Joe Davis, a one-legged motorcycle mechanic and sculptor from Mississippi, arrived at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology one day in 1982, determined to talk about sending art into outer space. As Davis tells it, he badgered his way into a scientist's office by throwing papers around on a secretary's desk. She called the police. And yet less than an hour later, Davis had been offered a position at MIT, he says. Today, he remains at the university as a "research affiliate," making art infused with genetics, biotechnology, and ingenious gizmology.

What does that mean? Davis is a founding father of bioart, a motley young field that has sprung up as artists respond to DNA technology, tissue engineering, and other high-tech wizardry. Sometimes, the idea is to experiment with new techniques and procedures. And by throwing open the laboratory, artists also try to raise pointed questions about the culture and ethics of biotech. This can make both for some dreary work and some great surprises.

Davis' subversive streak isn't directed at ethical debate and doesn't treat science as the enemy. Instead, his work revels in technical virtuosity, inventing a ribald wonderland somewhere in the gray zone between science and, well, something else.