This week in the
relationship between Biotechnology and Art was more difficult for me to draw
upon compared to other weeks. I then looked up the definition according to the
video Animal Biotechnology and they defined Biotechnology as the application of
science to living organisms and that definition helped me to understand it a
little more. Along with Joe Davis’ quote, “The most absurd things are connected
in very absurd ways, I like to take the least connected things and try to build
connections between them”. The topic I found most interesting was the
relationship of biotechnology to the animal world with the technologies of
artificial insemination and cloning.
I found the
subject of artificial insemination particularly interesting considering they’re
essentially cheating natural selection and choosing the best on they’re own and
then distributing those genes so that the end result is getting the best breed
they can. Hand and hand with that subject is embryo transfer which I found
extremely helpful to medical advancements not only in animals with manually
creating the best breed by their genes, but by the way that embryo transfer has
helped advance the medical fields of the human world. This connection of
biotechnology and art is truly beautiful by the method being used for infertile
couples to have the chance to create life. Due to this many families have had
the opportunity to do things that they once believed impossible.
The subject that
really connected art to the biotech world for me was the act of cloning. Cloning
is an art and to achieve something as complicated as genetically cloning proves
that the worlds of biotech and art really do work together to improve
humans/animals and human limitations. Cloning is
the most recent evolution of selective assisted breeding in animal reproduction.
Similar to the goals achieved by artificial insemination and embryo transfer, cloning
animals is a reliable way of reproducing superior livestock genetics and
ensuring herds are maintained at the highest quality possible. 
"Animal Biotechnology: All About Animal Cloning." Animal Biotechnology: All About Animal Cloning. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.
"Animal Biotechnology." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.
"Artificial Insemination." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.
Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 8 May 2015.
"What Is Cloning?" What Is Cloning? N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015.
I really liked that you went outside of topics discussed specifically in lecture and focused on other aspect of bioart and biotechnology. Artificial insemination and cloning are relatively new, but highly controversial. It's like messing with nature and/or playing God; perhaps they will always be something we will debate about. However, I agree that biotechnology to the animal world is important, and how we choose to respect animals is a reflection of human nature.
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