GFP Bunny
In what is probably his most famous work, Alba, Kac commissioned a French laboratory to create a green-fluorescent rabbit; a rabbit implanted with a Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) gene from a type of jellyfish. Under a specific blue light, the rabbit fluoresces green. "The PR campaign included a picture of Kac holding a white rabbit and another, iconic image of a rabbit photographically enhanced to appear green." In 2000, Alba was presented in Avignon, France. Kac's aim was for Alba to live with his family, but prior to the scheduled release of Alba to Kac, the lab retracted their agreement and decided that Alba should stay in the lab.
Whether Alba is alive today remains an open question. GFP plants, fish, and mammals have been long-term residents of science laboratories. The GFP gene is typically used as a type of marker, that, when attached to a separate genetic modification or gene, illustrates where that symbiotic gene manifests in the organism. However, Kac used GFP as a social marker, in a symbolic (not scientific) manner, to raise questions about how society constructs the idea of difference. Notably, since Alba's conception, GFP zebrafish have hit the commercial market under the trademarked name, GloFish.
Kac, in response to the laboratory's retraction of Alba's liberty, flies a flag outside of his home, sporting a silhouette of a green rabbit.
In his 1998 manifesto on Transgenic Art, Eduardo Kac proposed to use GFP to create a fluorescent dog "GFP K-9". This project never came to fruition.
Read more about this topic: Eduardo Kac