[spectre] EDUARDO KAC: ART & BIOTECHNOLOGY LECTURE

[EAF Director]

EDUARDO KAC
ART & BIOTECHNOLOGY
Public Lecture

Thursday 19 May
6pm - 7.30pm
VENUE: Mercury Cinema
Lion Arts Centre, North Terrace at Morphett Street, Adelaide, South Australia *
*Admission free *
*

The Experimental Art Foundation Adelaide takes great pleasure in 
inviting you to attend a public lecture by world renowned bio-tech 
artist Eduardo Kac. During the lecture the artist will discuss the 
complex and fascinating relationship between biology and art in the 
larger context of related social, political, and ethical issues.

Since the early 1960s the social impact of computer technology has 
been a dominant issue and since the early 1980s the digital 
revolution has been provoking profound changes in the way we live. 
The field of biological studies is changing from what was once called 
a 'life science' into an 'information science'. Biotechnologies are 
transforming forever how society approaches the notion of "life." 
Many contemporary artists have been responding to this change and are 
working with transgenics, interspecies communication, cloning, tissue 
culture and hybridisation techniques to redefine the boundaries 
between the artwork and living organisms.

In 2000 Eduardo Kac announced his plans to engineer a fluorescant 
green creature by combining the DNA of a phosphorescent jellyfish 
with that of a rabbit. In collaboration with some French genticists 
he did just that, and Alba was born. She looked pretty normal except 
her fur glowed green when exposed to ultra-violet light. Her 
appearance caused such a moral outcry amongst scientists and animal 
liberationists that the French government impounded Alba at the 
Institute where she was initially designed. Kac instigates custody 
proceedings and Alba becomes an iconic figure in the bio-tech art 
debates around what constitutes art, biology, life, death.

So, from Alba, the GFP Bunny (green fluorescent protein) to the 
manipulation of synthetic DNA in *Genesis*, and *The Eighth Day* 
Kac's works reference the creation stories that underpin much of the 
Western philosophical trajectory. In this way the artist underscores 
many of the fundamental belief structures that are being ethically 
complicated by the rapid incorporation of biotechnologies into the 
experiences and understandings of life and death. Kac says of his 
transgenic art; "This is a new art form based on the use of genetic 
engineering to transfer natural or synthetic genes to an organism, to 
create unique living beings. This must be done with great care, with 
acknowledgment of the complex issues thus raised and, above all, with 
a commitment to respect, nurture, and love the life thus created. 
This integrated process is important because it places genetic 
engineering in a social context in which the relationship between the 
private and the public spheres are negotiated. In other words, 
biotechnology, the private realm of family life, and the social 
domain of public opinion are discussed in relation to one another." 
"GFP Bunny" http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html

Eduardo Kac is in Adelaide as a guest of the EAF from 16 - 23 May. 
During this time he will lead a series of workshops. Participants 
from around Australia will discuss and critique the ideology of 
biology; consciousness in non-human animals and plants; art ecology 
and genetics.

for more info see http://eaf.asn.au/ex05.html#may
Kac web http://www.ekac.org

Eduardo Kac's residency in Australia has been made possible with the 
assistance of the South Australian Government through Arts SA's 
Artist in Residence Program.
Artist Creates Life!

-- 
EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION curates its exhibition program to 
represent new work that expands current debates and ideas in 
contemporary visual art. The EAF incorporates a gallery space, 
bookshop and artists studios.

Lion Arts Centre North Terrace at Morphett Street Adelaide
PO Box 8091 Station Arcade South Australia 5000
Tel: +618 8211 7505  Fax +618 8211 7323
email: eaf at eaf.asn.au  bookshop email: eafbooks at eaf.asn.au web: 
http://www.eaf.asn.au
Director: Melentie Pandilovski  Administrator: Julie Lawton
Program Manager: Michael Grimm Bookshop Manager: Ken Bolton

The Experimental Art Foundation is assisted by the Commonwealth 
Government through the Australia Council, it arts funding and 
advisory body, by the South Australian Government through Arts SA, 
and through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the 
Australian, State and Territory Governments. The EAF is proudly 
smoke-free.