Genetic art

Remember the fly where the eyeless gene is expressed inappropriately in the legs? An eye formed on each leg! Many gene names in Drosophila are named based on their mutant phenotype. That is a loss of function mutation in the gene eyeless produces a fly with no eyes. The eyeless gene is thus required for eye development. Question: Do the eyes on the fly "see"? Maybe yes. That is, there is an eye there with photoreceptors yet they are not wired to the brain of the fly so the fly is not aware of what the eyes see. What if a human implanted a hearing (artificial) ear under the skin of his arm equipped with a microphone to send sound signals to a computer? This is what performance artist Stelios Arcadiou (aka Sterlarc) has done. He intends to tranform his body into a portal for the internet. While this is not strictly an example of "genetic art" there are other good attempts as reported this week in the Science Times section of the NY Times Tuesday April 14th. Stelarc's art is one of several wonders of Post-natural history. There is a goat that has been genetically altered to produce the silk of spiders that can be used for bullet-proof vests, a forest of poles that transmit signals of your presence to a culture of neurons at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Among other expamples of "genetic art" include the transgenic cat that glows green due to the expression of GFP protein. Is this science, art or the grotesque remenescent of the displays of human genetic maladies for the entertainment of others for centuries. Time will tell. Meanwhile, artists offer society a of a potential that we as geneticist are (or should be) aware.