Emergence
Exhibition Catalog
Price: $175
Genres: Art, Science
Target audience: Scholars, professionals, and others interested in the intersection of art and science
ISBN: 979-8-218-79988-5
Format: 10 paperback volumes in a hardback slipcase
Binding: Perfect-bound
Production: Risograph and digital printing
Finishing: Screen-printed slipcase
Dimensions: 8 × 10 × 2.5 in.; Weight: 5 lbs.
Pages: 440; Print run: 250
Publication date: March 28, 2026
ABOUT THE CATALOG
The Emergence catalog is a self-published ten-volume collection based on the exhibition Emergence, which was on view at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in Los Angeles as part of Getty’s 2024 PST ART: Art & Science Collide. Approaching synthetic biology through an artistic lens, Emergence unsettled understandings of life, consciousness, and the boundary between natural and synthetic. It was unique among PST ART exhibitions in presenting living biological artworks and projects created by or in collaboration with synthetic biologists and medical researchers.
The catalog is edited by Dr. Yewande Pearse, director of science editorial and content for Emergence, and Stacy Switzer, curator and executive director of Fathomers. It consists of one volume for each of the nine projects in the show, and a tenth volume that connects threads from across the exhibition, with essays by Pearse and Switzer as well as Claire L. Evans, Hideo Iwasaki, Dan Samorodnitsky, and others. Comprising photographs, essays, interviews, poetry, peer-reviewed research papers, and a range of other media, the volumes not only serve as archives of the individual projects but also provide a more expansive exploration of the ideas that inspired them. The catalog was designed by Stephanie Lane Gage and Zhen Lu of Saturated Grey, with digital printing by El Sereno Graphics and risograph printing by Martian Press, all in Los Angeles.
Projects FEATURED
Connective Tissue
MultiPlanetary Garden
AfroRithm Futures Group: Ahmed Best, Dr. Lonny J. Avi Brooks, and Jade Fabello, in collaboration with Dr. Drew Endy, Jesse Gilbert, Raquel Horsford, Malaya, and Oguri
Crying Organoids
Dr. Marie Bannier Hélaouët, Organoid Group, Hubrecht Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Oncode Institute, The Netherlands; and Dr. Albert Wu, Ophthalmic Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Stanford University
IndiGROW
Dr. Callie R. Chappell and Dr. Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong
of kin and bone
Michael Jones McKean, with assistance from Dr. Stephen Fong, Professor of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
Apoptotic Bodies
Eduardo Padilha
CyberBiome and MicroPET Prototype
Dr. Pat Pataranutaporn
Floating Future Gardens
Corinne Okada Takara
Pillars of Creation
Henry Tan, Masato Takemura, and collaborators
The Use of Life (in Relation to the Industry of Men)
Tissue Culture & Art Project: Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr
EXCERPTS
“The works in Emergence caution me toward the truth that a just future is not the inevitable outcome of technological progress but the result of deliberate choices we must make about how we relate to life itself, both human and nonhuman.”
“The hope-filled promise of understanding the world as made and not found, as constructed in practice rather than given and fixed, is that we can make it differently.”
“Western science often adopts a reductionist approach, isolating elements to understand how they work. But once you put things back into context, their behavior changes. We can’t disconnect things from their environments and relationships.”
