Posted by Steve Dietz on November 3, 2005 11:01 PM
Eduardo Kac
University of Minnesota
November 3, 2005
We are all transgenic
I heard Eduardo Kac speak last night at the University of Minnesota. I was hoping he would talk about his new commissioned work, but it was a typical artist overview - and typically clear and thoughtful for Kac.
Kac talked about his desire and focus in the 80s and 90s to move from the traditional subject - object relationship of a viewer to an painting or sculpture to a subject - subject relationship, which he refers to as intersubjectivity or dialogical artmaking. When talking about his transgenic work, particularly Genesis and GFP Bunny, he referred to a new artmaking role, the creation of a subject. In a sense, the subject as object, although he didn't say that.
Kac also said that on a panel with some human genome scientists, he found out that part of the human genome is composed of bacteria and viruses - non-human life forms - hence, "we have always been transgenic." What's the big deal?
I heard