The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture

"The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art and Architecture collects thirty essays from a transdisciplinary array of experts on biology in art and architecture. The book presents a diversity of hybrid art-and-science thinking, revealing how science and culture are interwoven. The book situates bioart and bioarchitecture within an expanded field of biology in art, architecture, and design. It proposes an emergent field of biocreativity and outlines its historical and theoretical foundations from the perspective of artists, architects, designers, scientists, historians, and theoreticians. Includes over 150 black and white images"--Provided by publisher Half Title 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Dedication 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Illustrations 9 List of Contributors 17 Notes on Contributors 21 Introduction 31 Biology in Art and Architecture: The Full Spectrum of Biocreativity 31 Why Biology in Art and Architecture Now? Epigenesis, Redundancy, Return 34 Becoming Biological 38 Queering Binaries, Going Full Spectrum 39 Notes 41 References 43 Part I Biologies and Architectural Histories 45 1 The Biocentric Bauhaus 48 The Standard Narrative 49 The Biocentric Discourse Intersection 52 The Austro-Hungarian 56 The Bauhaus in the Current of Ideas 58 The Belgian and the Prussian 58 The Swiss 61 The Hungarian 62 The Bohemian and the Hungarian 62 Two Hungarians 64 A German Student 65 A Würtemburger 66 Another Swiss ... and a Russian 67 Yet Another Swiss, this time a Communist 67 And Yet Another Hungarian 69 And Finally, a Rhinelander 70 All Three Directors 72 Notes 75 References 91 2 Biology in Architecture: The Goetheanum Case Study 101 Rudolf Steiner’s Philosophical Modernism 101 The Goetheanum and Anthroposophy 103 Building the Goetheanum 108 The Goetheanum Chronicles 114 The Bio-Impulse of the Goetheanum 117 Notes 118 References 123 3 Birds of a Feather: Habit, Habituate, Habitat, Habitivity 128 Habit 128 Habituate 131 Habitat 133 Habitivity 141 Notes 145 References 150 4 The Dwelling–Garden Dyad in Twentieth-Century Affordable Housing 152 New Frankfurt: Large-Scale Affordable Housing in a Model District 154 Influence of the “Garden City” Movement on New Frankfurt 154 Standardized Houses and Allotment Gardens 155 The “Right to Green“ 157 Closing the Loop between Gardens and Dwellings 157 The Frankfurt Kitchen and the Garden Shed: Optimizing Functional and Social Dynamics 158 Tompkinsville, Nova Scotia: Small-Scale Affordable Housing in a Co-Operative Community 161 Garden City Ideals in a Canadian Context 161 Adapting to a Scarcity of Resources 162 “Ideas Have Hands and Feet” 163 Designing Co-operatively but Personalizing Each House to Suit the Needs of the Family 164 Common Arable Land 167 Unité d’habitation, Marseille: Medium-Scale Affordable Housing in a Vertical Garden City 170 Marseille: Where Everything Is Possible 170 The Influence of the Garden City Movement on Le Corbusier 170 A Vertical Garden City as a Prototype 171 Social Programming 172 Building for a Utopian Community 172 The Kitchen Modulates Flows between the Dwelling and the Community 174 The Loggias Create Communion with Nature 175 Conclusion 176 Notes 176 References 180 5 Ouroboros Architecture 182 Space Ecology and the Environmental Debate 183 Ian McHarg’s Fitting of Spaceship Earth 187 Fitting Local Space Arks for Human Survival 190 The Capsule Syndrome in Ecological Architecture 193 The Closed World of Ecological Architecture 200 Notes 201 References 208 6 Architectures of Aliveness: Building Beyond Gravity 217 Biotechnology: A Non-Progressivist Inquiry 218 On the Divergence of Nature and Technology 