Dmitry Bulatov is an artist, art theorist, curator, and author. His research focuses on interdisciplinary art media, including visual, lingua-acoustic, art-science, biological and robotic art. His artworks have been presented internationally: at the 49th and 50th Venice Biennale (2001, 2003), Ars Electronica Festival (ORF, 2002) and many others. Bulatov has lectured in Russia, US, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Singapore and Hong Kong. In 2007 one of his artworks was selected by Wired magazine as the world’s 10 top innovations. In 2009 he was awarded the National Innovation Award for Contemporary Visual Arts. He has curated more than twenty major exhibitions and publishing projects in Russia and abroad. Since 1998 Bulatov has worked as the senior curator at the Baltic Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Russia).

Website: videodoc.ncca-kaliningrad.ru/experts/dmitry-bulatov/

Dmitry Bulatov takes part in the Telepresent Animal Exhibition, February to May 2014.

The Telepresent Animal Hall of Fame

Senses Alert

Dmitry Bulatov

Senses Alert (AKA "Consciousness on Guard") 2000 - 2004
Transgenic tadpoles that glowed with genes from bioluminescent sea animals were created as a living artwork. Dmitry Bulatov, worked with a group of specialists from the D. Ivanovsky Institute of Virusology of the Academy of Sciences, to develop this chimeric organism based on aesthetic properties. After comparing the phosphorescing qualities of bacteria, jellyfish, and corals, the team decided to use the light-generating genes of the Pacifica actinia Anemonia Sulcata. These green-fluorescent protein (GFP) genes generated both red and green colors, which were microinjected into the genome of an aquatic frog (Xenopus laevis). The team was able to create tadpoles that glowed red and green, with one half of their bodies red and the other green. These new qualities were passed on to their offspring for several generations. However after about the fourth generation, the fluorescent qualities were lost and numerous developmental deviations and side effects were observed. In the words of the artist: “In 2004, our research group came to the conclusion that further experiments in artificially creating living objects with pre-designed esthetic properties were not feasible. The directors of the project decreed that all the organisms, which have undergone genetic manipulations, should remain within the experimental and exhibition area and by no means they should be allowed to penetrate the outside world.”