Future Ben

I don’t like Edwardo Kac’s work. I don’t even respect what he does. His art preys upon an audiences ignorance about biotechnology. I couldn’t stop laughing at one ASCI meeting when artist Joe Davis started shouting out “Alba was photoshopped! The emperor has no clothes!” I don’t know if that is really true, but it caused the speaker to retreat into stammering artistic doublespeak for the rest of the presentation. Alba, the GFP bunny is not really Edwardo Kac’s creation. He credits several scientists for providing “assistence.” Ha! Sure, it’s his rabbbit, but there is no mention of the process of creating the animal. Why is that? He doesn’t want you to know. Look up the process of making a transgenic it is dull and arduous and involves the sacrafice of dozens of animals. Most people today simply hand their gene over to a facility where a technitions do all of the work. “Genesis” is another great example. There are bacteria on a plate. There are all these G’s and C’s and A’s and T’s. There is even a bible quote. Whoopdie freakin doo! The weakness of Kac’s work, and what totally pisses me off, is that he could say just about anything and people would buy it. I understand the pop art aspect of it, but this isn’t a can of tomato soup. The science as mysticism mentality he inspires in an audience is the most dangerous form of sensationalism and is ultimately meaningless. Anyway, he wrote a book. Go thumb through it at the bookstore.