ABSTRACT
Science and technology studies (STS) has a history of integrating new subjects for analysis and adding new methods from a variety of disciplines. Most research involves a combination of methods, and the blind spots of each method have been critiqued in turn. The isolation of STS scholars from communities of critical science-engaged artists is beginning to change as more STS scholars become focused on the potential for dialogue sparked by organizing the public around artworks. Science and technology-engaged artists are practicing STS by material means. The chapter considers a particular group of contemporary artists, known as bioartists, in order to examine the specific possibilities for overlap between STS scholarship and artists who are engaged with science and technology. For SymbioticA artists, two parallel tensions exist: between using and critiquing science and between serving and critiquing science. The artists at SymbioticA have created a fused identity, as opposed to seeing themselves as working in multiple roles.