221 Health: From Mechanical Division to Experiential Vision 224 Biotechnique: An Inquiry into the (Non)Space of Health 226 The Endless House: From Endless Space to Weightless Movement 228 Life in the International Space Station: Space Orientation in Circulation 230 Building Beyond Gravity: Lose Ground, Make Space 235 Notes 236 References 241 Electronic Resources 242 Interview 243 7 The Gene in Context: Complex Biological Systems as a Model for Generative Architecture 244 Origins of an Evolutionary Architecture 252 LabStudio’s Research and “Post-Darwinian” Complex Biological Systems 255 Architectural “Evolution”? 262 Notes 264 References 268 Part II Biologies and Architectural Theories and Practices 273 8 Bio City Map and Plug-In Ecology 276 Acknowledgments 286 Credits 286 Research Fellows 286 Consultants 287 Notes 287 References 287 9 Epiphyte Chamber: Responsive Architecture and Dissipative Design 288 Notes 298 References 299 10 Architecture and Living Matter(s): From Art/Architectural Installations to Metabolic Aesthetics 301 Metabolic Architecture from the Transformations of Plants 304 Transformations via Edible Matter: Food and Structure 308 Immaterial Transformations: Kinesis as a Form of Metabolism 313 Trash Transformations: Decomposition as Metabolism 316 Conclusion: A Preliminary Glossary of Terms 320 Glossary 321 infrastructure 321 laboratory experimentation 321 modularity 321 objectification 321 participation 322 temporality 322 the vernacular 322 Notes 322 References 326 11 Morphogenesis and Design: Thinking through Analogs 329 Introduction 329 The Subtle Relationships between Morphogenesis and Design 330 Epigenetic Landscapes as Dynamical Systems 333 The “Imaginary Organism,” or the Imagination of Forms 343 Conclusion 346 Addendum: Design Studio 347 Acknowledgments 349 Notes 349 References 352 12 Microecologies of the Built Environment 354 Micro-Organisms and Microbiomes 355 Towards a Microecology of Architecture 357 Our Two Ecologies 361 An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Design 362 Notes 366 References 371 13 Your Rotten Future Will Be Great 376 The Remarkable Properties of Fungi 376 Why Louis Pasteur and In-Vitro Space Are So Important 378 Stamets All the Way Down 379 Edible Architecture Health Event 379 Distractions on the Road to Mycotecture 380 Even More Room at the Bottom 382 Notes 384 References 385 Part III Biologies and Art Histories 386 14 The Epigenetic Landscape of Art and Science c. 1950 388 Introduction 388 Conrad Waddington’s Epigenetic Landscape 394 The Coming of Pop Science: Art as a Means to Popularize Science 401 Conclusion: Epigenetic Painting, Complexism, and the Holon 406 Notes 409 References 413 Websites 417 YouTube Video 417 15 Mind Matrix: Situating Cognition in the Sculptural Grid 418 Affordance 420 Extension 421 Attunement 424 Entanglement 429 Enmeshed 433 Notes 435 References 440 16 Fantastic Voyage and Other Scales of Wonder 443 Trapped by a Crisis of Scale 445 Sensing Terrains 446 Dark Skies 448 Conclusion 450 Notes 459 References 460 17 Animal Art (1987) and the Split Origins of Bioart 461 The Inhumans 461 Animalier Exhibitions and the Split Animal 464 Animal Art (1987) at Steirischer Herbst in Graz 468 Notes 481 References 485 18 “An Eccentric Kind of Teaching Machine”: The Ritual Spaces of Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison 487 Notes 496 References 500 19 Underwater Music: Tuning Composition to the Sounds of Science 502 Evoking, Invoking, Soaking 503 Tacking between Field and Lab in Underwater Music: Submarine Noises and Whale Songs 505 The Pool of Experiment: Cage and Neuhaus 507 Conducting Transduction: Redolfi’s Musique Subaquatique 510 Listening to the Sounds of Science: The Wet Sounds Festival 