical, Week, Vienna Design Week, the Armory Show 2015 Special Projects, Ars Electronica SciArt Magazine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her research (2007, 2017), ISEA, LABoral, Archilab, Architectural Association, the Architectural League of and residencies have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the Pollock- Krasner New York, MIT Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the New Museum of Foundation, the Institute for Electronic Arts. She has been a lecturer on intersections of Art, Contemporary Art, New York. Science, and Technology at Stanford University.
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ARTISTS
DEIRDRE MURPHY HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG
2018 2018 StrangerVisions Song Catcher, Oil on Canvas, 30“ x 30“ » » » »
Deirdre Murphy has been researching the effects of climate change on bird migration, Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a transdisciplinary artist and educator who is interested in art using the visual data that scientists share with her to conceptualize and execute her as research and critical practice. Her controversial biopolitical art practice includes the paintings. Her fascination with avian migratory patterns and the effects of global warming project Stranger Visions in which she created portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic have led her research to Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary, Powdermill Nature Reserve and material (hair, cigarette butts, chewed up gum) collected in public places. Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Science and most recently the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. Heather has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, the Daejeon Biennale, the Guangzhou Triennial, and the Shenzhen Murphy has exhibited internationally and extensively in the United States in museums, Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, the Van Abbemuseum, Transmediale and PS1 galleries and institutions including Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Delaware, Minnesota, MOMA. Her work is held in public collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Washington and Oregon. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Albert Museum, and the New York Historical Society, among others, and has been widely Philadelphia International Airport, Palm Springs Museum of Art, Biggs Museum of discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to Art Forum and Wired. American Art, New Bedford Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Heather has a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is an artist most notably a Percent for the Arts sculpture commission (Dublin, CA), the Pennsylvania fellow at AI Now, an Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium, as well as The Science Council for the Arts Fellowship and a Leeway Foundation award and most recently at Center, and is an affiliate of Data & Society. She is also a co-founder and co-curator of Ecotopian Toolkit Award through the University of Pennsylvania. REFRESH, an inclusive and politically engaged collaborative platform at the intersection of Art, Science, and Technology.
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A WELL-SUITED PARTNERSHIP
BY ANGELA MCQUILLAN
Before working as the Curator of the Esther Klein Gallery, I spent ten years as a scientific researcher in a laboratory setting while attending art school. I am fascinated with the amount of creativity and experimentation that goes into scientific discovery, and I have always held the belief that artists and scientists have many things in common. Since the early 2000s, I have been following the development of BioArt – the intersection of art and biotechnology – as a way to explore living systems as artistic subject, and ask critical questions about new technologies. It is essential for artists to engage in the cultural issues involved with new scientific information and inspire all people (not just scientists) to participate in an open dialogue about what it means to be alive in the world today.
As an art student working in a research laboratory, I found many avenues for creative exploration which I really wanted to share with other artists. I discovered that putting an artist into a laboratory setting can be quite complicated and I wasn’t able to find the right fit for this type of residency for a long while, until I met Ben Doranz and the staff atIntegral Molecular. This amazing team took time away from their regular work day and dedicated many hours helping resident artists to help them develop and refine their projects.
I am extremely inspired by how passionate Ben Doranz is about his research, his willingness to share resources, his open-mindedness and appreciation for the arts. We also could not have done this residency without the hard work of Residency Coordinator Mina Zarfsaz, who spent many hours meeting with the artists and writing essays documenting their progress. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with such amazing artists, who approached this residency in completely different ways and created some really unique bodies of work. I am looking forward to continuing this program and exploring new avenues of creative scientific discovery with more artists and the talented staff at Integral Molecular.
»» IMAGE: Heather Dewey-Hagborg, creation of the Love Virus
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THE ART OF SCIENCE
BY BEN DORANZ
At Integral Molecular, our daily lives are built around inventing new biomedical technologies, solving difficult disease problems, and conceiving research questions that can impact all of our lives. This process involves merging technologies across disciplines, bringing people with divergent expertise into the same room, and not only finding answers but identifying the questions. Our process is not so much discovering something that already exists, but of creating something that did not previously exist. From this perspective, our process has always been similar to artistic creation, where one expands on the ideas of others to create something completely new.
