Historizing Bioart, or the Methodological Challenges of (Media) Art History

Bioart has attracted growing attention from artists, theoreticians and institutions since the early years of this century, although the relationship between art, biology and technology begun to be documented in the first 30 years of the twentieth century. The task of chronicling this relationship is necessary in order to be able to understand the origins and transformations experienced in this area of artistic endeavour. Historical analysis reveals that the apparently homogeneous term “bio-art” embraces a wide range of practices and discourses, each offering valuable insights to different bioart voices and controversies. For the art historian, bioart does not exist as an autonomous element but thrives on inertia and creates tensions as a result of its interaction with other artistic fields inevitably associated with it, primarily media art and mainstream contemporary art. In this article we argue that the task of historicizing bioart must address three issues: a chronological account of the relationship between art, biology and technology; problems and solutions arising from an understanding of bioart as part of media art (mainly related to materiality issues); and methodological challenges and rewards of understanding bioart in relation to other manifestations of contemporary art.