Printed Matter, Inc. presents a book launch for Telepresence & Bio Art: Networking Humans, Rabbits, and Robots by the artist Eduardo Kac on Saturday, April 1, 2006 from 5-7 PM. This book presents a compendium of writings spanning 12 years by Kac that explore the multiple implications of his own art. Crisscrossing the boundaries of inventor/artist and questioning basic notions of creation, Kac writes to investigate internet art, robotics, and bio art. The author will be on hand to sign books as well as discuss his writings and projects. Printed Matter is located at 195 Tenth Avenue at 22nd Street.
While best known for genetically engineering a live rabbit to glow in the dark, Kac has worked on a range of projects that push the boundaries of new media art towards merging with the fields of electronics, telerobotics, and biotechnology. As an artist utilizing new technologies, Kac performs detailed research into past methods and approaches writing as integral to his work. He stresses a commitment to communication in order to create artwork where the active participation of the viewer forms an essential component in the reception of the piece as opposed to a more traditional model where information flows one-way from the artwork to viewer.
The writings in Telepresence & Bio Art are arranged to reflect different aspects of Kac's artistic practice. They include essays that trace the development of telecommunications art since the beginning of the twentieth century, offer a theoretical framework to understand robotic art as separate from sculpture, and consider the significance of the Internet for the future of art. The book also includes texts that discuss the creation of new life in art. Kac's signature essays, including "The Dialogic Imagination in Electronic Art", "Transgenic Art", and "GFP Bunny", are all collected in this volume.
Published by University of Michigan Press, the book is 320 pages with 145 photographs and diagrams with 8 color plates that include previously unpublished images. The forward is by James Elkins, a professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who specializes in the history and theory of images in art, science, and nature.
Kac has exhibited work internationally and his work is included in public and private collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. In September 2006, Kac will have his next solo exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis and will also participate in the first edition of the Singapore Biennial. Kac has been featured in both contemporary art and mass media publications such as Artforum, Kunstforum, Flash Art, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. More information about the artist is available at his website: ekac.org
