DETERMINING THE ORIGIN OF ANY GENRE IS A CONTROVERSIAL TASK. HERE, WORK IS ORDERED BASED ON THE FIRST TIME IT WAS EXHIBITED, ACCORDING TO AVAILABLE SOURCES. THIS INCLUDES ANY DEVELOPMENT EXHIBITION.

PENDING INCLUSION

Marina Abramovic, Ron Athey, Tarsh Bates, Jackie Brookner, Oron Catts, Anna Dumitriu, Valie Export, Bob Flanagan, George Gessert, Jaden J.A. Hastings, Andrew Fitch, Anna Mendietta, Darren Moore, Orlan, Gina Pane, Carolee Schneemann, Nina Sellars, Alan Sonfist, Stelarc, Edward Steichen (1930s), Hege Tapio, Nathan Thompson, Ionat Zurr

DATE UNKNOWN

May the Rain Forest Live in Me (or May the Pygmy Live in Me) Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin, Art orienté objet) MORE DETAILS NEEDED

2015

CellF Guy (Ben-Ary)

Living Ashes (Pei-Ying Lin)

“In Living Ashes, we were interested in tackling the subject of synthetic biology from an apparently oblique angle—we began by questioning what the concept of life means. Our rationale for this is simple. Synthetic Biology is predicated on the notion of modifying and designing life using an engineering framework that allows integrating requirements of modularity and efficiency. The proposition itself is reminiscent, conceptually, of our current models of material production. We conceptualise life as something to be explored and conquered. The possibility of designing life plays on the same mechanics of power as those of domination in class, sexuality, and race. To be designed is to be conquered by the human will. This rests on a binary conceptualization of the world: there is that which is outside of human agency, the natural; and that which has been conquered and appropriated, the artificial.”

2011

May the Horse Live in Me! (Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin, Art orienté objet)

“The performance May the Horse Live in Me ! is an attempt at bioart and extreme body art in which an animal foreign body, in this case a horse, is hybridised with the human body through an injection of horse’s blood. Far from a fatal intrusion, such as that of the mythological hero Midas (said to have committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood), the idea is to carry out genuine therapeutic research, whereby the horse’s blood is made compatible and has a positive effect. Marion Laval-Jeantet has experimented with various different horse tissue immunoglobulin, that recognise the targeted tissues and induce a functional regulation of these tissues that is specific to them.”

2009

Cypher (Eduardo Kac)

Cypher (2009) is an artwork that merges sculpture, artist's book and a DIY transgenic kit. It measures approximately 13 x 17 " (33 x 43 cm) and is contained in a stainless steel slipcase. When removed from the case, the kit — itself also made of stainless steel — opens up in two halves, like a book. Inside the viewer/user finds a portable minilab. The kit contains Petri dishes, agar, nutrients, streaking loops, pipettes, test tubes, synthetic DNA (encoding in its genetic sequence a poem Kac wrote specifically for this artwork), and a booklet containing the transformation protocol—each in its respective compartment. The key poetic gesture in "Cypher" is to place in the hands of the viewer the decision and the power to literally give life to the artwork. Commissioned by Rurart, France.

Natural History of the Enigma (Eduardo Kac)

The central work in the "Natural History of the Enigma" series is a plantimal, a new life form Kac created and that he calls "Edunia", a genetically-engineered flower that is a hybrid of Kac and Petunia. The Edunia expresses Kac's DNA exclusively in the red veins of the flower. The gene Kac selected is responsible for the identification of foreign bodies. In this work, it is precisely that which identifies and rejects the Other that the artist integrates into the Other, thus creating a new kind of self that is partially flower and partially human. Developed between 2003 and 2008, and first exhibited from April 17 to June 21, 2009 at the Weisman Art Museum, in Minneapolis, "Natural History of the Enigma" also encompasses a large-scale public sculpture, a print suite, photographs, and other works. WINNER OF THE 2009 GOLDEN NICA AWARD Collection Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis.”

