University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

I first interviewed Eduardo Kac in Chicago in 1994. His work and original perspective on twentieth-century art contributed to a changing approach to art history, theory, and criticism. Our dialogue continued over the years and it is with great pleasure that I saw this book materialize. Telepresence and Bio Art: Networking Humans, Rabbits, and Robots chronicles the development of Kac's work while exploring a broad range of artists and media. Kac is uncommon among artists and theorists because he is fluent in multiple languages and fields of knowledge, ultimately influencing the history of new media as well as participating in the theoretical discussion his work generates. Besides being an accomplished researcher and writer, Kac has always articulated the experience of creative work with aesthetic theory. Among the few artists who can lucidly speak about aesthetic concepts in relation to other disciplines such as science, technology, and poetry, his voice contributes to debunk the fantasy that studio work does not involve either theory or research, thus grounding his creations both in experiment and debate.