] His latest installation, which opened Thursday at the ] Exploratorium in San Francisco, doesn't involve ] transgenic pets or fluorescent mutants. Instead, he has ] translated Descartes' "cogito, ergo sum" into his own ] designer DNA sequence and inserted it in a tomato plant. ] ] The piece, called Move 36, is inspired by the 1997 chess ] game in which Garry Kasparov was defeated by Deep Blue, ] IBM's computer. Kac's installation is named for a ] surprising move in Game 2 of the match when Deep Blue, ] instead of making an expected move to position its queen ] for an attack, chose to exchange pawns. Kasparov ] reportedly was so unnerved by the tactic that it ruined ] his concentration for the rest of the match. ] ] "I was intrigued by what the match meant ] philosophically," Kac said. "It was the first time we've ] seen a computer exhibit behavior previously thought of as ] only in the realm of humans. ] ] "I was also interested in Kasparov's emotional response," ] Kac added, "as a human being in the face of a novel ] event. What happens when we come into contact with ] something not living, but that nonetheless demonstrates ] behavior reminiscent of humans?" ] ] Move 36 comprises a large chessboard, a genetically ] modified plant and two grids of projected blocks of ] undulating colored patterns. The chessboard's dark ] squares are made of soil (representing life); the light ] squares If you are in San Fran, go see this art. For one, the exploratorium is just a fun place to visit, and for two, I don't get to go, so you can rub it in forever:) |