who can explain me about -Bio-artists bridge art-science divide-?

Question

its an article post in Yahoo today. but i can't understand it 100%. need sumone who can help me explaining the art in bio-science. please.. =]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070303/ap_en_ot/bio_arts

Answer 1

Lets suppose I was a scientist and put bacteria in a petri dish - played a pure musical tone and noted that they formed a spiral in the dish (I don't think they do, but suppose). As a scientist, I would then play other tones of specific frequency, measuring the changes in the spiral for each tone. I would then write a paper about the phenomenon and turn it in for publication credit at my job.
The article is saying that artists are working with living items and producing things which they present as works of art. Instead of playing pure tones, they might play complex patterns or rock music. The article says the bacteria produced more antibiotics which are not very visible, so I might make art by graphing the output or doing time lapse of the antibiotic activity. In my supposed case, I might photograph the spirals or produce a video in time lapse. It is even possible that I could show the effect on live video in the museum if the changes were quick enough.
In other words, bio-artists use living stuff and convert what might be a science experiment to art.
From the article "Bio-artists use live tissues, bacteria, living organisms and life processes to create works of art that blur the traditional distinctions between science and art"