ART-ZINE REFLECT


REFLECT... КУАДУСЕШЩТ # 13 ::: ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


CHRONICLES. Andrei VOROBEI. Splicing Cells for Frankenstein Art


Dmitry Bulatov is one of a small, but growing, number of artists around the world who are using genetic engineering to create a new form of art known as Ars Chimera, or transgenic art, named for a creature from Greek mythology that had a lion's head, a goat's body and a dragon's tail.
Bulatov, the curator of the Kaliningrad branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art, heads the Consciousness on the Alert (Soznaniye Nastorozhe) project, in conjunction with Moscow's Ivanovsky Virology Institute. One of the goals of the project -- which Bulatov said is currently on hold due to lack of funding -- is the creation of a naturally fluorescent cactus, which scientists would create by introducing genetic material from bioluminescent, or naturally glowing, organisms (in this case, a jellyfish and a sea anemone) into a Lophophora Cactus.
Genetically modified art made its public debut in 1936, when photographer Edward Steichen exhibited new varieties of delphinium flowers at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Steichen's work -- which was based on principles of heredity codified in the 1850s and 1860s by Austrian biologist Gregor Mendel -- was later dubbed Ars Genetica. According to Bulatov, however, Ars Genetica is nothing new: The human race, he said, had been employing selective breeding for thousands of years before Steichen's project.
After the discovery of DNA in 1953 and the subsequent revolution in micro-level genetic engineering came Microvenus, a 1996 Ars Chimera project by U.S. artist Joe Davies, who had had help from Harvard University biologist Dana Boyd inserting a section of synthetic DNA into an E. Coli bacterium. Today, as its techniques become more and more sophisticated, Ars Chimera is gaining popularity in the art world. With the growth, however, comes attention and censure, and myriad ethical questions. In 2000, Brazilian artist Eduardo Kac, for example, was the subject of criticism for his "GFP Bunny," a genetically engineered glow-in-the-dark green rabbit named Alba.
In addition to his laboratory work, Bulatov was contributing editor of "BioMediale: Contemporary Society and Genomic Culture," a collection of essays by Russian artists, critics, art historians and philosophers on the subject of Ars Chimera. He spoke with The Moscow Times last week in the Baltic city of Kaliningrad.
Q:What about Ars Chimera first attracted your interest?
A:I'm tired of seeing "dead" works of art like pictures, photographs and the like. I'm interested in living art that develops in time. As a contemporary artist, I'm interested in finding new physical medium for modern art. With Ars Chimera, we have a biological medium, which is why we talk about a biological carrier or interface. For me, it's a new medium with a bright future. Also, I do it because it's dangerous. By doing it, I'm warning people about the dangerous nature of the technique. This sort of art engineering has a clearly expressed precautionary character -- it shows us that the world was once one thing, but could become something completely different.
Q:Where does the science end and the art begin?
A:The scientist uses the technology for practical purposes. ...At the current stage of development, a chimera organism can be created without problem, but the artist is interested in something else. We're now at the stage where biotechnologies have been given
"public service" properties. An artist can use the technology to create an artistic product, which is no longer seen as being a part of science -- discoveries, inventions and patents are irrelevant here. Of course, the work of the [transgenic] artist has a scientific background, but is directed toward other areas and contexts -- be they social, philosophical, mythological or artistic. An Ars Chimera artist focuses all his attention on getting results, and on his own thoughts, rather than on manufacturing a product, which is what interests the scientist.
Q:These new technologies are very expensive and require a vast knowledge of biology, which makes them accessible to only a few artists.
A:Yes, but we can also talk about the "socialization" of the technologies. As soon as the technologies are "socialized," as soon as they come out of the scientific lab and become accessible to ordinary people, then artists who are interested -- and who feel that they can realize themselves through these technologies -- begin to use the technologies and to expand their practices into different areas, using different media. As a simple example, video art appeared when the first video cameras went on sale -- i.e., when they were socialized.
Q:How do you envision the socialization of Ars Chimera?
A:I'm talking about a different level of socialization. For example, 30 years ago, you could purchase a camera but you had to know how it worked. Today, you can purchase a camera without needing to know how it works and without needing to understand the process of developing photographs. The camera is now at a higher level of socialization, a fact the artist can exploit. It's the same with other things, and must be the same with Ars Chimera technologies. In the end, the artist will not need to know much about biology. For instance, it will be possible to order an Ars Chimera project and only have to specify the concept. I'm exaggerating, certainly, and omitting a lot, but it will be something like that. At the moment, Ars Chimera requires detailed knowledge ... and cannot exist without a well-equipped scientific lab, constant consultation with experts and continuous financing. Ars Chimera is currently at a low level of socialization, but that is subject to change. The process is dependent on the legal limitations that will be imposed, and are, obviously, necessary, since these techniques could seriously damage the natural world.
Q:What is your ethical position?
A:I've been asked this many times, and I don't have an unequivocal answer prepared. It's a living topic for me. As I only work with plants, some problems are easy to prevent, but rigid control is required here, in terms of biological safety.
Q:Returning to the Kac's rabbit, in your opinion, do we have a right to do what he did?
A:No, but I usually point out that a great deal of scientific experiments are carried out on animals. ... Putting aside for a moment my own art project, I think that imposing restrictions is absolutely impossible. Limiting any form of experiment is impossible, as is limiting the development of technologies and new techniques. It is out beyond our capabilities. It's already impossible to stop [the development of Ars Chimera]. If I don't do it, somebody else will. The genie has been let out of the bottle, and it's impossible to put him back inside. The best we can do is to work [as Kac said of his rabbit], "with great care, acknowledging the complex issues thus raised and, above all, with a commitment to respect, nurture, and love the life thus created."









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