Vital Forms
eBook - PDF

Vital Forms

Biological Art, Architecture, and the Dependencies of Life

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Vital Forms

Biological Art, Architecture, and the Dependencies of Life

About this book

Shows how the intersection of biotech, art, and architecture are transforming the world we live in


As living matter becomes more and more the domain of art and architecture, the life sciences are enabling a major cultural and aesthetic transformation. Vital Forms explores how the intersection of biology, art, and architecture has transformed these disciplines, offering heretofore unimagined possibilities.

Using numerous case studies, Jennifer Johung explores how art and architecture are reimagining life on cellular and subcellular levels. In the process, she maps the constantly evolving dependencies that exist between objects, bodies, and environments. From Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr’s Tissue Culture and Art Project, which developed “semi-living worry dolls,” to Patricia Piccinini’s imagined Still Life with Stem Cells, each chapter pairs a branch of contemporary biological inquiry with the artists who are revolutionizing it.

Examining cutting-edge developments in biotechnological research—including tissue-engineering, stem cell science, regenerative medicine, and more—Vital Forms brings biological art and architecture into critical dialogue. Distinguished by its broad range and Johung’s synthesizing talents, Vital Forms makes powerful observations about how the unfolding dependencies between all kinds of matter are becoming vital to life in our age of biotechnological manipulations.

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Yes, you can access Vital Forms by Jennifer Johung in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Architecture & Architecture Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. CONTENTS
  7. INTRODUCTION: VITAL DEPENDENCIES
  8. 1. VITAL SYNTHESIS: Art, Design, and Synthetic Biology
  9. 2. VITAL MAINTENANCE: The Tissue Culture and Art Project and Infrastructures of Care
  10. 3. VITAL CONTEXTS: Morphology, Mutability, and Sabin+Jones LabStudio
  11. 4. VITAL ECOLOGIES: Protocells and Hylozoic Ground
  12. 5. VITAL REGENERATION: The Promise and Potentiality of Stem Cells
  13. EPILOGUE: VITAL TIMES
  14. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  15. NOTES
  16. INDEX