November 8th to 11th, 2004

Otávio Almeida Filho
otaviofilho@uol.com.br
PUC - SP - Brazil

FLYING HORSES - BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ART

ABSTRACT
This work approaches the pathways of art and its crossings with new technologies through a dialogue with the artwork of the fine artist Eduardo Kac. The aim is an analysis of his article published in Revista Galáxia, the scientific journal of the Post-graduate programme in Communication and Semiotics (PUC-SP), by proposing a parallel to the Vilém Flusser's ideas also published in the same issue of that journal.
Questioning the arguments introduced by Kac in a reference to his work Bunny is our achievement. The "work" comes from a genetic interference made in a female rabbit, which becomes fluorescent when shown in a lightless environment. According to Kac those genetic-modified animals obtain a sort of specificity that makes them unique to establish a dialogical relationship with human beings. Kac does believe that animals such as that have a gift of an "spiritual life", and because of this we are invited to redirect the nature of our relationship with those new beings.
In Flying horses - biotechnology and art, we bring to the discussion some ideas based on Bertrand Russel and Martin Heiddeger, in order to demonstrate that the transgenic art project that believes in a spiritual life of DNA-modified animals is naïve for lack of rigorous fundamentals and reveals, by that way, religious-like prejudices in addition to the poetical emphasis, in a loss of the aesthetic aspect claimed for every work of art.

KEYWORDS - Communication, Arts, Technologies, Language, Philosophy.

Center for Pragmatism Studies
Philosophy Graduate Program
Departament of Philosophy
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - Brazil