Eduardo Kac : Telepresence, Biotelematics, Transgenic Art - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 961630402X ISBN 13: 9789616304023

Publisher: KIBLA, Maribor, 2000

Synopsis

The essays in this book--some published here for the first time--discuss Eduardo Kac's work from telepresence to transgenic art. The book includes texts by Annick Bureaud, Edward A. Shanken, Christiane Paul, Aleksandra Kostic, Suzana Milevska, Machiko Kusahara, Gerfried Stocker, Steve Tomasula, and Eduardo Kac. Foreword by Peter Tomaz Dobrila. The book includes 100 color images of Kac's work, including the transgenic artworks "Genesis" (1999) and "GFP Bunny" (2000).

About this title

About the Author

Eduardo Kac is an artist and writer who investigates the philosophical and political dimensions of communication processes. Equally concerned with the aesthetic and the social aspects of verbal and non-verbal interaction, in his work Kac examines linguistic systems, dialogic exchanges, and interspecies communication. Kac's pieces, which often link virtual and physical spaces, propose alternative ways of understanding the role of communication phenomena in shaping consensual realities.

Internationally known in the '80s as a pioneer of Holopoetry and Telepresence Art, in the '90s Kac created the new categories of Biotelematics (art in which a biological process is intrinsically connected to digital networks) and Transgenic Art (new art form based on the use of genetic engineering techniques to create unique living beings).

Kac merges multiple media and biological processes to create hybrids from the conventional operations of existing communications systems. Kac first employed telerobotics motivated by a desire to convert electronic space from a medium of representation to a medium for remote agency. He creates pieces in which actions carried out by Internet participants have direct physical manifestation in a remote gallery space. Often relying on the indefinite suspension of closure and the intervention of the participant, his work encourages dialogical interaction and confronts complex issues concerning identity, agency, responsibility, and the very possibility of communication.

In his work Kac deals with issues that range from the mythopoetics of online experience (Uirapuru) to the cultural impact of biotechnology (Genesis); from the changing condition of memory in the digital age (Time Capsule) to distributed collective agency (Teleporting an Unknown State); from the problematic notion of the "exotic" (Rara Avis) to the creation of life and evolution (GFP Bunny).

His work has been exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and South America, in venues such as Exit Art, New York, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, InterCommunication Center (ICC), Tokyo, Saint Petersburg Biennial, Russia, Huntington Art Gallery, Austin, and Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta. Kac's works belong to the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection, Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, among others.

Kac has received numerous grants and awards for his work. In 1995 he received the prestigious Shearwater Foundation Holography Award for his body of work in the medium. In 1998 he received the Leonardo Award for Excellence, in recognition of his body of work in electronic art as well as his editorial work with the journal. In 1999, in the context of the InterCommunication Center Biennale, Tokyo, an international jury gave Kac an award for his telepresence work "Uirapuru", considered one of the best works in the show. In 2000 he received grants and awards from Langlois Foundation, Montreal; Institute for Studies in the Arts, Arizona; and Illinois Arts Council, Chicago.

Kac is a member of the editorial board of the journal Leonardo, published by MIT Press. His anthology "New Media Poetry: Poetic Innovation and New Technologies" was published in 1996 as a special issue of the journal Visible Language, of which he was a guest editor. The anthology will be published as a book in 2000 by the British publisher Intellect. Writings by Kac on electronic art as well as articles about his work have appeared in several books and periodicals in many countries, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, United Kingdom, and United States. Kac's collected writings on art will be published in 2001 by the University of Michigan Press. Two books document Kac's work with critical texts by North American, European, South American, and Japanese scholars: "Teleporting An Unknown State" (1998) and "Eduardo Kac: Telepresence, Biotelematics, Transgenic Art" (2000).

Eduardo Kac is a Ph.D. research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Interactive Arts (CAiiA) at the University of Wales, Newport, United Kingdom. He is an Assistant Professor of Art and Technology at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Eduardo Kac can be contacted at: ekac@artic.edu. Eduardo Kac is represented by Julia Friedman & Associates, Chicago.

Review

The quality of the essays is excellent. Kac's works are at once illuminating and perverse. -- Leonardo Digital Reviews, October 2001

The volume reflects on the pioneering artist's research. His most recent work was a white rabbit with a fluorescent gene. -- Daniele Perra, Tema Celeste art magazine, Milan, March-April, 2001

Edition details

• Publisher: KIBLA, Maribor
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 961630402X
• ISBN 13: 9789616304023
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 150
• Editor: Dobrila Peter Tomaz, Kostic Aleksandra