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The (Bio)Technological Sublime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jos de Mul
Jos de Mul*
Affiliation:
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
*
Jos de Mul, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Email: demul@fwb.eur.nl; Website: www.demul.nl
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Abstract

The notion of the sublime, which since the nineteenth century is one of the dominant aesthetic categories, is strongly connected with (the artistic representation of) overwhelming nature. In this article it is argued that in the course of the 20th century the sublime increasingly becomes entangled with the experience of technology. However, in the age of biotechnologies, such as genetic modification and synthetic biology, the sublime regains a natural dimension. Taking Eduard Kac’s Alba fluo rabbit (a ‘transgenic’ bunny, that resulted from the injection of green fluorescent protein of a Pacific jellyfish into the egg of an Albino rabbit) as an example, it will be argued that in the age of biotechnology the difference between nature, technology and art will gradually vanish, and new dimensions of the sublime will become manifest.

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Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 59 , Issue 1-2: Why New Aesthetics? , May 2012 , pp. 32 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2013

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