Talks
Eduardo Kac
TELEPRESENCE, BIO ART & SPACE POETRY
TELEPRESENCE, BIO ART & SPACE POETRY
After an introduction contextualizing his pioneering telepresence work, Kac will give examples and further discuss his bio art. The presentation will conclude with Kac’s most recent work, realized in outer space. Kac’s work reveals the alternately poetic, political, personal, and philosophical approaches by which the artist examines contemporary life and contributes to our collective future. Kac has integrated many disciplines to present an imaginative view of art’s relevance to the contemporary world, a view which has firm roots in the artist’s background in philosophy and literature. Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his innovative artwork that focuses on the relationships among and between humans, animals, machines, and different life forms. Kac’s work is in the collections of major museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art—MoMA, New York, and Tate Modern, London. He is the author of several books, including Telepresence and Bio Art: Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots, published by the University of Michigan Press, and Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond, published by MIT Press.
Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in contemporary art and poetry. In the early 1980s, Kac created digital, holographic and online works that anticipated the global culture we live in today, composed of ever-changing information in constant flux. In 1997 the artist coined the term “Bio Art,” igniting the development of this new art form with works such as his transgenic rabbit GFP Bunny (2000) and Natural History of the Enigma (2009), which earned him the Golden Nica, the most prestigious award in the field of media art. GFP Bunny has become a global phenomenon, having been appropriated by major popular culture franchises such as Sherlock, Big Bang Theory and Simpsons, and by writers such as Margaret Atwood and Michael Crichton. In 2017, Kac created Inner Telescope, a work conceived for and realized in outer space with the cooperation of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Kac’s singular and highly influential career spans poetry, performance, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist’s books, early digital and online works, holography, telepresence, bio art, and space art. Kac has also authored or edited several books, including Telepresence and Bio Art — Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots (University of Michigan Press, 2005). His works are in major collections such as Museum of Modern Art-MoMA, New York; Tate Modern, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum Les Abattoirs—Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France; Museum of Modern Art Valencia-IVAM, Spain; Museum ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, among others.