Telepresence and Bio Art -- Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots

Chinese edition: China Machine Press (forthcoming)

French edition: les presses du réel (forthcoming)

Title: Telepresence and Bio Art -- Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots
Date: 2005
Specifications: 320 pgs, 145 photographs, 8 color plates
Author: Eduardo Kac. Foreword by James Elkins
Language: English
Summary: Selected writings covering the period 1991 to 2002
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472068105

Eduardo Kac's work, writes Jim Elkins in his foreword to Telepresence & Bio Art, is six degrees of separation from every important issue of our time. Kac's writings form an integral part of his artistic practice. The texts collected in Telepresence & Bio Art were written and published by Kac between 1991 and 2002. In this period the artist further developed his innovative telepresence art, expanding it into uncharted areas such interspecies communication and microchip implants, and explored unprecedented possibilities with his bio art, notably with an ongoing suite of transgenic works. One of his best known works is "GFP Bunny", which addresses the multiple implications of creating a new animal and integrating it into society. Telepresence & Bio Art is a testament to Kac's uniqueness as an artist-theorist.

In the course of developing his work with telepresence, biotelematics, biorobotics, and transgenic art, Kac has always sought to extend the work through reflection and writing. He has also investigated lesser-known aspects of media art and considered the contributions made by other contemporary artists. The book weaves Kac's own trajectory with that of other artists through discussions of some of the most relevant strategies in contemporary art. Uniting the topics is Kac's commitment to the practical and theoretical investigation, in art, of the complex phenomenon generally referred to as “communication.”

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. More importantly, Kac's signature essays, including "The Dialogic Imagination in Electronic Art", "Transgenic Art", and "GFP Bunny", are all collected in this volume. Among the book's 145 photographs and diagrams and 8 color plates are images never before published.

Table of Contents

Foreword, James Elkins

Preface, Eduardo Kac

I- TELECOMMUNICATIONS, DIALOGISM, AND INTERNET ART
1 - The Aesthetics of Telecommunications (1992)
2 - The Internet and the Future of Art (1997)
3 - Beyond the Screen : Interactive Art (1998)
4 - The Dialogic Imagination in Electronic Art (1999)

II - TELEPRESENCE ART AND ROBOTICS
5 - Towards Telepresence Art (1992)
6 - Telepresence Art (1993)
7 - Telepresence Art on the Internet (1996)
8 - Origin and Development of Robotic Art (1997)
9 - Live from Mars (1997)
10 - Dialogic Telepresence Art and Net Ecology (2000)

III - BIO ART
11 - Emergence of Biotelematics and Biorobotics: Integrating Biology, Information Processing, Networking, and Robotics (1998)
12 - Transgenic Art (1998)
13 - Genesis (1999)
14 - GFP Bunny (2000)
15 - The Eighth Day (2001)
16 - Move 36 (2002)

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