Glow In the Dark Rabbits

By: Phillip Witteveen | Date: March 14, 2013
Glow In the Dark Rabbits

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Brazilian artist and author of Telepresence and Bio Art: Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots Eduardo Kac (pronounced "Katz") was featured in a recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine, which covered his major contributions to contemporary art and the biodesign movement. The article highlights two of Kac's most well known works: Alma, the controversial genetically modified rabbit (whose implanted bioluminescent jellyfish genes allows her to glow in the dark) - and Edunia, a petunia with the artist's own immunoglobulin "the very thing that can distinguish 'self' from 'non-self' and fights off viruses" spliced into it. Kac has been “pushing the boundaries between art and life, where art is life,” said Staci Boris, then a Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, curator.

Kac, now a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has always explored unconventional media, since his projects in the early '80s, with telecommunications installations, and has since expanded from technology and interactive systems to a much broader array of mediums, such as Aromapoetry, "a book to be read with the nose." You can find more information about Kac's work on his website.