“Rockets for the Sake of Poetry:” Becoming Versed in the Technological Future of Artistic Expression

Across time, humans have driven innovation in media used for artistic expression. From prehistoric painters using red ochre to capture life on cave walls, to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce snapping the first-ever photograph using a heliograph in 1816, humans have often created artwork inspired by changing technologies. But how are artists innovating in the present and drawing on the new technologies of today?

Someone well-suited to respond to this question is Eduardo Kac, a pioneer in contemporary art and poetry. Over the course of his career, Kac’s exploration of mediums has been ever-changing, inventing trailblazing artwork that weaves aesthetic and scientific experimentation. Kac conducted Syracuse University’s annual Kashi and Kameshwar Wali Lecture on October 24 in a presentation called “Rockets for the Sake of Poetry.” The annual Wali Lecture, long supported in part by the Humanities Center, traditionally showcases an interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges the sciences with the humanities and arts.

Kac’s lecture led the audience on an ambitious 45-minute venture through his 45-year-long artistic journey. He moved through crests in modern scientific and technological achievement—from the Minitel of the 90s to present-day space exploration–while highlighting different works from his portfolio that established a place for art and poetry within each advancement. Many of Kac’s innovations forged unprecedented paths for artistic expression within digital, biological and even orbital media.

Aligning with the Humanities Center’s 2024-2025 Syracuse Symposium theme, “Community,” Kac’s work challenges and expands the notion of a human-centric hierarchy among the living world. Specifically with his Bio Art―a genre that uses biological materials to manipulate or create life―“community” does not solely encompass human life, but also bacteria, flora and fauna.

Kac’s exploration of Bio Art began with the 1997 piece Time Capsule, a work that involved physically placing a microchip into his ankle, symbolizing humanity’s integration with technology. This, as pointed out in the Q&A following Kac’s lecture, is not as new as we think; from glasses to hearing aids to pacemakers, humans have continually advanced the merging of our bodies with technology.

Another piece of Kac’s Bio Art has existed in the limelight of controversy and pop culture appropriation since its debut: GFP Bunny, a genetically engineered rabbit that he inserted with jellyfish DNA, causing it to glow a fluorescent green.

But GFP Bunny is not the only creature that shines; a standout in the Bio Art segment of Kac’s lecture was The Eighth Day, a 2001 piece that hosted a whole community of green-glowing creatures: mice, fish, plants and a “biobot” - a robot dually controlled by amoeba and humans. Observing these illuminated creatures, human attendees were notably the only beings at the exhibit that did not glow. In this, humans became the “other”—an apt demonstration of how Kac’s artwork disrupts human-centric norms. His concepts invite participants to ponder meanings through immersive (and groundbreaking) elements.

The ways in which Kac’s work encapsulates “community” even stretches beyond earth’s plane. In a conversation I had with Kac prior to his lecture, he placed outer space in a proximal perspective: it was a mere 100km “drive” upwards, something I could achieve in around one hour with my own vehicle. Not only is space closer than we think, so is the future, and, consequently, the potential for human expression and interaction within that space.

In Kac’s Wali lecture and the Q&A that followed, he pointed out how much we already rely on and interact with outer space on a daily basis, whether through satellite GPS, cell phones, etc. In my conversation with him, he also noted how, in my lifetime, it is probable that I will encounter people who work on the moon. It is not long before our human community is even more inextricably tied to space than it already is. Why, then, should we not carve out a place for art up there, too?

The lecture concluded with some of Kac’s more recent space-related art: Ágora, a holographic poem currently in perpetual heliocentric orbit, and Adsum, a laser-engraved glass sculpture which is set to launch on the moon this December after nearly three decades of Kac’s work to realize his vision. Kac asked the audience to send out “good vibes” for Adsum’s impending takeoff. That said, next time I look out to the moon, I will have not only Kac’s artwork in mind, but also, the future of art as we know it.

“Rockets for the Sake of Poetry” compellingly linked artistic expression with new peaks in technology. Kac’s work reminds us that new technological advancement is not something to fear, but something we can embrace, reflect upon, and find beauty and meaning within.