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  • The Artificial Natural:Manipulating Butterfly Wing Patterns for Artistic Purposes
  • Marta de Menezes, (artist) (bio)
Abstract

Recent advances in biology allow interference with normal animal development, making possible the creation of novel live organisms. The author's project explores this potential through her work in a laboratory creating live adult butterflies with wing patterns modified for artistic purposes. Although these patterns are determined by direct human intervention, they are made exclusively of normal live cells. As genes from the germ line are left untouched, the new patterns are not transmitted to the offspring. Therefore, this form of art literally lives and dies. It is simultaneously art and life.

Nature is reinvented every day in research laboratories: fruit flies (Drosophila) with limbs in place of antennae [1]; worms (Caernorrabditis elegans) with twice their normal life span [2]; chickens with extra wings or legs [3]; and thousands of mice with different genes added or deleted, thus resulting in simulated human diseases, fluorescent green coloring or sometimes no apparent changes [4],[5]. These kinds of experiments have been crucial for a better understanding of what we are. Cloning, transgenesis and genomics are a few examples of the most recent fears and hopes of our society. We are entering a time when humankind has achieved the ability to directly re-create life.

Recent advances in developmental biology allow interference with normal developmental processes, thus making possible the creation of novel live organisms [6]. In order to understand how these mechanisms operate, it is common in scientific laboratories to generate animals with characteristics never before seen in nature. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to modify the genes of an organism in order to change its phenotype (i.e. its appearance). It is possible to achieve a change in the phenotype either by external interference with cell communication or by changing the levels of certain proteins. In such cases the new phenotype is not transmitted to the offspring, because the information of the gametes is left unchanged.

In 1998 I discovered that a laboratory in the University of Leiden was doing interesting work with butterflies. This was the Section of Evolutionary Biology of the Institute for Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, directed by Paul Brakefield. This group studies the evolution and development of butterfly-wing patterns and has tried to address two major questions: how is the wing pattern formed during butterfly development, and what is the evolutionary significance of developmental variation in this process? In order to identify the factors that affect how the wing pattern is formed, the researchers interfere with the normal development of the wing. As a consequence, they have found ways to modify the wing pattern without changing the genes passed on to succeeding generations through the egg or sperm cells. The resulting butterflies display wing patterns never before seen in nature.

In my project NATURE?, I explore this potential in order to create adult live butterflies with wing patterns modified for artistic purposes. Although the patterns are artificially determined, they are made from normal live cells—an example of something natural that at the same time results from human intervention (Fig. 1).

It has also been my intention to demonstrate that interactions between artists and scientists can be fruitful for all parties involved. As a consequence, I wanted to work alongside scientists in a research laboratory, sharing their routine. I believe science and art are not two separate cultures and that both artists and scientists can profit from collaborative work.

The main objective of my project was to achieve wing patterns never seen before in nature, but made of normal cells and tissues in live, healthy butterflies.

I used two different butterfly species: Bicyclus anynana and Heliconius melpomene. Bicyclus butterflies are from Africa. All the individuals of this genus have similar wings, with brown backgrounds and prominent eyespots. Heliconius butterflies


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Fig. 1.

Adult Heliconius melpomene butterfly, with modified wing patterns.

© Marta de Menezes

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Fig. 2.

Bicyclus anynana butterfly with a modification on the right wing. The inset shows a close-up of the modification. The effect was achieved by applying multiple...

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