The mission of the BioArt residency program is to 1) improve the understanding of science and biotechnology in all of our lives, 2) foster a creative dialog between artists and scientists, and 3) create a direct positive impact on human health.
The scientists at Integral Molecular – and at countless other laboratories throughout the world – devote their life’s work to improving human health. Our own work is leading to cures for breast cancer, treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, and vaccines for zika virus. Yet few people outside of the lab ever get to see the inner workings of this process – how ideas are transformed into solutions for human health. The BioArt residency has a chance to change this, to allow everyone a view of the laboratory – not just in pictures of its physical incarnation, but in ways that communicate the process itself, the commitment of its scientists to the greater good, and the emotional connection of science to the human condition. These connections are not always well communicated in the standard semantics of science – tables, statistics, and charts. Rather, the diverse media chosen by artists can communicate these concepts from new perspectives, using different senses, and to a larger community. And if science can be communicated in better ways, it can directly impact the decisions and choices that people make about the health of themselves, their family, and the world.
»» IMAGE: Photograph from “Needle in a Haystack”, artist book by Laura Splan
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A SCIENTIST‘S “We have had great experiences working with the PERSPECTIVE artists-in-residence. They each brought different and unique backgrounds to Integral Molecular, and I was lucky to be able to interact with artists and contribute to their projects. A lot of my work at Integral Molecular uses specialized software to model proteins in 3D, to help us engineer biological drugs. Sharing these tools with the artists helped them visualize some of the proteins that we work with and sparked their ideas for images and even making related structures as artworks.
It was incredibly rewarding to see the artists incorporate and transform our science in their art, I think we were all fascinated by their ideas and ingenuity - any time an artist showed their work at our company-wide meetings the response was really enthusiastic. The artist-in-residence program promotes science in a new and captivating way, showing that science can be fun while providing striking insights into our current world. I can’t wait for future collaborations!“
-Tom Charpentier, Scientist at Integral Molecular
»» IMAGE: Tom Charpentier, X-ray crystal structure of neurophysin in complex with oxtocin
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“BIOLOGY IS THE SCIENCE OF LIFE, OF ALL THE SCIENCES, BIOLOGY TOUCHES US ALL MOST IMMEDIATELY.”
-ARTHUR I. MILLER, COLLIDING WORLDS1
In 2017, Philadelphia’s University City Science Center launched an innovative BioArt Residency with the aim of connecting the latest scientific technology with artists and designers. Working with Integral Molecular, a private biotech company, the BioArt Residency gives contemporary artists access to the tools, technology and scientists at the frontlines of natural science. BioArt Residency Director, Angela McQuillan explains: “In this program, I wanted to provide artists with an opportunity to get real hands on experience with cutting edge science in order to take their practice to a new level. I also think that artists should explore biotechnology because it is something that has »» IMAGE: Photograph from “Needle in a Haystack”, artist book by Laura Splan a huge influence on our lives, and this influence is growing exponentially.”2
Private industry and experimental art may seem a strange fit, but there is a history of innovation in this counterintuitive crossover. In the 1960s, Bell Laboratories fostered an influential movement of arts and technology under the direction of Billy a r t i s t s Klüver. Klüver, an engineer who worked with artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Jean Tinguely, intuitively grasped the potential of bringing the avant-garde into the workplace. Opening up the considerable resources of Bell Labs to NYC artists, Klüver connected advances in technology to innovators working with a different set in the of rules. The resulting collaborations - although not always technically successful - were intriguing experiments. For Klüver, the creative unknown was the incentive: “I’m not so much interested in helping artists as I am in seeing what effect the artist could lab have on technology.”3 1 Miller, Arthur I. Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science Is Redefining Contemporary Art. W.W. Norton & BY CINDY STOCKTON MOORE Company, 2014. 2 from email interview with Angela McQuillan, February 28, 2019. 3 Lindgren, Nilo. IEEE Spectrum archive, Volume 6 Issue 5, May 1969, p 46-5
