ARTASENTANGLEMENT:
ATHEORYOFBIO-ART
SIMONEHANDELMANDUFFY Stillfrom Quantifungi,2024,SHDuffy
WHATISBIO-ART?
.TERMCOINEDIN1997,EDUARDOKAC*
.FINEART-MAKINGINCOLLABORATION WITH MORE-THAN-HUMAN ORGANICS
.MORTAL&DECOMPOSABLE
*Kac,Eduardo.TimeCapsule,11Nov.1997,www.ekac.org/timcap.html.
Bio-Relic No. 1.2025.SHDuffy. Mycelium,Sawdust,OLEDDisplays,BlueOysterMushrooms
BIOMATERIALS
.
.
MYCELIUM&FUNGI
ALGAES&ALGINATES
.SLIMEMOLDS
.SYMBIOTICCULTUREOFBACTERIA& YEAST(SCOBY)
.PLANT&ANIMAL-BASEDMATERIALS
BIO-ART,INITSINHERENTMODEOF COLLABORATION, REFLECTSABROADERFACTOFTHEHUMANASPARTOFA LARGER ECOLOGY,ALWAYSALREADYINRELATIONTO OTHERNATURALBEINGS.
BIO-ARTSHOWSHOWMUTUALISMAND ORGANIC ENTANGLEMENT CANGROUNDATHEORYOFARTANDLIFE
Garden of Body,2021,SHDuffy Moss,Daisies,PlasterGauze
.
WORKING WITH .MORE-THAN-HUMANCOLLABORATION
.BREAKDOWNOF ABSOLUTE
DISTINCTIONS
Installationshot from SCOBYT (Symbiotic Community of Bacteria Yeast & Time.2025.SHDuffy. SCOBY,wire,mycelium,mold,vinegar
SYMBIOGENESIS
“THEORIGINOFEVOLUTIONARYNOVELTYBY SYMBIOSIS”-LYNMARGULIS
WORKING TOGETHER TO CREATE SOMETHING NEW
Stillfrom Quantifungi,2024,SHDuffy
CHALLENGESTOTRADITIONALARTTHEORY CHALLENGESTOWESTERNCOLONIALECOLOGY
.ARTASIMITATION
. IMPLICATIONOFNATUREASOTHER
.LOGICOFREPRESENTATION,NOTCOLLABORATION
.BIO-ARTASENTANGLEMENT,NOTIMITATION
.MATERIALIZINGMUTUALISM
.ROBINWALLKIMMERER,DR.KIMTALLBEAR
.AGENCY,AUTONOMY,&CARE-BASEDCREATION ProcessVideo, Bio-Inflatable Network No. 1,2025,SHDuffy
THEREISNOOTHER
.
CREATIVESYMBIOGENESIS
.WORKINGTOGETHERTOMAKESOMETHINGUNFORESEEN
.VISUALIZINGOURNATURALENTANGLEMENTS
.ORGANICRELATIONALITY,OUTSIDEREPRESENTATIVE IMITATION
.MODELLINGMUTUALISM
.THEMEDIUMTOREIMAGINEOURORGANICRELATIONS
. BIO-ART REMINDS US THAT LIFE IS NOT GROUNDED IN INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHERING
. MODELS COLLABORATIVE WORLD, CO-CREATION, ENTANGLEMENT
. NATURE AS ACTIVE RELATION OF MUTUAL CARE
. BIO-ART REMINDS US THAT LIFE IS NOT GROUNDED IN INDIVIDUALISM AND OTHERING
. MODELS COLLABORATIVE WORLD, CO-CREATION, ENTANGLEMENT
. NATURE AS ACTIVE RELATION
THISISWHYBIO-ARTMUSTBEMADETODAY.ITISTHEONLYMEDIUMTHAT CANADDRESSTHELOGICSOFENVIRONMENTALCRISISINITSFORM, MATERIALLYPROCESSINGANDPRODUCTIVELYMATERIALIZINGHOW HUMANANDMORE-THAN-HUMANRELATEMUTUALLY.
IMAGECITATIONS
Slide3:
“
BioplasticCookbookforRitualHealingfromPetrochemicalLandscapes.” [Gelatin] Bioplastic Cookbook for Ritual Healing from Petrochemical Landscapes, bioplastic-cookbook.schloss-post.com/gelatin.html.Accessed17Feb.2026.
CulturesForHealth.“WhatIsaScoby:WhatIsaKombuchaScoby&WhatIsItMadeOf?” Cultures For Health,13Mar.2023, culturesforhealth.com/blogs/learn/what-is-scoby-kombucha.
“FantasticFungi:HarnessingtheMagicofMyceliumtoCreateStrikingSculptures.” Loughborough University,5Oct.2022, www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2022/october/mycelium-student-sculptures/.
Fischer,Lars.“HowSlimeMoldsRememberWhereTheyAte.” Scientific American,ScientificAmerican,20Feb.2024, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-slime-molds-remember-where-they-ate/.
Research,TALLMaterials.“Taxon:Archive:Lab-Library.” TAL,tall-materials.org/materials-collection/agar-agar-bioplastic/.Accessed17Feb.2026.
Researchers Create Edible, Transparent Composite Packaging with Biocellulose,phys.org/news/2023-06-edible-transparent-composite-packaging-biocellulose.html. Accessed17Feb.2026.
Slide14&15:
Maxim Velli, Taylor Rayne, Rasmus Tofthøj, Tania Safa – Kojigotchi, 2025
All other images belong to Simone Handelman Duffy
WORKSCITED
Alexopoulos,ConstantineJ.,CharlesW.Mims,andM.Blackwell.“Fungus.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.EncyclopaediaBritannica,Inc.AccessedOctober12,2025. https://www.britannica.com/science/fungus
Aristotle. Poetics.TranslatedbyS.H.Butcher.Mineola,NY:DoverPublications,1997.
Cavalier-Smith,Thomas.“OriginofMitochondriabyIntracellularEnslavementofaPhotosyntheticPurpleBacterium.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 273,no.1596(August7, 2006):1943–1952.https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3531.
Collingwood,R.G. The Principles of Art.Oxford:ClarendonPress,1938.
Kac,Eduardo.“BioArt:FromGenesistoNaturalHistoryoftheEnigma.”2007. https://www.ekac.org/bioart_kac.pdf.
Kimmerer,RobinWall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.Minneapolis:MilkweedEditions,2013.
Lee,Suzanne.“GrowYourOwnClothes.” TED Talk,June2011.https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_lee_grow_your_own_clothes.
Margulis,Lynn.“WordsasBattleCries:SymbiogenesisandtheNewFieldofEndocytobiology.” BioScience 40,no.9(October1990):673–677.https://www.jstor.org/stable/1311435.
Ostendorf-Rodríguez,Yasmine. Let’s Become Fungal!: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts.Amsterdam:Valiz,2023.
SmithsonianCenterforFolklifeandCulturalHeritage.“TheCloudyOriginsofKombucha.” Smithsonian Folklife Magazine,March2022.https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/cloudy-origins-of-kombucha
Tallbear,Kim.“DecolonialSexandRelationsforaMoreSustainableWorld,”lecture, Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speaker Series,TheUniversityofWinnipeg,October17,2018.
Tsing,AnnaLowenhaupt.“Attunement:ForminMotion.”In Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere,editedbyCarolineA.Jones,NatalieBell,andSelbyNimrod,87–95.Cambridge,MA: MITPress,2022.
ThankYou