Vítor M. Nogueira

Eduardo kac

SpEculativE city: aN iNterdiscipliNarydesigN st udio

research report

GRCD 3021-005 DesiGn systems 1PRofessoR: matthew wizinsky

youth

Poesia marginal [marginal poetry] is a manifestation of (mostly) youth poetry produced in the Brazil c. 1970 - c. 1985. it appears, principally in Rio de Janeiro, during the early 1970s, in opposition to academic restrictions and against the cen sorship imposed by the Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 anti-normative intellectuals, new academics, various poets and visual artists throughout the country began to seek alternative means of cultural dissemination in the face of closed cultural opportunities. Poets notably used the mimeograph machine to print texts. this technology let to the nickname “mimeograph Generation” for the out-of-the-mainstream poets of the time.

eduardo Kac, porNograMa #1, 1981

eduardo Kac, escracho (1983)

youth

title: pictograM soNNetdescriptioN: XeroXMediuM: XeroXdate: 1982 size: height 13 iN; Width 8.5 iN/ height 33 cM; Width 21.5 cMMisc: sigNed oN loWer right cor-Ner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axvdw4WaRsI

youth

telepreseNce art

“essay Concerning human Understanding” was a live, bi-directional, interactive, telematic, interspecies sonic installation i created with ikuo nakamura between Lexington (kentucky), and new york. in this work, a canary dialogues over a regular phone line with a plant (Philodendron) 600 miles away. the piece was exhibited in the context of my show Dialogues, realized in 1994 simultaneously on the internet and in museums and galleries. “essay Concerning human Understanding” was presented publicly from october 21 to november 11, 1994, simultaneously at the Center for Contemporary art, University of kentucky, Lexington, and the science hall, in new york.

essay coNcerNiNg huMaN uNderstaNdiNg

telepreseNce art

essay coNcerNiNg huMaN uNderstaNdiNg

telepreseNce art

teleporting an Unknown state” (1994) creates the experience of the internet as a life-supporting system. in a very dark room a pedestal with earth serves as a nursery for a living plant. through a video projector suspended above and facing the pedestal, remote participants send light from the sky of remote cities via the internet, in real time, to enable this plant to photosynthesize and grow in total darkness.

eduardo kac, teleporting an Unknwon state, 1994, plant, internet, wood, webcam, video projector. edition of 2.

teleportiNg aN uNKNoWN state

telepreseNce art

teleporting an Unknown state” (1994) creates the experience of the internet as a life-supporting system. in a very dark room a pedestal with earth serves as a nursery for a living plant. through a video projector suspended above and facing the pedestal, remote participants send light from the sky of remote cities via the internet, in real time, to enable this plant to photosynthesize and grow in total darkness.

eduardo kac, teleporting an Unknwon state, 1994, plant, internet, wood, webcam, video projector. edition of 2.

teleportiNg aN uNKNoWN state

telepreseNce art

Rara avis is an interactive telepresence work in which local and remote participants experienced a large aviary with 30 birds from the point of view of a telerobotic macaw. the work premiered in the context of the exhibition “out of Bounds: new work by eight southeast artists”, curated by annette Carlozzi and Julia fenton. the exhibition was realized between June 28 and august 24, 1996, at nexus Contemporary art Center, in atlanta, and online, as part of the olympic arts festival.

rara aVis

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=1218

Bio art

“time Capsule” is a work-experience that lies somewhere between a local event-installation, a site-specific work in which the site itself is both my body and a remote database, a simulcast on tV and the web, and interactive webscanning of my body. the live component of the piece was realized on november 11, 1997, in the context of the exhibition “arte suporte Computador”, at the cultural center Casa da Rosas, in sao Paulo, Brazil. “time Capsule” was carried live on the evening newscast of the tV station Canal 21 and on tape by two other tV stations (tV manchete and tV Cultura). the webscast was transmitted by Casa das Rosas.

