Critical Biology

Biotechnology is the most consequential technology of the century, and almost no one outside a corporation or a university is permitted to touch it. We exist to break that enclosure.

Critical Biology is one of the few places in the world where anyone can work with the real tools from genetic engineering to tissue culture. We are here to take a position on what is being done with life: a way to make public the questions industry won’t ask, academia can’t, and school doesn’t. Bioart, biomaterials, biofabrication, speculative design, and all other critical approaches to life are welcome.

Alongside our own research, we run workshops, lectures, salons, and open collaborations for anyone willing to engage critically with biology. We approach living systems as collaborators, not commodities. Here, biosafety, ethical practice, and creative rigor are inseparable.

Started in September 2024 as Art Bio Lab Seoul, the space now goes by Critical Biology and is situated in the heart of Yaksu, Seoul.