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University City has its own history of subversive science. In this section of West was to bring in a selection of practitioners well-versed in science that engaged Philadelphia – nestled between the campuses of University of Pennsylvania and with biotechnology in markedly different ways in order to emphasize a wide range Drexel University – Buckminster Fuller was the World Fellow in Residence at the of possible outcomes. Dr. Doranz explains, “All the artists were very different. If Science Center from 1972-1983. Fuller founded the World Game Institute here you drew a Venn diagram they would hardly overlap.”6 – attempting to unite science, design and technology to address the planet’s pending issues. In times since then, University City Science Center has grown, It was determined that each artist would work in the lab and then share their attracting neighboring industries in science and technology. While the area projects with an open-ended exhibition at University Science Center’s Esther continues to thrive as a hub for scientific innovation and academic activity, the Klein Gallery. That said, the exhibition is not the primary goal. Mina Zarfsaz, an radical multidisciplinary happenings of the 70’s are harder to come by. interdisciplinary artist who serves as the Residency Coordinator, emphasizes that the formulation of new ideas is the true objective.7 Zarfsaz favors projects that The BioArt Residency reinitiates an open-ended inquiry that moves beyond she terms “speculative” believing the process of ideation is worthwhile whether a commercial models of research and development. It builds community in a project is viable or not. way that echoes the utopian goals of the World Game Institute while updating the modes of critical engagement. Each of the four artists-in-residence to date Each of the residents will manifest their experience of working with Integral – Orkan Telhan, Laura Splan, Deirdre Murphy and Heather Dewey-Hagborg – Molecular in material form – drawing visual conclusions from their research and bring a distinctive perspective to the collaboration, incorporating their divergent experiments – but that process occurs primarily post-residency and will take areas of expertise. In their varied processes, they draw from the methodologies radically different forms. This exhibition component is akin to a scientist sharing of both art and science - offering insight into the theories, practices and their findings. This form of “communism” is an integral part of the scientific implications of biotechnology. Their work raises important questions that affect ethos; it is based on the belief that shared knowledge leads to greater collective each of us, and as the artists materialize new concepts in unforeseen ways, we – understanding.8 In a time of proprietary knowledge and misinformation, the including those of us without a formal background in science – are invited into the BioArt Residency shows common (and conflicted) traits among artists and conversation. scientists - including transparent (but often coded) communication and a propensity towards organized skepticism. It is an unfettered form of outreach, and part of what the founders of the residency first envisioned. Dr. Ben Doranz, CEO ofIntegral Molecular, sees the BioArt Residency as a natural extension of their efforts to “communicate in ORKAN TELHAN new ways to different people – not with graphs, charts and data but through storytelling.”4 Dr. Doranz’s own story is one of a scientist who is also an artist; outside of the lab, he is a sculptor working in a variety of materials. Doranz first The first of the residents to work withIntegral Molecular was Orkan Telhan - an collaborated with Angela McQuillan – the curator of University City Science interdisciplinary artist/researcher based in Philadelphia. Since the expectations Center’s Esther Klein Gallery – when visiting artist, Paul Vanouse, needed access to and parameters of the fledgingBioArt Residency were still in formation, he was the lab for his DNA-based work. As their working relationship grew, the idea for a good choice for the prototypical pilot run. Telhan – who teaches BioDesign BioArt Residency took form. Together, Doranz and McQuillan put together a list of nearby at UPenn – was well versed in the types of equipment used within a wet artists and defined the working parameters of this unique program.5 Their goal biology lab like Integral Molecular’s, and he had previous experience with a
4 from interview with Dr Ben Doranz by author: December 6, 2018 6 from interview with Dr Ben Doranz by author: December 6, 2018 5 also vital to the formation of the residency and list of invited arts were David Clayton, Director of 7 from interview with Mina Zarfsaz by author: December 14, 2018 STEAM Initiatives at University City Science Center, and Mina Zarfsaz, BioArt Residency Coordinator. 8 Merton, Robert K. 1942. Science and Technology in a Democratic Order, Journal of Legal and Political Sociology: 115-26. Later published as “Science and Democratic Social Structure,“ in Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure.
