Week 6: Biotech and Art

The two questions that I decide to focus on for this week’s unit were:

Is life itself a valid expressive medium?

Are there and should there be limits to human creativity?

And the project that caught my attention the most was Eduardo Kac’s “GFP Bunny” named Alba. Alba is an albino rabbit that was injected with a protein from a Jelly Fish that would make it glow green when put under the correct light. Scientists use this glowing green protein to track the movement of certain drug throughout a body to see how they work.

 Alba has raised a lot of controversy for two reasons. First, many people question if Kac can call Alba his own art work since he is not the first to have an animal with the ability to glow green because many scientists had been working with this gene for years. The second controversy is brought up by animal rights activist saying that “the project is needless and abusive manipulation of an animal (Vesna)”. With these two controversies in mind I go back to the first question I chose to think about, “Is life itself a valid expressive medium?”. In this case I do believe that life is a valid expression medium. I think that because the rabbit is being injected with an organic material and not a harmful chemical that this should not be an issue of ethics since nothing is being harmed. Now with the second question in mind, I do believe that there should be limits to human creativity if it affects an organism in a negative way.

Another art medium that I found to be interesting was Natalie Jeremijenko’s “NoParks”. I like how she is using life (In this case plant life) to make city streets more visually appealing. I also thought it was interesting how she ties it into medicine by making these parks a sort of anecdote from her “xDesign Environmental Health Clinic”. These small parks aren’t only visually appealing but also helpful to the environment because they use toxin absorbing plants. These plants would absorb pollution and standing water.

Works Cited

"Bioarte." Bioarte. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://compreendendobioarte.blogspot.com/>.

"Green Fluorescent Protein - Cool Uses - Alba." Green Fluorescent Protein - Cool Uses - Alba. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/cooluses8.html>.

Hoyt, Dale. "Eduardo Kac Flunks the Rabbit Test." Eduardo Kac Flunks the Rabbit Test. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/hoyt_alba_response.htm>.

Kac, Eduardo. "GFP BUNNY." GFP BUNNY. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor>.

"Seed Presents: Revolutionary Minds: Natalie Jeremijenko." Natalie Jeremijenko. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://www.inspirationgreen.com/natalie-jeremijenko.html>.

"To Life!" University of California Press. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2015. <http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520273627>.