ABSTRACT
An increasing number of artists are engaging with the biotechnosciences, entering scientific laboratories to create art in vivo. This chapter describes bioart practices as a starting point for discussing the discourse of knowledge production accompanying artistic research, drawing on theories from science and technology studies (STS) and philosophy. Considering the contributions that artists make and building on critical ideas about knowledge and artistic research, it argues that a more suitable concept to apply to the meaning-making of art may be wisdom. The propositional view of knowledge has been challenged since the 1970s by STS scholars, who have focused on the importance of tacit knowledge and critical examination of assumptions about the character and state of scientific knowledge. Some simple objections have been made to the idea of artistic research as knowledge production. The procedure involved putting the medium the cells grew in into contact with an electrophoresis gel that reacts with protein.
