Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond (Leonardo Books)

433 Pages·2006·4.35 MB·English

by  Eduardo Kac

Signs Of Life
Bio Art and Beyond
Leonardo
RogerF.Malina,ExecutiveEditor
SeanCubitt,Editor-in-Chief
TheVisualMind,editedbyMicheleEmmer,1993
LeonardoAlmanac,editedbyCraigHarris,1994
DesigningInformationTechnology,RichardCoyne,1995
Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments, edited by Mary Anne Moser with Douglas
MacLeod,1996
Technoromanticism:DigitalNarrative,Holism,andtheRomanceoftheReal,RichardCoyne,1999
ArtandInnovation:TheXeroxPARCArtist-in-ResidenceProgram,editedbyCraigHarris,1999
TheDigitalDialectic:NewEssaysonNewMedia,editedbyPeterLunenfeld,1999
TheRobotintheGarden:TeleroboticsandTelepistemologyintheAgeoftheInternet,editedbyKenGold-
berg,2000
TheLanguageofNewMedia,LevManovich,2001
MetalandFlesh:TheEvolutionofMan:TechnologyTakesOver,OllivierDyens,2001
UncannyNetworks:DialogueswiththeVirtualIntelligentsia,GeertLovink,2002
InformationArts:IntersectionsofArt,Science,andTechnology,StephenWilson,2002
VirtualArt:FromIllusiontoImmersion,OliverGrau,2003
Women,Art,andTechnology,editedbyJudyMalloy,2003
Protocol:HowControlExistsafterDecentralization,AlexanderR.Galloway,2004
At aDistance: Precursors to Art and Activism onthe Internet, editedbyAnnmarie Chandler andNorie
Neumark,2005
TheVisualMindII,editedbyMicheleEmmer,2005
CODE:CollaborativeOwnershipandtheDigitalEconomy,editedbyRishabAiyerGhosh,2005
TheGlobalGenome:Biotechnology,Politics,andCulture,EugeneThacker,2005
MediaEcologies:MaterialistEnergiesinArtandTechnoculture,MatthewFuller,2005
New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories, edited by Adalaide Morris and Thomas Swiss,
2006
AestheticComputing,editedbyPaulA.Fishwick,2006
DigitalPerformance:AHistoryofNewMediainTheater,Dance,PerformanceArt,andInstallation,Steve
Dixon,2006
MediaArtHistories,editedbyOliverGrau,2006
FromTechnologicaltoVirtualArt,FrankPopper,2007
META/DATA:ADigitalPoetics,MarkAmerika,2007
SignsofLife:BioArtandBeyond,editedbyEduardoKac,2007
Signs Of Life
Bio Art and Beyond
Eduardo Kac, editor
TheMITPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
(2007MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthis bookmaybereproducedinanyformbyanyelectronicorme-
chanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without
permissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional
use.Forinformation,[e-mail]Depart-
ment,TheMITPress,55HaywardStreet,Cambridge,MA02142.
ThisbookwassetinGaramond3andBellGothicon3B2byAscoTypesetters,HongKong,and
wasprintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Signsoflife:bioartandbeyond/EduardoKac,editor.
p. cm.—(Leonardo)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-262-11293-2(hardcover:alk.paper)
1.Biotechnologyinart. 2.Artandscience. 3.Art—Moralandethicalaspects. 4.Science—
Moralandethicalaspects. I.Kac,Eduardo.
N72.B56S54 2007
7000.105—dc22 2006035537
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
SeriesForeword ix
AcknowledgmentsandCredits
xi
Introduction
ArtthatLooksYouintheEye:Hybrids,Clones,Mutants,Synthetics,and
Transgenics 1
EduardoKac
I BiotechCulture 29
1 OpenSourceDNAandBioinformaticBodies 31
EugeneThacker
2 OrnamentalBiotechnologyandParergonalAesthetics 43
GunalanNadarajan
3 EmbodyingtheChimera:BiotechnologyandSubjectivity 57
BernardAndrieu
4 TheTransgenicInvolution 69
RichardDoyle
5 LifeArt 83
LouisBec
II Bioethics 93
6 BioethicsandthePosthumanistImperative 95
CaryWolfe
7 BloodandBioethicsintheBiotechnologyAge 115
DorothyNelkin
8 ArtasaPublicPolicyMedium 125
LoriB.Andrews
9 LiberatingLifefromItself:BioethicsandAestheticsofAnimality 151
DominiqueLestel
III BioArt 161
10 LifeTransformation—ArtMutation 163
EduardoKac
11 WhyIBreedPlants 185
GeorgeGessert
12 ChlorophyllApparitions 199
HeatherAckroydandDanHarvey
13 GoodandEvilontheLongVoyage 211
PaulPerry
14 Art:invivoandinvitro 215
MartadeMenezes
15 Semi-LivingArt 231
OronCattsandIonatZurr
16 CasesforGeneticArt 249
JoeDavis
17 VivoArts 267
AdamZaretsky
18 TheRelativeVelocityInscriptionDevice 277
PaulVanouse
19 Proteins 285
ReginaTrindade
20 SkinCulture 291
Object-OrientedArt(MarionLaval-JeantetandBenoˆıtMangin)
21 REPRODUCTION 295
davidkremers
22 OneTree 301
NatalieJeremijenko
Contents
vi
23 TheArtofUnnaturalSelection 303
BrandonBalleng´ee
24 GenomicPortrait 309
MarcQuinn
IV BiologyandArtHistory 313
25 TheOriginsofLa´szlo´Moholy-Nagy’sBiocentricConstructivism 315
OliverA.I.Botar
26 TheGrowthofMicroorganismsonPaper 345
AlexanderFleming
27 EdwardSteichen’s1936ExhibitionofDelphiniumBlooms:AnArtofFlower
Breeding 347
RonaldJ.Gedrim
28 OnScience 371
Vil´emFlusser
29 FromGeneticPerspectivetoBiohistory:TheAmbiguitiesofLookingDown,
Across,andBeyond 373
BarbaraMariaStafford
30 ArtandBiotechnology 387
YvesMichaud
Contributors 395
Index 401
Contents
vii

Series Foreword
Thearts,science,andtechnologyareexperiencingaperiodofprofoundchange.Explosive
challenges to the institutions and practices of engineering, art making, and scientific re-
search raise urgent questions of ethics, craft, and care for the planet and its inhabitants.
Unforeseen forms of beauty and understanding are possible, but so too are unexpected
risks and threats. A newly global connectivity creates new arenas for interaction between
science, art, and technology but also creates the preconditions for global crises. The
Leonardo Book series, published by the MIT Press, aims to consider these opportunities,
changes, and challenges in books thatare both timely and of enduring value.
Leonardo books provide a public forum for research and debate; they contribute to the
archive of art-science-technology interactions; they contribute to understandings of emer-
gent historical processes; and they point toward future practices in creativity, research,
scholarship, and enterprise.
To find more information about Leonardo/ISAST and to order our publications, go to
Leonardo Online at hhttp://lbs.mit.edu/i or e-mail [email protected].
Sean Cubitt
Editor-in-Chief, Leonardo Book series
Leonardo Book Series Advisory Committee: Sean Cubitt, Chair; Michael Punt; Eugene
Thacker; Anna Munster; Laura Marks; Sundar Sarrukai; Annick Bureaud
Doug Sery, Acquiring Editor
Joel Slayton, Editorial Consultant