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BioArt is a new discipline where artists employ materials and techniques of modern life sciences and create novel meanings of biology, often involving living organisms such as tissue culture, bacteria and yeasts, which may also be genetically engineered. The authors have engaged in a collaboration to develop ‘Fermenting Futures’, a project designed to explore the significance of yeast for early human history by enabling baking and brewing, all the way to industrial biotechnology and synthetic biology with their potential contributions to fight the climate change. Research in two of the authors’ lab provides the materials and thematic lines for the artists to develop their installations. The two main pieces reflect on fermentation as a metabolic trait of baker's yeast and its enormous transformational power for human society, and on the application of synthetic biology to enable yeast to grow and produce materials from carbon dioxide. The role of BioArt to support public engagement and science dissemination is discussed, highlighting the importance of collaborations of scientists and artists on equal terms, as showcased here.

This extended abstract introduces "ArchaeaBot: A Post Singularity and Post Climate Change Life-form" an underwater biomimetic robotic artwork that explores what 'life' might mean in a post singularity, post climate change future, by artists Anna Dumitriu and Alex May. The project is based on new research about archaea (a group of unicellular micro-organisms believed to be the oldest form of life on earth adapted to life in extreme conditions) combined with robotics, 3D modelling and printing, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The artwork embodies a speculative future life-form which suggests what might be the 'ultimate' species for the end of the world. The robotic installation has become a means of reflection on both the development of new technologies and the impact of climate change for significant artistic audiences around the world.