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science-based residency having worked at SymbioticA, an “artistic laboratory” we choose to eat and not to eat ultimately reflects our ideology.”13 In his 2016 specializing in tissue culture at The University of Western Australia.9 SymbioticA’s Bananaworks, Telhan created blob-like forms that encapsulated microbial residencies, which vary between three months to one year, are aimed at designs derived from the titular fruit. His microbial “concoctions” were a blend of producing “actual manifestations of contestable ideas.”10 This at-times- probiotics, genetically altered proteins, and water extracted from wild bananas. controversial lab is directed by Oron Catts, an artist whose work in living cells Working with collaborators, Telhan bio-designed bacteria that, in turn, created prompts some of the same philosophical and ethical conversations that are at new flavors that would otherwise be impossible to attain by natural or cultivated the core of Philadelphia’s BioArt Residency. For Catts, the distinction between selection. The gelatinous, semi-living sculptures were displayed alongside the art and science is vital to acknowledge: “Art and science are very different fields Microbial Design Studio, a counter-top machine around the size of a turntable, of human endeavor. They can be complementary at times and oppositional at that cultured the Bananaworks bacteria. This portable wet-lab is also a product of others. Artists using the same technological tools as scientists are not doing Telhan’s collaborative innovation; he and colleagues at University of Pennsylvania science, and scientists who are producing images are not doing art.”11 invented it to make biofabrication more flexible and accessible.
Orkan Telhan shares this skepticism of generalized connections between Starting from this strong background in biodesign, Telhan’s work in the BioArt disciplines. In his project-driven, interdisciplinary work, Telhan does not fetishize Residency unfolded as a series of brainstorming conversations and multiplying the lab environment. Recognizing distinctions between art and science, he uses connections, his project ideas morphing along with the research.14 His the tools and techniques of each to cannibalize whatever system best fits his discussions at Integral Molecular led him across the street to Monnell, a non- current concept. Telhan is interested in making the specialized languages - of profit specializing in taste and smell. After cycling through a number of intriguing both science and art - more readily understood in a process he describes as de- possibilities, his current research focuses on a fungus that infects rye grain and centralization.12 During his collaboration with Integral Molecular, Telhan was first its historical and social implications. The naturally occurring ergot fungus can drawn to the FlexStation, an automated machine that can monitor cellular activity be hallucinogenic and has been linked to bewitchment, but Telhan has found as it occurs, allowing a researcher to simulate certain tastes or chemo-sensations. evidence of its use as medieval birth control. Telhan has explored concepts of taste in previous projects, believing “what His goal is to genetically alter the now-resistant rye to invite the growth of this 9 More about SymbioticA at: http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/ fungus, and then cultivate a garden of distorted plants, creating what he terms an 10 http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/residents 11 as quoted from: Masterson, Andrew. “Oron Catts: The artist, his lab, and his semi-living work.” “ecology of infection.”15 The project uses biotechnology to investigate a botanical Cosmos Magazine, January 29, 2018. history of contraception and its relationship to feudal systems of labor - provoking 12 from author’s interview with Orkan Telhan. January 2019. further questions of ownership, ethics and the body politic.
Orkan Telhan’s engagement with microbial art reflects an integrative approach that places emphasis on the conceptual underpinnings (and societal ramifications) on a project-by-project basis. His facility with the science behind these concepts (which is aided by the insight of his many collaborators) allows him native-status in multiple communities - the resulting artwork helps translate for those of us that are foreign to either realm.