512 Queering the Mermaid: Snapper, Oleson, Leber, Chesworth 513 Return to the Sounded Sea: Winderen 516 Dunn’s Chaos and the Emergent Mind of the Pond 517 From the Cold War to Global Warming: Under Arctic Seas 517 Notes 519 References 525 Musicography 528 20 Racial Technologies in the Time of Black Cyborgnetic Consciousness 532 Introduction 532 Histories and Theories of Race and Technology 535 A Technological Rereading of Nineteenth-Century Race Literature 538 Previous Theorizations of Race as Technology 541 The Black Cyborgnetic Body 541 Notes 548 References 551 Part IV Biologies and Art Theories and Practices 553 21 Evolutionary Yarns in Seahorse Valley: Living Tissues, Wooly Textiles, Theoretical Biologies 555 A Dip into Seahorse Valley 557 The Contours of Craft: A Field Day at the LACMA 561 “An Evolving Wooly Taxonomy”: A Dive into the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef 566 Life in the Making 574 Notes 575 References 583 22 Vital Tissue Constructs 588 Introduction 588 The Early Developments 588 Semi-Living ART 589 Speculative Design and Architecture 594 Conclusion 596 Notes 602 References 603 Patents 605 23 Demonstrable Plasticity 606 Renewable Plasticity 607 Exhibiting Plasticity 613 Notes 614 References 615 24 Investigating the Ethical and Practical Limits of Bioart 617 Introduction 617 “The Romantic Disease” 617 “Trust Me, I’m an Artist” 621 Conclusion 626 Notes 628 References 628 25 From Materiality to Machines: Manufacturing the Organic and Hypotheses for Future Imaginings 629 Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen 630 Organic Objects 633 Ethical, Biological, Political: John Craig Freeman and Heather Dewey-Hagborg 636 Heather Dewey-Hagborg 641 Laura Splan 643 Conclusion 648 Notes 649 References 650 26 The Sixth Element: DIY Cyborgs and the Hive Mind of Social Media 652 The Artist and the Cockroach 654 Notes 662 References 664 27 A Longing in Our Hearts: Interspecies Communication in Contemporary Art 665 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous 667 From the Ridiculous to the Taboo 668 From the Taboo to the Heart of the Matter 669 Gail Wight: Being Open 670 Kathy High: Being Attentive 673 Rachel Mayeri: Being Communicative 678 Conclusion: From Awe to Emergence 681 Notes 682 References 684 28 Self-Portrait of the Artist Meditating on Death: A Feminist Technoscience Reading of the Apparatus of Contemporary Neuroscience Experiments 686 Introduction 686 The Problem of “Inter” Disciplinary Collaboration 692 Looking at Memento Mori with a “Period Eye” 694 Neuro Memento Mori 696 Minding Feminist Technoscience: Embodying New Materialism 698 Neuroimaging History and Pioneer Rhetoric 701 Data as Image: Representations, Truth and Allure 703 Agential Realism and Seductive Neuroimages 704 Conclusion 706 Notes 707 References 711 29 Piper in the Woods: Men Becoming Trees 717 Notes 731 References 732 30 Axioms on Art and Gene Action: Pathways to Expression 734 That All Cultural and Individual Production Is Art 734 That We Are Not Human 734 That We, Our Species, Is Alive and Living Mortal Lives in a World with Other Living Nonhumans 735 That Home Is Where the Hearth Is 735 That Sensual Experience Is Deadly 735 That There Is No Normal 736 That Scientific Objectivism Is an Art Movement that Captures the Beauty of Anomic Relations 737 That Genetic Modification Brings with it Practical Anxiety and Libidinal Attractions 738 That Flesh Technology Is Not Predominantly Machinic 739 That the Focus Is on Abundance 739 That Joy and Pain Are Not Mutually Exclusive 740 That Anthropocentrism Is Endemic 740 That Bioart Often Intends to Demystify Biotechnology 741 That Hands-On Biotechnology Often Intends to Re-Mystify Life 741 Notes 749 References 750 Index 752