[nettime-lat] Kac's Genesis and The Eighth Day

[JFA <info@juliafriedman.com>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 27, 2001
For further information contact: Julia Friedman, (312) 455 0755 or
info@juliafriedman.com


TRANSGENIC ART TRAVELS TO THREE CONTINENTS

EDUARDO KAC EXHIBITS "GENESIS" AT THE YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE
AND OFFERS A PREVIEW OF HIS NEW WORK, "THE EIGHTH DAY"


GENESIS

Eduardo Kac's landmark artwork, "Genesis," will travel to three
prominent venues during September:  The Yokohama Triennale, Japan,
September 2 - November 11, 2001; El final del eclipse at Fundación
Telefónica, Madrid, Spain, September 12 - November 18, 2001; and
Paradise Now at the Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York,
September 15, 2001 - January 6, 2002.

Kac's "Genesis" is a transgenic artwork that explores a synthetic
gene created by translating a sentence from the biblical book of
Genesis into DNA base pairs. The sentence reads: "Let man have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moves upon the earth." On the Internet,
participants can mutate bacteria that contain the gene, thus changing
the meaning of the biblical sentence.

For more on Genesis, please see:
http://www.ekac.org/geninfo.html
http://www.juliafriedman.com/work_kac.html

After September 2, 2001, when Genesis goes online at Yokohama, the
public is encouraged to intervene in this biotechnological work:
http://genesis.xdsl.ne.jp.


THE EIGHTH DAY (PREVIEW)
http://www.ekac.org/8thday.html

Kac's most recent transgenic artwork, "The Eighth Day," is presented
by Institute for Studies in the Arts, Tempe, from October 25 -
December 14, 2001.

"The Eighth Day" provides the public with the unique opportunity to
experience a spectacular ecology of green glowing creatures and thus
to critically reflect on the social and cultural implications of
biotechnology.  "The Eighth Day" brings together a biological robot
(biobot) linked to the Internet, GFP fish, GFP mice, GFP amoeba and
GFP plants, and video footage and sound of the ebb and flow of moving
water.

In order to approach the transgenic ecology, the viewer "walks on
water." Gentle, recurring sounds of waves emanate from four corners
of the room. In the center of this tranquil environment, a
fluorescent ecology of living creatures emerges.  The living
creatures and the biobot are enclosed in an environment under a
ventilated, clear, plexiglas dome, thus rendering dramatically
visible what it would be like if these creatures would in fact
coexist in the world at large. As a self-contained artificial
ecological system it resonates with the words in the title, which add
one day to the period of creation of the world as narrated in the
Judeo-Christian Scriptures.  All transgenic creatures in "The Eighth
Day" express the gene that produces green fluorescent protein (GFP).

By enabling local and online participants to experience the
environment inside the dome from the point of view of the biobot,
"The Eighth Day" creates a context in which participants can reflect
on the meaning of a transgenic ecology from a first-person
perspective.

"The Eighth Day" was developed through a two-year residency at the
Institute for Studies in the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe.

Eduardo Kac is represented by Julia Friedman Gallery, Chicago.
___________________________________________

Julia Friedman
Julia Friedman Gallery
118 N Peoria
Chicago, IL  60607
Phone:  (312) 455 0755
Fax:  (312) 455 0765
E-mail:  info@juliafriedman.com
http://www.juliafriedman.com


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