Week 6: BioTech + Art


Through Professor Vesna’s lecture, learning about artists in labs through Symbiotica, Alba the bunny, implanting a third ear on an arm and Orlan’s coat of skin, all of these examples have shocked and caught my attention within the art and biotech world. Although there were so many interesting things learned, I wanted to focus this blog post on a specific topic that is more personal to me and directly effects me by taking a look at the American food industry.


Here is a work of art by Sybiotica, where they created robotic arms that drew
based off of goldfish neurons, called"Fish and Chips".

Through our online portal, I was able to find an experiment where they tested the longevity of fast food, specifically McDonald’s and compared it to a regular burger place. The outcome was scary but not surprising. After two weeks, the regular burger and fries were very moldy and disgusting to look at, like you would expect food to get. The sad news was that it took 10 weeks for the McDonald fries to finally start molding. This is beyond worrying that places are allowed to sell this fake food. There is too much modification to this “food” that it isn’t even molding and breaking down. Just think, if bacteria doesn’t even want to eat it then why should we put it in our body and try and eat it?

Although this is image is not taken exactly from the exact experiment 
I research, it is another great example of showing how long McDonalds
food can go without molding or breaking down.

I feel connected to this topic because what I put in my body is very important. I’m not saying I eat 100% organic and healthy all the time, but I definitely fell better when I fuel myself with better food. Another video that I found on our dashboard was a short point of view video featuring Michael Pollan who was speaking about a documentary that he co-narrated called Food Inc. I actually watched this film years ago with my mom and it left me in shock. Pollan in this video talks about how we once used to grow our food based off the sun, but now we want it faster and cheaper so we inject the food with fossil fuels. He gave the exampled of a Big Mac using 26 oz of fossil fuels to make, that is just not right, which I brought up earlier in my blog.

Here is an image taken from the film that shows the difference in time with
chicken breeding. In the film, chicken-raiser Vince Edwards states, "and it's all a science. They got it figured out... If you could grow a chicken in 49 days, why would you want one you gotta grow in three months? More money in your pocket."


Although art and biotech can be combined so greatly to make amazing and shocking works of art, I personally believe that we should stop changing the natural order of the food we put in our body. The American Food Industry has a lot of changes it needs to make to get us eating food that is actually food and not modified.


Images:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/5415033341
http://ielts.51mokao.com/forumpostscont.html?id=19243
http://mindfullybliss.com/2014/06/

Sources:
"BioArt Pt2." YouTube. N.p., 17 May 2012. Web. 14 May 2017. <https://youtu.be/MdSt-Hjyi2I?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7>.

"Film Description." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, 23 Jan. 2010. Web. 13 May 2017. <http://www.pbs.org/pov/foodinc/film-description/>.

Magazine, Gary Wenk for Seed. "Seed Magazineabout." This Is Your Brain on Food § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2017. <http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/this_is_your_brain_on_food/>.

"McDonald's Food Expirament." YouTube. N.p., 12 June 2007. Web. 13 May 2017. <https://youtu.be/6us9kHHSNwk>.

"POV | Food, Inc. | Interview with Michael Pollan | PBS." YouTube. N.p., 16 Apr. 2010. Web. 13 May 2017. <https://youtu.be/0Ty0eehT8Y4>.

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