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Metabolic arts should be added to the emerging interdiscipline of metabolic humanities and this paper will discuss ways of defining metabolism that might be productive in helping to produce tools and touchstones for metabolic readings of contemporary art before presenting examples of artworks which might be interestingly illuminated by light of this sign, taking time to relish the process of these materially oriented internal analysis coupled with how the work might be considered in terms of its broader implications for the concept of metabolism. https://isea2023.ensad.fr/#metabolic-arts

In Art, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge, Hannah Star Rogers suggests that art and science are not as different from each other as we might assume. She shows how the tools of science and technology studies (STS) can be applied to artistic practice, offering new ways of thinking about people and objects that have largely fallen outside the scope of STS research. Arguing that the categories of art and science are labels with specific powers to order social worlds—and that art and science are best understood as networks that produce knowledge—Rogers shows, through a series of cases, the similarities and overlapping practices of these knowledge communities. The cases, which range from nineteenth-century artisans to contemporary bioartists, illustrate how art can provide the basis for a new subdiscipline called art, science, and technology studies (ASTS), offering hybrid tools for investigating art–science collaborations. Rogers's subjects include the work of father and son glassblowers, the Blaschkas, whose glass models, produced in the nineteenth century for use in biological classification, are now displayed as works of art; the physics photographs of documentary photographer Berenice Abbott; and a bioart lab that produces work functioning as both artwork and scientific output. Finally, Rogers, an STS scholar and contemporary art–science curator, draws on her own work to consider the concept of curation as a form of critical analysis.

The sciences and commercial entities are increasingly engaging with artists to harness aesthetics, creativity, and interdisciplinarity. The effect of these collaborations has mostly been to promote public engagement with science and commercial innovation. Yet, it is unclear how such arrangements work, what impact aesthetic approaches have, and whether they are appropriate ways for artists to engage with other disciplines. This text analyses two case studies of aesthetic strategies of ‘mirroring’ and ‘friction synthesis’ as deployed within institutional environmental governance processes. This text argues that aesthetic strategies can highlight blind spots in environmental governance and do this without creating an oppositional critique. Instead, aesthetic strategies can engage with existing governance processes and build alternative worlds within them.

The sciences and commercial entities are increasingly engaging with artists to harness aesthetics, creativity, and interdisciplinarity. The effect of these collaborations has mostly been to promote public engagement with science and commercial innovation. Yet, it is unclear how such arrangements work, what impact aesthetic approaches have, and whether they are appropriate ways for artists to engage with other disciplines. This text analyses two case studies of aesthetic strategies of ‘mirroring’ and ‘friction synthesis’ as deployed within institutional environmental governance processes. This text argues that aesthetic strategies can highlight blind spots in environmental governance and do this without creating an oppositional critique. Instead, aesthetic strategies can engage with existing governance processes and build alternative worlds within them.