Many artists use a palette of colors to create a picture on canvas, but artist Eduardo Kac uses genetic code and cutting-edge technology to push art to new horizons. His most widely recognized work is a rabbit named Alba that he created about four years ago, which glows fluorescent green under special light.
Kac delivered a lecture about his work in genetics and communication to students and community members at the Lillis Business Complex on Thursday.
Alba was created in a lab by inserting green fluorescent protein into a rabbit zygote. He described the rabbit as “a materialization of fantasy.” Kac, the chairman of the University of Chicago Art and Technology program, intended on adopting the rabbit into his own home after it spent a short time at the lab. His effort was blocked, and the rabbit is still living at the lab. He responded by creating a “Free Alba” campaign complete with a flag picturing his exiled glowing-green pet on a white background.
Kac’s transgenic art has created controversy with people who question the ethics of manipulating genetic material. Concerns about human intervention in genetics were also raised at the lecture by audience members.
University student Amjad Faur asked Kac whether he would turn his child green. Kac responded by saying that he is not having a child.
“That decision determined that animal’s fate,” Faur said, referring to Alba. “If he feels like he has done something to better the world, God bless him.”
Kac responded to concerns about the ethics of genetic manipulation by saying that it is not done only by humans but also by other organisms in nature. He said that humans themselves have been subject to genetic manipulation carried out by viruses that insert their own strains into DNA.
“We have always been transgenic and did not know,” Kac said. “It is a process that happens in the wild.”
Kac has also created displays that break down the traditional roles of the observer and the object. He created an aviary where the observer is transported by a virtual reality headset into the viewpoint of a robotic parrot inside the aviary.
“I’m using a technology … to show that things could be different,” Kac said. “(Technology is) at the service of imagination.”