13 Telhan, Orkan. Quote in reference to 30-day Microbial Simit Diet: from http://www.orkantelhan.com 14 Although this residency was yet to be named BioArt Residency. As the first in the series, his work fell under the title of ‘Art + Science’. 15 from author’s interview with Orkan Telhan. January 2019. IMAGE: Orkan Telhan and Ben Doranz in the lab » »
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But more often, I would read the invaluable Molecular and Cell Biology For Dummies.18 It was important to me to understand what the lab was doing on a more foundational level. And this book turned me on to a lot of evocative language and poetics within the machinations of cellular biology“.19
Finding lyrical connections in technologically-dense work is a common theme among Splan’s previous projects. In her 2015 series Manifest, she created sculptures based on electromyography (EMG) data collected from her own body. In this project, Splan converts momentary neuromuscular actions – like blinking, swallowing, frowning – into data curves from her body’s electrical response. Reflecting these curves on a vertical axis, the artist creates contours of urn-like shapes. Ultimately 3-D printed in luminous white polymer, the sculptures capture physiological evidence of “experiences of wonder”- rendering these fleeting emotional reactions static and tangible.20 The resulting objects allow the viewer Scientist Joe Stafford Joe Scientist IMAGE: Laura Splan in the lab with Senior Research » » to connect to highly technical processes – and abstract philosophical queries – by manifesting ideas into solid form. The BioArt Residency offered the artist a chance to test that working methodology on a cellular level. LAURA SPLAN
During her time in the lab, Laura Splan shadowed a number of scientists, Molecular biotechnology is a large and growing field, and within this field there attending weekly lab meetings and observing a variety of experiments – using are many specialities. Integral Molecular’s specialty is “Membrane Protein the days between visits to compile notes and do further research. In addition to Antibody Discovery” - meaning they isolate and manipulate specific parts of a creating audio/visual documentation of the highly specialized, (often automated) cell to study the markers of disease and immunity. BioArt Resident, Laura Splan’s 18 Fester Kratz, Rene. Molecular and Cell Biology For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken, NJ): goal was to use the residency period to gather data and material about antibody 2009. discovery, and then respond to that experience in her own studio. The multimedia 19 from email interview with Laura Splan: January 1, 2019 20 Splan, Laura. as quoted from: http://www.laurasplan.com artist – known for her integrative approach towards art and technology– set up a structured division of time, making optimal use of the hours during (and between) visits. She explains the beginning of a typical residency work-day: “My lab days started with my train commute from Brooklyn to Philly during which I would sometimes read the lab’s white papers with titles like A functional comparison of the domestic cat bitter receptors Tas2r38 and Tas2r43 with their human orthologs16 or Membrane Protein Solutions for Antibody Discovery: Generation of monoclonal antibodies against difficult membrane protein targets.17
16 Integral Molecular White Paper: Michelle M Sandau, Jason R Goodman, Anu Thomas, Joseph B Rucker, and Nancy E Rawson 17 Integral Molecular White Paper: Virginie S. Adam, Soma S.R. Banik, and Benjamin J. Doranz IMAGE: Protein Data Bank molecular (PDB) model » » database 026 027 BIOART RESIDENCY PROJECT
»» IMAGE: Photograph from “Needle in a Haystack”, artist book by Laura Splan machines in the lab, she was introduced to new software, including PyMOL an open-source molecular visualization system. PyMOL (and other graphic modeling systems) are used by Integral Molecular to map the structure of viruses like ZIKA in order to develop drugs that might fight the spread of the disease or aid in diagnostics. Splan downloaded the software in her studio, experimenting back in Brooklyn between trips. Her experimentation with the ‘Sculpt’ function within the software was a new development to the team at Integral Molecular and has since been used to assist their modeling of antibody and antigen interactions.
From her BioArt Residency, Laura Splan is manipulating more than computer models — she gathered over 200 pounds of llama and alpaca fiber during the process. Over the course of her research, Splan became interested in how a variety of animal species are used in antibody production and research. For instance, a flu shot can be derived from llama antibodies, or molecular biological laboratory biological IMAGE: Laura Splan, shipment of llama fiber from a local » »
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information from sharks might hold a key to fighting cancer.21 Through Dr. Doranz, Splan learned specifics about the highly technical process and contacted two labs that were willing to share the fiber from a recent shearing. Using this raw material for sculpture, Splan’s project builds on her experience with weaving and fiber arts. Her uniquely multidimensional art practice highlights connections between old and new technologies, where the binary system of warp and weft parallels the circuitry commands of computational devices.
