This graduate course explores art and design through the lens of the history of life sciences. We will examine East Asian art and design history by connecting them to various themes, such as the development of natural history, natural selection, genetics, alternative evolutionary theories, and ecology. While closely looking at the material details and processes of the objects, we will read primary sources on art and design theories, aesthetics, and traditional East Asian philosophical and religious concepts of life, alongside contemporary frameworks like New Materialism. We will investigate questions about what artists, designers, and thinkers from East Asia meant by “life,” and how designs and organicism have influenced each other within this non-Western context. Case studies will cover topics such as regenerative architecture, ornamentation and evolution, wartime design and eugenics, Buddhist art and texts of healing, animation of the inorganic materials, and bio-art and design. No prior knowledge of East Asia is required.