Neither antibiotech activist nor Dr. Frankenstien, Eduardo Kac is a writer and artist whose theme is that in biotech, as in all science and technology, nothing is as good or as bad as it seems.
Is Chicago artist-writer-philosopher Eduardo Kac ahead of his time or just nuts? In the foreword of his new book1, Art Institute of Chicago art historian James Elkins makes the case for the former. Elkins acknowledges, however, that not everybody agrees on this point and cites the negative critiques of Kac's 1999 Genesis exhibition—where the artist created a gene capable of encoding a passage from the Bible. Critic Peter Schjeldahl, for example, said the genetic mutations in Genesis, which were triggered at random by internet participants, were not interesting, much less improvements. Genesis is child's play compared with the rest of Kac's work.
Is Chicago artist-writer-philosopher Eduardo Kac ahead of his time or just nuts? In the foreword of his new book1, Art Institute of Chicago art historian James Elkins makes the case for the former. Elkins acknowledges, however, that not everybody agrees on this point and cites the negative critiques of Kac's 1999 Genesis exhibition—where the artist created a gene capable of encoding a passage from the Bible. Critic Peter Schjeldahl, for example, said the genetic mutations in Genesis, which were triggered at random by internet participants, were not interesting, much less improvements. Genesis is child's play compared with the rest of Kac's work.
