Oran Catts
  1. Current research activities

    2. The Tissue Culture and Art Project (initiated in 1996), is an on-going artistic research and development project into the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression.

    Tissue engineering holds much promise for improving the quality of human life. However, tissue engineering for artistic purposes has largely been overlooked. In the last four years, our group has been applying tissue-engineering principles for the purpose of artistic expression. We have grown tissue sculptures, "semi-living" objects, by culturing cells on artificial scaffolds in bioreactors. Ultimately, the goal of this work is to culture and sustain, for long periods, tissue constructs of varying geometrical complexity and size, and by that creating a new artistic palette.

    A unique set of issues and problems has arisen because these living-cell tissue constructs will not be transplanted into the body. Some of the problems concern the practicalities of the procedure itself, while the acquisition of living cells for artistic purposes has created concerns and has focused attention on the ethical and social implications of creating "semi-living objects". Thus our goal is to create a contestable vision of futuristic objects that are partly artificially constructed and partly grown/born.

    These semi-living objects consist of both synthetic materials and living biological matter from complex organisms. These entities (sculptures) blur the boundaries between what is born/manufactured, animate/inanimate and further challenge our perceptions and our relations toward our bodies and constructed environment

  2. Keywords

    3. Art, Tissue Engineering, 3D modeling, polymer scaffolds, ethics, Bioreactors.

  3. End-user applications

    • Exhibitions
    • Cultural Events
    • Food production.
    • Textile and fabric.
    • Community outreach

  4. Key publications

    5. I. “The Emergence of the Semi-Living” By Ionat Zurr & Oron Catts Thresholds Magazine, MIT Press, No.24, July 2002.
    II. “Growing Semi-Living Sculptures” by Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr, Leonardo Magazine, MIT Press, Issue 35:4, August 2002.
    III. Catts, Oron (2002) Ed. The Aesthetics of Care, pub. SymbioticA, U.W.A. ISBN 1 74052 080 7.
    IV. Que/qui sont les étres semi-vivant créés par Tissue Culture & Art? By Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr & Guy Ben-Ary, L’Art Biotech, le lieu unique France ISBN2-914381-52-2 pp.20-32, 2003.
    V. Nurcombe V, Smart CE, Chipperfield H, Cool SM, Boilly B, Hondermarck H. The proliferative and migratory activities of breast cancer cells can be differentially regulated by heparan sulfates. J Biol Chem. 2000 Sep 29;275(39):30009-18.
    VI. Are the Semi-Living are semi-good or semi-evil? By Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr , technoetic arts – an international journal of speculative research, Intellect Publishing, Volume 1 Number 1 ISSN 1477 965X.

  5. Outreach activities

    • Selected Public Talks/Symposiums/Papers:
      • Larger than life, European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrueck, Germany 25th April 2003.
      • The Art of the Semi-Living, Ecole Des Beaux-Arts, Nantes 15th April 2003.
      • SymbioticA and Fish and Chips, Agora Des Sciences, Marseilles, France, 11th April 2003.
      • Art Biotech at the Maison Européenne de laPhotographie in Paris, 10th April 2003.
      • The Performative aspects of the Semi-Living, Live Culture Symposium, Tate Modern, London. 30th March 2003.
      • Are The Semi-Living Semi Good or Semi Evil, L’art Biotech Symposium, le lieu unique, Nantes 15th March 2003.
      • Transformation: When Art and Sciences Meet
        Celestial City, Perth International Arts Festival, 29 January 2003.
      • Growing Semi-Living Sculptures, ELAM, School of Arts, New Zealand, 16th December 2002.
      • "Semi-living Art and Symbiotic Relationships – Wet Biology Art Practice and Art/Science Collaborations." UCLA, USA, 12th December 2002.
      • Growing Semi-Living Sculptures, The Art Institute of Chicago, 10th December 2002.
      • Art and Science collaborations in SymbioticA, Art Science Collaborations Inc, New York, 8th December 2002.
      • The Semi-Living of TC&A, Rensselaer's Polytechnic Institute iEAR Studios, 5th December 2003
      • SymbioticA and Fish & Chips, Blind Date forum, Postam Germany 21st November 2002.
      • Breaking the Code - Disability and Genetic Engineering Panel, Art of Dissent Conference, Melbourne, 22nd October 2002
      • ‘Symbiotic or Parasitic? - Art, Science and Industry Collaborations’, Experimenta’s New Visions Forum, Melbourne, 12 September 2002
      • ‘Semi-Living Entities on Pedestals’, Dead or Alive, Galerija Kapelica, Slovenia 18th June – 07th July 2002.
      • “How far is too far?” Keynote Speech, Arc Art 02, Art on the Edge Reflections upon Extreme (Media) Art Practices Tromsø, Norway January 26th-27th, 2002
      • Semi-Living Sculptures, ‘Emerson Collage Boston USA, October 31st 2001
      • Fashioning the Future, Science Technology and Visions of Progress, 4S Conference 2001, Society for Social Study of Science, MIT, Boston USA, November 1st 2001
      • Technology & Self Meeting (Professor Sherry Turkle), MIT Society Technology and Science Programme Boston USA, November 5th 2001
      • Department of Art & Technology, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago USA, November 7th 2001.
      • Department of Conceptual Information Arts, SFSU SF USA, November 9th 2001.
      • San Francisco Exploratorium SF USA, November 12th 2001.
      • ‘SymbioticA’ Ars Electronica, ‘Takeover Symposium’, Linz, Austria, September 2001.
      • New York University (Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) NYU – The CAT’s MEAOW Lecture Series) 21.3.2001.
      • “Growing Semi –living Sculptures” - Art & Biology Meeting at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Biology Department 19.3.2001
      • “The Tissue Culture & Art Project Talk”, Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University 7th March 2001
      • The Tissue Culture & Art Project- Art & Expression at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab, 26th February 2001
      • Introduction to Semi-Living Objects, Program in Science, Technology, and Society
        Massachusetts Institute of Technology 6th February 2001
      • The Tissue Engineering & Organ Fabrication Laboratory, Presentation at CIMIT, Massachusetts General Hospital 2nd January 2001
      • “The Stone Age of Biology – The Transformation of Archeological Relics into the Semi-Living Object of the Future” Theoretical Archeology Group, Oxford University, England, December 2000.
      • ‘Tissue Culture & Architecture” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago USA, October 2000.
      • ‘The Tissue Culture & Art(ificial) Womb’ Ars Electronica, ‘The Next Sex’ Symposium, Linz, Austria, September 2000.
      • ‘Growing Things: The Cultures of Nano Tech, Bio Tech, and Eco Tech Meat Art’. Banff, Canada, June 2000.
      • ‘The Stone Age of Biology’ part of Perth International Arts Festival 2000, Scitech Discovery Centre, February 2000.
      • ‘The Tissue Culture & Art Project – The Talk’ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – The Media Lab, Boston, USA, April 1999.
      • ‘Anamorphosis’ Australian Network for Art and Technology, National Summer School in Art and Science, Sydney January 1999.
      • ‘Viruses and Mutations’ Cultural Symposium, Melbourne 1998. Part of the Melbourne International Festival 1998.

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. Not as Yet.

  7. Early career researcher?

    8. No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. No.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • Not as Yet

  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    • Not as Yet

© 2004

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