::fc-announce:: NEW Eduardo Kac Lecture Time

[Teri Hoskin]

(Apologies for cross posting)

Eduardo Kac lecture time for Thursday 19th May is 6pm - 7.30pm

NOT 6.30 - 7pm as stated on the flyer





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.

------------

EXPERIMENTAL ART FOUNDATION
Lion Arts Centre, cnr North Terrace and Morphett Street Adelaide
PO Box 8091 Station Arcade South Australia 5000 Telephone +61 (0)8 8211 
7505 Fax 8211 7323
Website http://www.eaf.asn.au Gallery and Bookshop hours: Tues-Fri 11-5, 
Sat 2-5

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