Tissue Engineering for Art, Design, and Other Cultural Artifacts

Tissue engineering has been developed for non-medical purposes since the mid-1990s. It may have initially been conceived as a biomedical field of research in which applications were developed with the aim of growing/constructing/regenerating new organs to improve human health. However, the idea of using tissue-engineering techniques as a medium for artistic expression and design emerged as early as 1996, and since then they have evolved into a growing discipline for artists, designers, architects research centres and studios, and start-up companies. The use of tissue engineering for artistic expressions and designed consumer products that exist outside of the biomedical realm raise a number of cultural, philosophical, and ethical issues.