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fl SpringerWienNewYork Art in the Age of Technoscience Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Artificial Life in Contemporary Art I N G EBORG R EICHL E With a preface by Robert Zwijnenberg Translated by Gloria Custance SpringerWienNewYork Ingeborg Reichle Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities This publication is funded by the Andrea von Braun Foundation. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means, and storage in data banks. Product Liability: The publisher can give no guarantee for the information contained in this book. This also refers to that on drug dosage and application thereof. In each individual case the respective user must check the accuracy of the information given by consulting other pharmaceutical literature. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for gen eral use. © 2009 Springer-Verlag/\Vien Printed in Austria SpringerWienNewYork is a part of Springer Science + Business Media springer.at Typesetting: Druckerei Paul GmbH & Co KG, 88131 Lindau/Bodensee, Germany Printing and binding: Holzhausen Druck & M edien GmbH, 1140 Wien, Austria Cover photo: The Tissue Culture & Art Project (Oron Carts and Ionat Zurr), Victimless Leather - A Prototype of Stitch-less Jacket grown in a Technoscientific "Body" (2004). Courtesy of the Tissue Culture & Art Project (Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr). The TC&A Project is hosted by SymbioticA, the Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, The University of Western Australia. Printed on acid-free and chlorine-free bleached paper. SPIN: 12030873 Library of Congress Control Number: 2009931223 W ith numerous coloured figures. ISBN 978-3-211-78160-9 SpringerWienNewYork 10 Hilli and Matthias, who both nurtured my curiosity for science and lovefor art Contents Acknowledgments Preface by Robert Zwijnenberg IX X1ll 1 Art in the Age of Techno science: Transgressing the Boundaries 2 The Dawning of the Biotech Century 15 3 Art in the Genetic Age 33 4 When Life Becomes Art 63 5 Genesthetics: Molecular Biology and the Arts 97 6 Art in the Age of Genetic Engineering 121 7 From Life-like Machines to a Silicon Second Nature 145 8 The Living and the Life-like: Art and Artificial Life 167 9 Art and Digital Evolution 193 10 Epilog 213 Illustrations 217 Bibliography 385 Credits 413 Name Index 415 SubjectIndex 419 Acknowledgments This book was born out of my fascination with how art is challenging the power and unpredictability of modern technology in order to illuminate the problems that have been put on the agenda by bioengineering, genetic research, and tissue culture. The intellectual journey that led to Art in the Age oj Tecbnosdence actually began on a particular day in August 1999: I was attending a conference on media art in Brazil and I heard the presentation of an artist who intended to create a transgenic dog . That morning I had visited Sao Paulo's Botanical Gardens; the biodiversity of the exotic flora in Brazil has deeply inspired European iconography. Although Alexander von Humboldt never got to know the country personally, it was through him that Brazilian landscape painting blossomed. Humboldt's ideal was for trained European artists to visit the tropics