Syracuse Sun

Eduardo Kac, the creator of the term "bio art," will be the keynote speaker for the University’s annual Kashi and Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities. The event is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 24, at 4:30 p.m. in the Life Sciences Complex atrium.

Kac, an internationally recognized contemporary artist and poet, will deliver a talk titled “Rockets for the Sake of Poetry.” His presentation will highlight his 40-year artistic career, his development of bio art, and insights about his space artworks. This year’s lecture is hosted by the BioInspired Institute and its Posthumanities: Arts and Sciences research focus group.

In the early 1980s, Kac created digital, holographic, and online works that anticipated today's global culture of information flux. In 1997, he coined the term "bio art," launching a new art form that uses biotechnology and genetics to explore scientific techniques.

Among his notable works is "GFP Bunny," a transgenic rabbit bred to glow fluorescent green under blue light using molecular biology and jellyfish protein. Another significant piece is “Natural History of the Enigma,” where he combined his DNA with that of a petunia flower to create a new "plantimal."

Kac's work has been exhibited globally and even in outer space; his hologram “Agora” was sent into space, and “Inner Telescope” was realized with assistance from French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Currently, Kac is a professor of art and technology at the School of Art Institute of Chicago and a Ph.D. research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Interactive Arts at the University of Wales in Newport.

The BioInspired Institute focuses on material and living systems research to address global challenges in health, medicine, and materials innovation. The institute includes faculty, students, and postdoctoral scholars from various disciplines such as life sciences, engineering, physics, and chemistry.

Last year, BioInspired added Posthumanities: Arts and Sciences as its fourth focus area to encourage collaborations between arts/humanities and science-based disciplines. Boryana Rossa from the College of Visual and Performing Arts and G. Douglas Barrett from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications led efforts to invite Kac as this year's keynote speaker.

The Wali Lecture represents a partnership between Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences Department of Physics and Humanities Center as part of the 2024-25 Syracuse Symposium “Community.”

Established in 2008 by his daughters to honor Kameshwar C. Wali's vision and leadership at Syracuse University, where he served as Steele Professor Emeritus in Physics since joining in 1969 after positions at Harvard University among others. Wali was recognized for his research on symmetry properties of fundamental particles as well as being an author.