This article introduces the art/science/transmedia project Molding the Signifier and maps out its wider cultural and societal connotations, reach and significance, with specific reference to its staging within the Trust Me, I’m an Artist event (an EU Creative Europe-funded project) that took place in Prague in 2015. As the work itself strives to artistically bridge and synthesize recent—in the opinion of the authoring artist group—existentially highly relevant results in science, so the article provides an overview and synthesis of their art/science fusion approach and methods.

In this curatorial consideration, the author reveals factors that most essentially influenced the decision to present Ivor Diosi’s artwork Molding the Signifier , as part of the Trust Me, I’m an Artist EU project event in Prague (16–19 November 2015). It questions the notion of AI as it currently exists, suggesting that the ideas of “artificial,” “independent” or “higher” intelligence and existence are all too human (and from that point of view therefore dangerous). As curator of the event, the author argues that Molding the Signifier , although it does not confront existing legislation, does question the ethical core of the essential latent purposes of biotechnologies as a means of human creativity.

This article presents the artwork Heirloom created by artist Gina Czarnecki and scientist John Hunt. Heirloom grows living portraits of Gina Czarnecki’s daughters from their own cells cultured from buccal swabs. The resulting artwork is an ongoing exploration in “culture,” “nurture” and “media” from the scientific, parental and artistic perspectives. The experiment is ongoing as new methods for sustaining life outside the lab have been developed for this work, potentially facilitating future DIY biotechnology for others and helping with maxillofacial reconstruction in the future. Heirloom has been presented within Trust Me, I’m an Artist , an EU Creative Europe supported project.

In Heirloom , artist Gina Czarnecki and scientist John Hunt grow portraits of the artist’s daughters from the daughters’ own cells onto glass casts of their faces. This required the development of novel scientific techniques to allow the growth of human cells in a gallery. Heirloom was exhibited at Medical Museion as a part of the EU Creative Europe project Trust Me, I’m an Artist . Here, the authors discuss three key issues raised by the artwork and its curation; (1) consent and ownership with regard to bodily materials, (2) biological portraiture and identity, and (3) DIY and depicting the future.