2006

Specimen of Secrecy About Marvelous Discoveries (Eduardo Kac)

"Specimen of Secrecy about Marvelous Discoveries" is a series of works comprised of what I call "biotopes", i.e., living pieces that change during the exhibition in response to internal metabolism and environmental conditions, including temperature, relative humidity, airflow, and light levels in the exhibition space. Each of my biotopes is literally a self-sustaining ecology comprised of thousands of very small living beings in a medium of earth, water, and other materials. I orchestrate the metabolism of this diverse microbial life in order to produce the constantly evolving living works.”

2004

Move 36 (Eduardo Kac)

"Move 36" makes reference to the dramatic move made by the computer called Deep Blue against chess world champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. This competition may be characterized as a match between the greatest chess player who ever lived and the greatest chess player who never lived. The installation sheds light on the limits of the human mind and the increasing capabilities developed by computers and robots, inanimate beings whose actions often acquire a force comparable to subjective human agency.

2001

The Eighth Day (Eduardo Kac)

"The Eighth Day" is a transgenic artwork that investigates the new ecology of fluorescent creatures that is evolving worldwide. I developed this work between 2000 and 2001 at the Institute for Studies in the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe. While fluorescent creatures are being developed in isolation in laboratories, seen collectively they form the nucleus of a new and emerging synthetic bioluminescent system. The piece brings together living transgenic life forms and a biological robot (biobot) in an environment housed under a clear 4 foot diameter Plexiglas dome, thus making visible what it would be like if these creatures would in fact coexist in the world at large.””

2000

GFP Bunny (Eduardo Kac)

“GFP Bunny is a transgenic artwork that comprises the creation of a green fluorescent rabbit ("Alba"), the public dialogue generated by the project, and the social integration of the rabbit. While every past civilization has conceived and celebrated numerous imaginary creatures, never before Alba has an artist imagined a living mammal and then proceeded to make it a reality. Employing molecular biology, Kac combined jellyfish and rabbit DNA to produce a bunny that glows green under blue light. Kac’s art is based on the literal creation of new biological life. Kac explains that transgenic art must be created "with great care and with a commitment to respect, nurture, and love the life thus created." The global resonance of "GFP Bunny" has led Kac to develop a series of works in a variety of media, including drawing, photography, print, painting, sculpture, animation, and digital media.”

1998

Genesis (Eduardo Kac)

"Genesis" (1998/99) is a transgenic artwork that explores the intricate relationship between biology, belief systems, information technology, dialogical interaction, ethics, and the Internet. The key element of the work is an "artist's gene", i.e., a synthetic gene that I invented and that does not exist in nature. This gene was created by translating a sentence from the biblical book of Genesis into Morse Code, and converting the Morse Code into DNA base pairs according to a conversion principle specially developed for this work. The sentence reads: "Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." This sentence was chosen for its implications regarding the dubious notion of (divinely sanctioned) humanity's supremacy over nature. Morse Code was chosen because, as first employed in radiotelegraphy, it represents the dawn of the information age -- the genesis of global communications.

1997

Time Capsule (Eduardo Kac)

“It approached the problem of wet interfaces and human hosting of digital memory through the implantation of a microchip. The work consisted of a microchip implant, seven sepia-toned photographs, a live televison broadcast, a webscast, interative telerobotic webscanning of the implant, a remote database intervention, and additional display elements, including an X-ray of the implant. It was in the context of this wok that Kac coined the term "Bio Art"

THE CUT OFF FOR THE NEW BIOART WAS EDUARDO KAC’S WORK, BUT OTHER ARTISTS HAVE ALSO EXAMINED BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL AS THE SUBJECT OF ART PRACTICE AND IT’S REALLY DIFFICULT TO ELIMINATE THESE WORKS FROM THE TRAJECTORY. AS SUCH ,HERE ARE SOME THAT ALSO SEEM INFLUENTIAL AND IMPORTANT TO KNOW ABOUT.

1961

Artist’s Shit (Piero Manzoni)