Arts of vulnerability. Queering leaks in artistic research and bioart

Abstract

The dissertation addresses artistic practice that combines the manipulation of organic and living matter with biotechnology (bioart) with a more-than-human theoretical framework of feminist studies, queer studies and environmental humanities.

At the heart of the research there are the two bioart works Semina Aeternitatis(2019) and Wombs (2018–2021). Semina Aeternitatis manipulates individual memories through a series of biotechnological procedures and genetic engineering of bacteria. The series Wombs (W.01, W.02, W.03) addresses sex, gender and hormonal contraception from an ecological perspective. I realized both artworks in collaboration with international scientific laboratories.Placing the artworks at its heart makes this dissertation a contribution to the field of artistic research.

After giving insights into the realization of the artworks, I offer the two concepts ‘arts of vulnerability’ (AoV) and ‘poetics of uncontainability’ (PoU). These interrelated concepts illuminate different aspects of engaging and making art with unstable, living materials. The concepts emerge as aesthetic instances rooted in the art practice but, through the queer feminist theoretical framework, become ethical and epistemic tools to deal with the more-than-human in unstable times.