Article
ID: CBB521887641

What can science and technology studies learn from art and design? Reflections on ‘Synthetic Aesthetics’ (April 2017)

unapi
Design Aesthetics Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge Science and art Scientific collaboration Technoscience; science and technology studies Synthetic biology; bioengineering

In this paper we reflect on a project called ‘Synthetic Aesthetics’, which brought together synthetic biologists with artists and designers in paired exchanges. We – the STS researchers on the project – were quickly struck by the similarities between our objectives and those of the artists and designers. We shared interests in forging new collaborations with synthetic biologists, ‘opening up’ the science by exploring implicit assumptions, and interrogating dominant research agendas. But there were also differences between us, the most important being that the artists and designers made tangible artefacts, which had an immediacy and an ability to travel, and which seemed to allow different types of discussions from those initiated by our academic texts. The artists and designers also appeared to have the freedom to be more playful, challenging and perhaps subversive in their interactions with synthetic biology. In this paper we reflect on what we learned from working with the artists and designers on the project, and we argue that engaging more closely with art and design can enrich STS work by enabling an emergent form of critique.

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Authors & Contributors
Mansilla, Veronica Boix
Mareike Smolka
Alexander Bogner
Alexandru Marcoci
Andreas Kolb
Balmer, Andrew
Journals
Science, Technology and Human Values
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Social Studies of Science
Science and Society
Public Understanding of Science
Publishers
Palgrave Macmillan
MIT Press
McGill-Queen's University Press
CRC Press
Indiana University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
Concepts
Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge
Scientific collaboration
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Synthetic biology; bioengineering
Academic disciplines
Research
People
Koonin, Eugene V.
Engels, Friedrich
Venter, J. Craig
Morowitz, Harold J.
Habermas, Jürgen
Foucault, Michel
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
19th century
18th century
Modern
20th century, late
Places
Naples (Italy)
United States
Switzerland
Germany
France
European Union
Institutions
Nunziatella Military School
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