LIFESCIENCE: First Statement Eduardo Kac

[lifescience-owner@aec.at]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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Ars Electronica 99
Festival for Art, Technology and Society
LifeScience
September 4-9, 1999


Prof. Eduardo Kac


Statement: 
Net Symposium LifeScience

Since the early 1960s we have been discussing the social impact of computer 
technology and since the early 1980s we have been living the digital 
revolution. Now, as we move into the twenty-first century, we realize the 
importance of biological processes for both art and technology. The field of 
biological studies is changing from a life science into an information science.
Biosemiotics, for example, is an interdisciplinary science that studies 
communication and signification in living systems. Biotechnologies are 
introducing complex ethical issues, such as the patenting and sale of genes 
from foreign peoples. Genetic engineering is transforming forever how society 
approaches the notion of "life.

A few contemporary artists have been responding to this change and are already 
working with modified bacteria, interspecies communication, and hybridization 
techniques to redefine the boundaries between the artwork and living organisms.
As genetic engineering continues to be developed in the safe harbor of 
scientific rationalism, nourished by global capital, it unfortunately remains 
partially sheltered from social issues, ethical parameters, and historical 
context.

The patenting of new animals created in the lab and of genes of foreign peoples
are particularly complex topics -- a situation often aggravated, in the human 
case, by the lack of consent, equal benefit, or even understanding of the
processes of appropriation, patent, and profit on the part of the donor. Since
1980 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) granted several transgenic 
animal patents, including five patents for transgenic mice, one patent for a
transgenic rabbit, and three patents covering all transgenic nonhuman animals. 

Recently the debate over animal patents has broadened to encompass patents on 
genetically engineered human cell lines and synthetic constructs (e.g., 
"plasmids") incorporating human genes. The use of genetics in art offers a 
reflection on these new developments from a social and ethical point of view. 
It foregrounds related relevant issues such as the domestic and social 
integration of transgenic animals, arbitrary delineation of the concept of 
"normalcy" through genetic testing, enhancement and therapy, and the serious 
dangers of eugenics. The use of genetics in art also opens up a whole new 
world of possibilities to artists committed to the investigation of the 
cultural impact of new technologies. 

Transgenic art, I propose, is a new art 
form based on the use of genetic engineering techniques to transfer synthetic 
genes to an organism or to transfer natural genetic material from one species 
into another, to create unique living beings. Molecular genetics allows the 
artist to engineer the plant and animal genome and create new life forms. 
The nature of this new art is defined not only by the birth and growth of a 
new plant or animal but above all by the nature of the relationship between 
artist, public, and transgenic organism. Transgenic artworks can be taken 
home by the public to be grown in the backyard or raised as human companions. 
With at least one endangered species becoming extinct every day, I suggest 
that artists can contribute to increase global biodiversity by inventing new 
life forms. There is no transgenic art without a firm commitment to and 
responsibility for the new life form thus created. Ethical concerns are 
paramount in any artwork, and they become more crucial than ever in the 
context of biological art, when a real living being is the artwork itself. 
>From the perspective of interspecies communication, transgenic art calls for a 
dialogical relationship between artist, creature/artwork, and those who come 
in contact with it. 

As we try to negotiate current disputes, it is clear that
transgenesis will be an integral part of our existence in the future. 
Transgenic crops will be a predominant part of the landscape. Transgenic 
animals will populate the farm and will become part of our expanded family. 
For better or worse, vegetables and animals we eat will never be the same. 
Genetically altered soybeans, potatoes, corn, squash, and cotton have been 
widely planted since 1995. Current development of "plantibodies," i.e., human 
genes transplanted into corn, soy, tobacco, and other plants to produce acres 
of pharmaceutical-quality antibodies, promises cheap and abundant much needed 
proteins. While in many cases research and marketing strategies place profit 
above health, in others biotechnology seems to offer real promises of healing 
in areas presently difficult to treat effectively. 

The Ars Electronica network debate will discuss the complex and fascinating 
relationship between biology and art in the larger context of related social, 
political, and ethical issues. 
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