Genesis

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By Michael Roberts

Eduardo kac is an American new media artist recognized for his interactive net installations and his bio-art. Kac was born in 1962 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He lives and works in Chicago. In 1997 Kac was the first person to have a microchip implanted in his body. He did this in the context of his work "Time Capsule", as a form of social commentary, and makes the viewer/listen to think deeply about the relationship we hold with technology. He put the microchip in the lower part of his leg, in his ankle. He mentioned that the reason he chose this spot on his body was that it was where slaves were often branded. The work he had on exhibit was entitled Teleporting an Unknown State, a piece in which Kac enables a plant in a dark room to grow with light sent around the world by the Internet interacting with a remote.

In 1999 Eduardo kac created this new media art which involves biomedical research with transforming the use of test animals. It involves genetic modification, cloning, and breeding of animals for specific use in testing. “It can involve the production of specific cell matter though breeding and DNA recombination, so future tests can be conducted on cells alone without a living host. Transgenecists often computer clone the cells and conduct their research though electronic simulation, so that researchers in labs around the world can be involved in team experiments taking place in real-time” (Wikipedia). To create the art work he translated a sentence from the bible 1:26 (Genesis) “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.” he then translated the quote into Morse code. From there Eduardo kac converted the code into DNA, then he based pairs according to a conversion principle he specially made for the work. He then implanted the resulting “artist’s gene” into an unspecified bacteria, placed it in a Petri dish and allowed online viewers to activate the piece f art through the use of ultraviolet light, this caused biological mutations in the bacteria. This action changed the biblical sentence in the bacteria as well, leading Kac to declare on his web site: ‘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.’ I liked this new media art work a lot as it made me open my mind and realise that I am in control of myself, and how much power I could potentially have to influence others This piece of art brought me to the conclusion of the idea of playing god. Do you want to play God? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Kac http://www.genetologisch-onderzoek.nl/index.php/category/beeldende-kunst/page/6/