Art vs. Science: Embracing biology as an art form

Often, biology (or the sciences in general) is seen as a subject that's based on facts, theories, data, and experiments, and the arts are often associated with expression, creativity, and imagination. All of these factors are true, and at one point in school, we may have seen ourselves either being more of a scientist than an artist, or vice-versa.

However, with the growth of bioart in the world, is it time to bridge the gap that divides biology and the arts, and embrace biology as an art?

With the invention of the term “bioart” in 1997, by brazilian-american artist, eduardo kac, the concept of biology as an art has become more popular in the last 2 decades. Aforementioned, it has always been art vs. science, but biology actually has components that could classify it as an art, and we’ll be going through a few of those things.

1. Visualization

As we may know, visualization plays a crucial role in making art, as we can have an idea of what the artist is trying to convey through their work through their use of colors, shapes, and shadows, but how can we effectively apply visualization in biology?

It’s actually quite simple, and similar if you put it into perspective: for example, let’s take the study of microbiology.

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, and seeing the difference between organisms is a vital part in understanding how microorganisms interact with one another, medicines, and even infections.

The visualization of microbes and microorganisms is important because it enables for the characterization of microbes, an indication of what microbes may be capable of forming into infections and viruses, and how specific bacterias respond to different medications and treatments.

2. The application of colors

The use of colors in biology is actually very important in the detection of diseases, and illnesses, and an example of this could be a bruise. with bruises, their color changes overtime, and will slowly fade away after a period of time. This'll tell you how your bruise is healing and getting better, and this is just one example of how the use of colors is applied in biology.

Furthermore, colors are also applied in medical scans, for example a pet-ct scan. but before going into detail about colors, pet-ct scans can be used in hospitals to help diagnose diseases, for example: alzheimers, show how well a treatment is working, or find out how well parts of your body are functioning (ie. the heart). So you may be wondering, how does this work?

A computer absorbs data from the scan, and uses colors to represent different levels of cell activity. take a brain pet-ct scan as an example.

One color (usually red) would show high levels of activity in the brain, and with less active brain areas, it would show a different color (usually blue).

3. A representation of the world we live in

Something we all may look over is how artists represent the world in their own unique way, and artistic representations of organisms could help raise public awareness on climate change through the interaction between humans and plants, and even health issues that are arising as time goes on.

All in all, biology and art may seem like two different subjects, that oppose each other, but by embracing biology as an art form, we could have an increased understanding of the world around us, and enable visual artists to explore their own representations of the human body, and allow them to create a new perspective on the world around us.