For the scientists at Integral Molecular, the artist is also presenting a new tactile understanding of the materials that they use on a daily basis. This shift in IMAGE: Deirdre Murphy in the lab the in Murphy Deirdre IMAGE: » perspective is indicative of the benefits of inviting artists into the lab - where » breakthroughs are often predicated by the introduction of outside elements. DEIRDRE MURPHY Splan’s project also reconnects the animal to its cells, forcing us to consider the physicality of the interspecies research. The conceptual framework allows for more nuanced discussions about genetically engineered antibodies, and their Painting on-site, BioArt Resident Deirdre Murphy created new visual connections connection to recombinant DNA technology. in the lab, updating age-old traditions of nature as muse. Working from direct observation, the Philadelphia-based artist created amorphous ink and watercolor 21 Healy, Melissa. Scientists may have found the key ingredient for a universal flu vaccine, and it studies. She gravitated to light microscopy – a process that allows researchers comes from llamas.”Los Angeles Times, November 2 2018. to image living cells as they move, using fluorescent probes to differentiate components of their complex structure.22 Geared up in goggles and gloves, Murphy would sit next to scientists studying cancer cells and respond in real- time to the images they were seeing, using aqueous media to capture the activity of the wet lab. She describes the process as incredibly liberating, treating each 8-hour session as a series of fresh experiments.23 As she worked, she made formal connections between what she was witnessing on a cellular level and her previous work examining patterns in nature.
Deirdre Murphy‘s past projects – that examine bird migration, light pollution, or watershed topology – reveal larger structures of ecological interdependence. Her paintings are usually large-scale and saturated in color; their pathways revealed through dynamic movements of highly reticulated shapes. The work created on-site at Integral Molecular was much looser. The artist worked quickly, allowing the shapes to blur as she introduced liquid pigment into pools of color. Murphy
22 Thorn, Kurt. “A quick guide to light microscopy in cell biology” Molecular biology of the cell vol. 27,2 (2016): 219-22. 23 from phone interview with Deirdre Murphy, November 30, 2018
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structured each of her three months in the residency to produce a fresh set of material experiments. Those studies were taken back into the studio to generate larger – more formalized – paintings. Processing the experiential data into a body of work, Murphy’s goal is to keep her working methods as open as they were in the lab, maintaining an experimental mindset.24
Deirdre Murphy has worked with scientists in the past – being a resident artist at a series of BioField Stations across the region. In each of those settings, the artist primarily used the scientists’ data and observation to build the body of work. Her time in the BioArt Residency was her first experience in a wet-lab, and her introduction to working with cell and molecular technology. Attending the weekly lab meetings, Murphy claims that most of the information was completely over her head, but she learned how the scientists worked together, sharing data and offering feedback. Integral Molecular is a collaborative, team-based company – with fifty scientists in the lab and a third holding PhDs – and their findings get “very technical very quickly” according to Dr Doranz.25 Despite their divergent backgrounds Murphy, found the scientists genuinely interested in her work in the lab as she painted on-site, stopping by to learn more. “Scientists and artists are both keen observers of the natural world, but the processes and what they are looking for is completely different.”26
Through her work from the BioArt Residency, Deirdre Murphy is sharing her visual findings. In addition to new paintings and monoprints, Murphy is creating a collaborative light based sculpture with her husband and design partner, Scott White. One of the benefits for Murphy of theBioArt Residency was the ability to generate new ideas with the organizers/artists Zarfsaz and McQuillan. These “masterminds” - as she terms them - were readily available with crucial feedback and advice.27 Now with the help of Zarfsaz, Murphy has the ability to integrate new media and technology into her work - offering fresh perspectives on her long-established concept of interconnectedness and scale. For Deirdre Murphy, the act of creating takes tactile form, translating biological connections into imagery — but where she uses the methodologies of art to re-frame scientific subjects, the next visiting artist, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, uses the methodology of the lab itself as the medium.
