GFP Bunny and Orbital Reflector: generating controversy and debate around art, spaceflight and bioengineering
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2024-08-19
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en
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Abstract
One might wonder what a genetically altered rabbit that emits fluorescent glow and a light reflecting satellite orbiting our planet have to do with one another. The first one being involved with the smallest, molecular genetic level while the second strays into the infinite vastness of the cosmos. The most straightforward answer to this question, no matter how weird it might seem, is that they are both works of art. The bunny is an art project by Eduardo Kac, titled GFP Bunny (2000). He commissioned the animal from the Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), a laboratory in France specialized in transgenic rabbits. In the laboratory, they inserted a Green Fluorescent Protein from a pacific jellyfish into the rabbit which resulted in the animal emitting a green glow. The project was considered outrageous, partly due to the involvement of a living creature. The satellite is a work by Trevor Paglen in collaboration with the Nevada Museum of Art, called Orbital Reflector (2018). Orbital Reflector was a type of satellite that could inflate up to approximately thirty-one meters and was intended to be sent into orbit and reflect sunlight back to earth. Despite a nearly twenty year difference between the artworks, it can be said that Orbital Reflector shares many aspects with GFP Bunny, and vice versa. First, Orbital Reflector was also met with resistance and moral objections. A key aspect of the two artworks was that they used a certain technology as a work of art, in particular an already ethically contested technology that is usually not widely available. The artworks appropriate a certain scientific technology to the extent of the artwork becoming basically indistinguishable from other satellites and transgenic animals. However, while the use of these technologies provided a certain shock value and media attention, the artists explicitly stated that their intention was to raise critical awareness and contribute to existing social debates. They raised critical points on certain aspects of these technologies, such as their uses, their reception within society, and questions of responsibility. Based on these similarities, this thesis analyses how these two artworks foster public debate and raise awareness by using a morally and ethically ambiguous technology that is in turn the subject of their critical examination. The research question will thus be as follows:
How do Eduardo Kac’s GFP Bunny (2000) and Trevor Paglen’s Orbital Reflector (2018) compare in their strategies to bring forward a new public understanding on debates surrounding bioengineering and spaceflight through art?
For this thesis recent literature has been selected. Sources have been accessed and found through the Radboud University Library as well as through other Dutch libraries. Other sources are drawn from the artists’ personal websites and a general search on the internet with the terms ‘GFP-Bunny’, ‘Transgenic Art’ and “Bio Art’ for Eduardo Kac’s artwork, and ‘Orbital Reflector’ and “Trevor Paglen’ for most of the general information on Orbital Reflector. Key sources include the GMO Handbook written by Parekh. S et al (2004), Mutschler (2010) about arms control in space, Kac’s book on Telepresence and Bio Art (2005), Lynch (2007) examining the practise of Bio-art as well as Franetovich (2020) and King (2019) on space art, and Cornell et al. (2019) which provided helpful insights on Paglen’s way of working. The first chapter will provide a brief overview of bioengineering and spaceflight. Since these technologies entail pre-existing debates about ethical use, these conversations are instrumental in providing a background to the artworks. This chapter will illustrate the applications of bioengineering and spaceflight as well as ethical and practical concerns. Sources of bioengineering are discussed from the 2000s to now, to establish a better grasp on bioengineering at the time of Kac’s GFP Bunny. More recent sources were analysed to demonstrate the existing relevance of these technologies and their persisting debates. Similarly, to contextualise Orbital Reflector, most sources are from around 2018 to now.
In the second and third chapter the artworks will be discussed individually. The second chapter will be devoted to GFP Bunny and the third chapter to Orbital Reflector. These chapters have a similar lay-out to ease comparison in the final chapter. This lay-out will generally be as follows; first, the artwork is introduced as well as some general information on the artists’ earlier work. This will be followed by a concise overview of the process of both artworks. Lastly, these chapters will lay out the specific goals and arguments of the artworks based on interviews with the artists and their own writings.
The fourth chapter will compare the two artworks regarding their intentions and practise. It will discuss criticism on GFP Bunny’s and Orbital Reflector’s strategies that focuses on aspects that could compromise or diminish the intended effect of the artworks. Here ‘intention’ refers to the goal of both artworks to facilitate public discussion and raise awareness. This chapter has also incorporated sources about a more general intersection between art, innovative technologies as well as art as a medium for educative public engagement. However, there are many different terms that apply to this with subtle differences between them. Different terms are for example: information arts, artivism (art and activism), techno-ethic art and technological art. Theories from these different terms are used when applicable.
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