Eduardo Kac: Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond (2007)

Bio art is a new art form that has emerged from the cultural impact and increasing accessibility of contemporary biotechnology. Signs of Life is the first book to focus exclusively on art that uses biotechnology as its medium, defining and discussing the theoretical and historical implications of bio art and offering examples of work by prominent artists.

Bio art manipulates the processes of life; in its most radical form, it invents or transforms living organisms. It is not representational; bio art is in vivo. (A celebrated example is Eduardo Kac’s own GFP Bunny, centered on “Alba,” the transgenic fluorescent green rabbit.) The creations of bio art become a part of evolution and, provided they are capable of reproduction, can last as long as life exists on earth. Thus, bio art raises unprecedented questions about the future of life, evolution, society, and art.

The contributors to Signs of Life articulate the critical theory of bio art and document its fundamental works. The writers—who include such prominent scholars as Barbara Stafford, Eugene Thacker, and Dorothy Nelkin—consider the culture and aesthetics of biotechnology, the ethical and philosophical aspects of bio art, and biology in art history. The section devoted to artworks and artists includes George Gessert’s Why I Breed Plants, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr’s Semi-Living Art, Marc Quinn’s Genomic Portrait, and Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey’s Chlorophyll.

Published by MIT Press, 2007
Leonardo Books series
ISBN 0262112930, 9780262112932
420 pages

publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2012-7-30)

Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore: The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967–) [EN, ES, PT]

“Marshall McLuhan is the man who predicted the all­-pervasive rise of the modern mass media. Blending text, image and photography, his 1960s classic The Medium is the Massage illustrates how the growth of tech no logy utterly reshapes society, personal lives and sensory perceptions, so that we are effectively shaped by the means we use to communicate. This concept, and his ideas such as rolling, up-to-the-minute news broadcasts and the media ‘global village’, have proved decades ahead of their time.” (from the back cover)

Originally published in 1967 by Bantam Books
Produced by Jerome Agel
Publisher Penguin, 2008
ISBN 9780141035826
159 pages

Wikipedia

The Medium is the Massage (English, 1967/2008, 10 MB, updated on 2017-4-24)
El medio es el masaje (Spanish, trans. León Mirlas, 1969, 10 MB, added on 2015-1-8)
O meio são as massa-gens (Portuguese, trans. Ivan Pedro de Martins, 1969, 16 MB, added on 2015-1-8)

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition: System Error (2005)

A resource for student activism on environmental, labor and human rights problems associated with the high-tech industry. The report includes information on responsible recycling and environmentally and socially responsible purchasing.

Project website

PDF (4 MB, updated on 2014-9-16)