»» IMAGE: Artwork by Deirdre Murphy 24 ibid 25 interview with Dr Ben Doranz by author: December 6, 2018 26 phone interview with Deirdre Murphy by author, November 30, 2018 27 ibid
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hacker’s romance with an anonymous saliva sample purchased on-line. Unfolding at a poetic pace, the film is presented as a “post-genomic love story.”29 The film is interspersed with cellular imaging and documentary footage and exhibited as an immersive installation. As the multi-channel imagery unfolds, the artist/narrator addresses the viewer directly in spoken voice-over, implicating each of us in the intimate tale of data-driven obsession. The project reveals complicated issues of genetic privacy and consumer-aggregated information through distinctly human means, introducing critical technological issues within the shared emotional framework of a one-sided love story.
During her BioArt Residency, Heather Dewey-Hagborg expanded the scope of her inquiries into the biology of human connection. For the Lovesick project, she worked directly with the scientists to create a new virus – one that rewrites infected cells to amplify their oxytocin production, spreading neurochemical love IMAGE: Heather Dewey-Hagborg in the lab » » from cell to cell. HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG
Heather Dewey-Hagborg, who holds a PhD in Electronic Arts from RIT, has a history of working with DNA and biotechnology. Her project-driven work frames theoretical and ethical questions through the direct use of new technology. As an information-based artist, Dewey-Hagborg considers science as both subject and material, she explains:
“It is my hope that coming from this place of conflicted admiration and scrutiny empowers my work to tackle issues and ideas that are difficult to articulate with conventional media. Often it is through the process of experimentation, through hands-on work with the material of a discipline that its organizational contradictions come to light. By physically engaging with the production of scientific knowledge and technological application I hope to untie some of these more hidden knots, and to use materials of the discipline to show rather than say what I find.“28
In a previous project, titled T3511, Heather Dewey-Hagborg used genetic sequencing as a narrative structure. The multi-channel film tells the story of bio-
28 from artist website, https://deweyhagborg.com 29 ibid IMAGE: Heather Dewey-Hagborg, view of love virus infected cells under a » » microscope
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Lovesick - which launched on Valentines Day 2019 – was a concept that went through a number of iterations and entailed a team of scientists. The first stage of the residency was to scale the idea for feasibility; Dr. Doranz worked with Dewey- Hagborg to plan the scope of the work, including which virus and hormone to choose.30 Next, Dewey-Hagborg collaborated with a researcher at Integral Molecular to create the virus, modifying its genome to express oxytocin.31 From there, she went into the lab to transfect cells with the virus with another molecular scientist.32 Together, they spread Lovesick to samples comprised of lab’s test cells and also to cells gathered from the artist’s own body.33
The Lovesick project raises technical questions. How long will the virus survive? Will the cells develop defenses or antibodies? How far could it spread? What is its utility? These technical questions echo poetic inquiries into the nature of love. By isolating the chemical components, the artist may not bring us any closer to understanding the emotion – or how to sustain it. But the process of Dewey-Hagborg’s inquiry allows us to contemplate desire in the abstract - and the modalities of science in the specific. Her visually seductive work uses the fetishization of the lab as a tool to further investigate its impact. The truly collaborative working process also challenges perceptions of individual authorship and agency in art and science.
