In this week's lecture, we learned about how biotechnology and art can be related and work together. Before this week’s lecture, I really had no knowledge about anything dealing with biotechnology. Professor Vesna provided examples about changes that can be made to living things, in DNA and other areas, that can alter the organism completely. One of the examples we learned about in the lecture was the fluorescent protein GFP, which causes things such as jellyfish to glow. This protein was added to an albino rabbit named Alba by a scientist and artist named Eduardo Kac. The result of the protein being added to the rabbit caused the animal to glow under a UV light through its eyes and all throughout its body.
Another part of the lesson that I thought was interesting had to do with the vampire wars, which was organized by Kathy High. She draws blood from various people, and has the white blood cells from the different bloods compete for dominance over the others. I thought that this was very interesting because at first it sounds crazy, but it turns out she is doing it for art so it got me thinking about how art can be expanded over countless areas. A science experiment about the dominance of white blood cells to me would not have been art, but after going over lecture, it became clear to me how wide of a range art can span.
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Hoyt, Dale. "Edwardo Kac Flunks the Rabbit Test by Dale Hoyt." Edwardo Kac Flunks the Rabbit Test by Dale Hoyt. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
"Kathy High." - Department of the Arts. Arts RPI, n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
Miranda, Carolina A. "Weird Science: Biotechnology as Art Form." ARTnews. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
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"Ultra Close-up Ring Light (UCRL) - GFP Transgenic Rats." Ultra Close-up Ring Light (UCRL) - GFP Transgenic Rats. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
Vesna, Victoria. “5 BioArt pt4” Lecture. YouTube. Uconlineprogram, 17 May. 2015. Web. 3 May. 2016.
The idea of vampire wars was a very interesting concept to me. It is crazy how far people will go to create art. I am in favor of crazy experiments, but this one might be taking it too far. More or less, art has a wide range of variety and I try not to judge the artists for their creativity.
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