Italian version
. bookThe Eighth Day: The Transgenic Art of Eduardo Kac
<book> Arizona State University
ISBN 0972429107
The possibility to 'write' informations in living beings is one of the characteristics of transgenic art, an art form which Eduardo Kac (see the interview on Neural n.20) helped create. Vilém, in 1988, already spoke about 'ars vivendi', art which could preserve itself by passing through the generations of the organisms containing it. The critical essays contained in this book explore the approach of this artist, one of the few able to challenge the patent rush of biotech multinationals. Even if very different from the provoking and destabilizing activism of Critical Art Ensemble, Kac's work is based on an open view of biotechnology, and explicitly urges the different categories involved to debate and rediscuss the role of DNA with relation to biological functions, emphasizing instead the ethical, social and historical aspects of technology applied to organic matter. The book takes its name from one of the most famous works of Kac (The Eighth Day), and is continuously pervaded by it. This text also talks about the necessary media aspect, which the author always attracted, asking for public statements on matters normally confined to the research facilities of big industries. Discussing our biological identity implies a profound cultural transformation, symbol of the beginning of this new millennium where the strategical importance of the tactical use of biomedia becomes clearer and clearer