The work for Dewey-Hagborg’s Lovesick project spread over several months, and at times the scientists worked independently. Between artist visits, the team communicated via a shared Google Doc - aggregating ideas as Dewey-Hagborg worked on projects throughout the US and Europe. The asynchronous sharing of information is natural for the data-driven artist, but the interaction with a private company was new. For past projects Heather Dewey-Hagborg has worked with a number of labs – communal biotech labs like Genspace in NYC and research centers within academic settings – but the BioArt Residency offered a unique “inside-view into research of drug development.”34 This free exchange of ideas within a private company subverts capitalist structure but underscores the collaborative nature of research-based science – where sharing findings is an
30 from interview with Dr Ben Doranz by author: December 6, 2018 31 for this she worked with Dr. Tom Charpentier, Project Leader of Molecular Biology and Research Scientist II at Integral Molecular 32 for this she worked with Dr. Tabb Sullivan, Senior Research Scientist and Project Leader (MPA) at Integral Molecular 33 they specifically used the labs HEK93 cells - a line of cells derived from embryonic kidney tissue culture common in this kind of research. 34 interview with Heather Dewey-Hagborg by author, January 15, 2019 »» IMAGE: Heather Dewey-Hagborg 036 037 BIOART RESIDENCY PROJECT BIOART RESIDENCY PROJECT »» IMAGE: Scientist Tabb Sullivan and Glass Artist Alexander Rosenberg, with Oxytocin filled glass blown vials part of Heather Dewey-Hagborg‘s Lovesick Project important part of progress. The complexities of proprietary knowledge within an industry like biotechnology provide compelling grounds for further exploration. Interdisciplinary models like the BioArt Residency or Bell Lab’s Experimental Art and Technology [E.A.T] exist outside of strictly commodified goals. They encourage a state of productive uncertainty that can extend beyond the confines of a solely project-(or profit)-driven system. Google’s now defunct “20% time” - where employees were encouraged to take one day a week to work on personal projects – capitalized on the concept that independent, experimental work could generate useful ideas. The nominal amount of time that the BioArt Residency takes from from Integral Molecular’s scientists ultimately enriches their research.
This expanded knowledge of the overlapping disciplines allows for insight into art and science - from both internal and external views. Shifts in frame of reference provide new perspective and break down perceived, internal divisions. In his much-contested 1959 lecture “The Two Cultures,” C.P Snow delineated – and lamented – the intellectual divide between art and science. Although divisive in tone, the novelist (and scientist) locates missed opportunities within the intellectual distance: “The clashing point of two subjects, two disciplines, two cultures—of two galaxies, so far as that goes—ought to produce creative chances. In the history of mental activity that has been where some of the break-throughs came. The chances are there now.“35
The distance - in terms of understanding - is both expanding and contracting. Knowledge is more accessible but more specialized. Information is more readily available, but it is tailored to user preferences. Within academia, these divisions also ebb and flow; some universities outwardly embrace interdisciplinary thought, while other departments silo off to protect their share of enrollment.
Programs like the BioArt Residency serve as more than a bridge between C.P. Snow’s two cultures. They recognize that the interchange between artist and scientist requires a shared language that is intrinsically more accessible to a wider audience. In the BioArt Residency, this exchange is designed to take place in the public sphere - through exhibitions, lectures and screenings. The open discourse
35 Snow, C. P. (Charles Percy), 1905-1980. The two cultures. Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press, 2008, c1998
038 039 provides general access to the work that usually happens behind closed doors – whether that is in the lab or in the studio – and moves beyond two cultures towards a multitude.
The connections forged by the artists, scientists, and organizers of the BioArt Residency show the importance of reaching outside of prescribed disciplines. Contained within the specificity of each of the artists’ projects is a set of theoretical and conceptual concerns that generally affect us all. Their ambitious work in its first year of programming offers insight into technologies that will continue to define our collective future – allowing access to the science encoded within each of our cells.
Cindy Stockton Moore is a Philadelphia based artist. Her writing on art has appeared in ArtNews, SciArt, NYArts Magazine, The New York Sun, and Title Magazine in addition to university and web publications.
»» IMAGE: Tom Charpentier, Tabb Sullivan, Deirdre Murphy, Maya Heiland, Angela McQuillan and Mina Zarfsaz at Venture Cafe
IMAGE: Deirdre Murphy Deirdre IMAGE: » »
»» IMAGE: Heather Dewey-Hagborg presenting DNA phenotyping to middle school students from the FirstHand Program
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