Biophilosophy – in contrast to the philosophy of biology – does not focus on the philosophical principles of biosciences, or on the essence and basic criteria of life. Instead, biophilosophy asks about relations and potentials carried by life: about that which takes life beyond itself, with both its onto-epistemological and ethical implications. Bioart is a current in contemporary art which involves the use of biological materials (cells, tissues, organisms) along with scientific procedures, protocols, and tools.

While looking at select artworks, this paper argues that thinking with and through the hybrid artistico-scientific practices of bioart is a biophilosophical, material-discursive strategy that exposes the ways in which bioartworks explore and enact life as processual, multiplicitous, and characterised by a potential for excess. Thus, it mobilises a transdisciplinary mode of attending to changing human/nonhuman ecologies and imagining possible futures.