tiMe capsule

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=1688

Bio art

geNesis

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=2228

Genesis is a transgenic artwork that explores the intricate relationship between biology, belief systems, information technology, dialogical interaction, ethics, and the internet. the key element of the work is an “artist’s gene”, a synthetic gene that was created by kac by translating a sentence from the biblical book of Genesis into morse Code, and converting the morse Code into Dna base pairs according to a conversion principle specially developed by the artist for this work. the sentence reads: “Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” it was chosen for what it implies about the dubious notion--divinely sanctioned--of humanity’s supremacy over nature. morse code was chosen because, as the first example of the use of radiotelegraphy, it represents the dawn of the information age--the genesis of global communication. the Genesis gene was incorporated into bacteria, which were shown in the gallery. Participants on the web could turn on an ultraviolet light in the gallery, causing real, biological mutations in the bacteria. this changed the biblical sentence in the bacteria. after the show, the Dna of the bacteria was translated back into morse code, and then back into english. the mutation that took place in the Dna had changed the original sentence from the Bible. the mutated sentence was posted on the Genesis web site. in the context of the work, the ability to change the sentence is a symbolic gesture: it means that we do not accept its meaning in the form we inherited it, and that new meanings emerge as we seek to change it.

Bio art

geNesis

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=2228

Genesis is a transgenic artwork that explores the intricate relationship between biology, belief systems, information technology, dialogical interaction, ethics, and the internet. the key element of the work is an “artist’s gene”, a synthetic gene that was created by kac by translating a sentence from the biblical book of Genesis into morse Code, and converting the morse Code into Dna base pairs according to a conversion principle specially developed by the artist for this work. the sentence reads: “Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” it was chosen for what it implies about the dubious notion--divinely sanctioned--of humanity’s supremacy over nature. morse code was chosen because, as the first example of the use of radiotelegraphy, it represents the dawn of the information age--the genesis of global communication. the Genesis gene was incorporated into bacteria, which were shown in the gallery. Participants on the web could turn on an ultraviolet light in the gallery, causing real, biological mutations in the bacteria. this changed the biblical sentence in the bacteria. after the show, the Dna of the bacteria was translated back into morse code, and then back into english. the mutation that took place in the Dna had changed the original sentence from the Bible. the mutated sentence was posted on the Genesis web site. in the context of the work, the ability to change the sentence is a symbolic gesture: it means that we do not accept its meaning in the form we inherited it, and that new meanings emerge as we seek to change it.

Bio art

gFp BuNNy

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=2495

alba’ is a transgenic albino rabbit: she contains a jellyfish gene that makes her glow green when illuminated with the correct light. alba was created by french scientists who injected green fluorescent protein (GfP) of a Pacific northwest jellyfish into the fertilized egg of an albino rabbit.

Bio art

the eight day

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=2760

“the eighth Day” is a transgenic artwork that investigates the new ecology of fluorescent creatures that is evolving worldwide. the artist developed this work between 2000 and 2001 at the institute for studies in the arts, arizona state University, tempe. while fluorescent creatures are being developed in isolation in laboratories, seen collectively they form the nucleus of a new and emerging synthetic bioluminescent system. the piece brings together living transgenic life forms and a biological robot (biobot) in an environment housed under a clear 4 foot diameter Plexiglas dome, thus making visible what it would be like if these creatures would in fact coexist in the world at large.

Bio art

Natural history oF the eNigMa

https://youtu.be/3LsJVD0m1mg?t=2857

the central work in the “natural history of the enigma” series is a plantimal, a new life form that eduardo kac created called “edunia”, a genetically engineered flower that is a hybrid of kac and a Petunia. the edunia his Dna exclusively in its red veins.

Developed between 2003 and 2008, and first exhibited from april 17 to June 21, 2009 at the weisman art museum, in minneapolis, “natural history of the enigma” also encompasses a large-scale public sculpture, a print suite, photographs, and other works.

the new flower is a Petunia strain that eduardo invented and produced through molecular biology. it is not found in nature. the edunia has red veins on light pink petals and a gene of mine is expressed on every cell of its red veins. the gene was isolated and sequenced from his blood. the petal pink background, against which the red veins are seen, is evocative of his own pinkish white skin tone. the result of this molecular manipulation is a bloom that creates the living image of human blood rushing through the veins of a flower.

the genetic modification of plants might be answer to potential food shortages in the future? is it a sensitive thing to do ?

does his art raise the question of whether or not the transgenic adventures should be pursued? or does it just advertise them as a cool idea?

QuestioNs

do you art can be as innovative as other sectors?

QuestioNs

What implications do you imagine for a world that art could truly create biological life?

QuestioNs

CentaURess–Bronze-71cm h