Joe Davis (artist) explained

Joe Davis (born 1950) is a research affiliate in the Department of Biology at MIT, and in the George Church Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. His research and art includes work in the fields of BioArt (using molecular biology and bioinformatics), "space art", and sculpture, using media including centrifuges, radios, prosthetics, magnetic fields, and genetic material. Davis' teaching positions have been at MIT, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and the University of Kentucky.

Davis' works include the sculpture Earth Sphere, a landmark fog fountain at Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the MIT campus;^[1] RuBisCo Stars, a transmission of a message to nearby stars from the Arecibo Observatory radiotelescope in Puerto Rico, carried out in November 2009;^{[2] [3]} New Age Ruby Falls, a project to create an artificial aurora using a 100,000 watt electron beam fired into the magnetosphere from a NASA space shuttle (which has not yet been carried out);^[4] and Microvenus, a piece of symbolic art involving engineering the genetic code of a microbe (one of the first uses of DNA digital data storage).^{[5] [6] [7]}

Significance

Davis' work has been featured in scientific journals, art magazines, and mainstream media^[8] —including Scientific American,^[9] Nature magazine,^[10] and several books.^{[11] [12]} Additionally, Davis has contributed to projects associated with the DIYbio movement^[13] . He is frequently invited to speak at universities, labs, and art institutes.^[14] Davis' life was further detailed in a feature-length documentary entitled Heaven+Earth+Joe Davis.^{[15] [16] [17]} Davis has had many media appearances, including twice on the Colbert Report. A segment was also produced on Nova.^[18] In 2001, the Washington Post termed Davis the "éminence grise of the 'bioart' movement", saying further, "Davis eschews the art versus science argument, insisting that he speaks both languages and could not possibly tear the two disciplines apart in his own mind".^[19]

Davis' work has further significance in documenting and critiquing early attempts at steganographic encoding of culturally important messages and images for future generations or extraterrestrial cultures. Davis has stated that he does not wish to create "green rabbits or purple dogs", but rather to manipulate the reams of silent, "junk DNA" that comprise more than 90% of an organism's genetic code.^[20]

Other works

• Audio Microscope - a microscope that translates light information into sound allowing you to "hear" living cells, each with its own "acoustic signature"
• Experiments with how E. coli respond to jazz, and other sounds, with Adam Zaretsky
• Putting a map of the Milky Way into the ear of a transgenic mouse.^[21]
• "Primordial" clocks - a project surrounding a theory that life spontaneously self-assembled^[21]
• Plans for channeling lightning bolts into a pulsed laser of almost unparalleled energy and into towering sculptures that would change the bolts' color and emit incredibly loud tones
• Poetica Vaginal - a signal sent to several nearby star systems fashioned from the sound of vaginal contractions^[22]
• Malus ecclesia - encoding the English Wikipedia into the apple tree genome to create a living, literal tree of knowledge^[23]
• Swan Song - sending a radio morse code message back to 1935, via the extreme Kerr rotating black hole, Cygnus X-1, with a nod to the H.G. Wells 1937 novel, Star Begotten, whose protagonist is Joseph Davis.^{[24] [25]}

External links

• Joe Davis: Genetics and Culture
• Genesthetics - Joe Davis Bioart Archive
• 13-Jun-2001 MIT Art News
• Interview to Yiannis Melanitis

Notes and References

1. Places. 6. 42–49. Steam Heat. Joan Brigham. Summer 1990. 2010-05-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20110807093205/http://designobserver.com/media/pdf/Steam_Heat:__W_710.pdf. 2011-08-07. dead.
2. Web site: "Rubisco Stars" transmission to extraterrestrials (Centauri Dreams Blog). 18 Nov 2009 . Joe Davis.
3. Web site: ET: Check your voicemail (from MIT News). 24 Nov 2009.
4. The Brilliantly Weird World of MIT's 'Mad' Scientist. The Daily Galaxy. Oct 2008.
5. Web site: Viewing Space.
6. Web site: Artistic Molecules, Microbes, and the "Listening Microscope". "New Media" is Very Old. Joe Davis.
7. 10.2307/777811. Art Journal. 55. 1. 70–74. 1996. Joe Davis. Microvenus. 777811.
8. Web site: Bioart: An Introduction. 2015.
9. 2008-08-08 . 2008-09-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080927211140/http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_j_webarchive/davis_profile_sciam/jd.htm . Art as a form of life (profile of Joe Davis) . April 2001 . Gibbs . W. Wayt . Scientific American . 10.1038/scientificamerican0401-40 . dead. subscription .
10. Nature . Science for art's sake . October 2000 . Steve Nadis.
11. Book: Mitchell. Robert. Bioart and the Vitality of Media. 2010. University of Washington Press. Seattle.
12. Book: Reichle. Ingeborg. Art in the Age of Technoscience. Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art. 2009. Springer. Wien & New York.
13. Trends in Biotechnology. Ali K. Yetisen . Joe Davis . Ahmet F. Coskun . George M. Church . Seok Hyun Yun . Bioart. 2015. 33. 12 . 10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.09.011 . 26617334 . 724–734. 259584956 .
14. Web site: Cornell Council for the Arts Biennial, 2013. 22 February 2023 .
15. Web site: Heaven and Earth and Joe Davis. The documentary..
16. Web site: Heaven and Earth and Joe Davis. Video Excerpt. .
17. Web site: Director Peter Sasowsky.
18. Web site: Scientist? Artist. Pirate! Who Is Joe Davis?, Nova PBS. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/7GkZt00Qics . 2021-12-21 . live. .
19. News: Washington Post. Pamela Ferdinand. Art and Science: At MIT, Science Gives New Life to Art. Dec 2001.
20. Isotope: A Journal of Literary Science and Nature Writing. Emily Voigt. The Art is Alive!. Fall–Winter 2009. 2010-12-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20110212142541/http://www.emilyvoigt.com/isotope.html#content. 2011-02-12. dead.
21. Science as Art Unites Disciplines. May 9, 2000 . Zareena Hussain .
22. Web site: Marshall. Michael. Earth calling: A short history of radio messages to ET . NewScientist . . 1 September 2013.
23. Object of Interest: The Twice-Forbidden Fruit . House . Patrick . 2014-05-13 . The New Yorker . 2014-10-10.
24. Meet the man trying to send a warning about history's worst tragedies back to 1935 . Mark Hay . Mic . July 23, 2020 .
25. Web site: Летняя школа космического искусства. Summer School of Space Art with Joe Davis . . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/uAQKkIkeH_k . 2021-12-21 . live. August 10, 2020.