SymbioticA Center for Excellence in the Biological Arts

The SymbioticA Center for Excellence in the Biological Arts (website) , is the first artist studio cum laboratory of its kind in the world, physically located in a science department at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

Cofounded in 2000 by a cell biologist, a neuroscientist, and an artist, its fundamental aim is to provide opportunities for artists and scientists to collaborate in the wet practices of the biological sciences. SymbioticA enables "researchers to pursue curiosity-based explorations free of the demands and constraints associated with the current culture of scientific research while still complying with regulations."

SymbioticA also offers a new means of artistic inquiry, one in which artists actively use the tools and technologies of science, not just to comment about them, but also to explore their possibilities. The group offers residencies, runs seminars, workshops, exhibitions, and symposia on the relationship between the arts and a range of research areas such as neuroscience, plant biology, anatomy and human biology, tissue engineering, physics, bioengineering, museology, anthropology, molecular biology, microscopy, animal welfare, and ethics.

SymbioticA has also set itself the task of teaching students about the nature of collaboration at the undergraduate and graduate level and of inspiring similar forms of cooperation through a series of international workshops.