Message in a Bottle: Investigating Bioart Installations as a Transdisciplinary Means of Community Engagement

Title of the Paper

Message in a Botle: Investigating Bioart Installations as a Transdisciplinary Means of Community Engagement

Paper Information

• Subject Areas: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Bioart, Biotechnology, and Community Engagement
• Keywords: Biomedia Interface, Bioart, Installation Art, DIY Biotechnology, Citizen Science, Synthetic Biology

Research Background and Problem Statement

• Identified Problems or Challenges: As research involving living media, biology, and biotechnology expands, the HCI field faces related ethical challenges. There has been a lack of comprehensive studies on the mechanisms and outcomes of how bioart fosters community engagement.
• Research Significance: Bioart can attract and engage diverse communities by integrating perspectives from art, science, and technology through transdisciplinary practices, while also addressing related social and ethical issues. This interaction can promote inclusivity and criticality within HCI research.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  • Bioart has been validated as a transdisciplinary research practice for exploring the boundaries of interactive technologies.
  • Previous studies have shown that bioart can serve as a medium for community engagement, but its operational mechanisms and impacts remain unclear.

Proposed Solution

• Proposed Method or Solution: The authors conducted a qualitative study to explore audience experiences with the multimedia bioart installation Raaz. This installation incorporates gene-editing technology and is designed to blur traditional boundaries between art and science.
• Innovative Contributions:
  1. Emphasizes a transdisciplinary social exploration of the personal and societal implications of bioart and gene-editing technology.
  2. Describes how bioart installations can facilitate community engagement.
  3. Proposes bioart as a research and design model to support inclusive transitional experiences.
• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:
  • Analyzing the relationship between gene editing and artistic expression in the Raaz installation.
  • Collecting participant experience data through three events in different community settings, using interviews, questionnaires, and observations.
  • Applying thematic analysis to distill audience reactions and reflections.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings: The authors identified five experiential modes through which bioart fosters community engagement:

  1. Vital Authenticity: Demonstrating the vitality of the artwork and the authenticity of its processes.
  2. Performative Reflection: Highlighting performative interactions between art and audience, encouraging reflections on identity and technology.
  3. Empowered Critique: Creating an inclusive and socialized space where participants can critique science and technology from their own perspectives.
  4. Distributed Expertise: Using the artwork to attract people from diverse backgrounds, enabling them to find pathways for participation and contribution despite differing expertise.
  5. Revealed Dynamics: Unveiling overlooked structural and social issues within the community through transdisciplinary art installations.

• Comparison with Existing Solutions: Compared to traditional citizen science or artistic practices, this transdisciplinary approach more deeply facilitates cultural and technological exchange and achieves broader community engagement.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results: Across three events, the study found that Raaz significantly enhanced public interest in biotechnology and encouraged audiences to reflect on the future implications of gene editing from cultural, ethical, and scientific perspectives.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • Data primarily captured immediate reactions, without assessing long-term impacts.
    • Some participants may have been reluctant to provide negative feedback due to the artist's presence.
    • The study was limited to the characteristics of the Raaz installation and did not extend to other forms of bioart.
  • Future Directions:
    • Explore the impact of a broader range of bioart forms on community interaction.
    • Develop mechanisms for non-experts to directly participate in the creation of bioart.
    • Deepen research on uncertainty and transitional experiences in transdisciplinary community activities.

Conclusion

Through the analysis of three live events featuring the bioart installation Raaz, this study demonstrates how bioart can foster community engagement through transdisciplinary approaches. Such engagement not only facilitates the generation of cross-disciplinary knowledge but also cultivates public inclusivity and critical attitudes toward emerging scientific and technological developments. The research highlights the potential of bioart to promote the exploration of uncertainty, social dialogue, and the establishment of inclusive research practices.