Eduardo Kac Takes Art to Infinity and Beyond

While the old adage goes, "Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you'll land among the stars," Professor of Art and Technology Studies Eduardo Kac (MFA 1990) is taking it quite literally in his recent collaboration with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station. They worked together to create the first artwork produced in space, a paper sculpture that defies gravity. Titled Inner Telescope the simple, three-part part object marks a critical moment in Kac's artistic collaborations with the Space Observatory, "an office of France’s National Center for Space Studies that focuses on the cultural aspect of space exploration." A recent article in the New York Times describes his decades-long interest in space and its relationship to his creative practice. Kac built a career merging science with art, "ma[king] a name for himself as a progenitor of 'bio art,' meaning art made with living matter."