Glowing Green Bunnies! Glowing Green Bunnies!

This is Alba, an albino rabbit who looks normal in normal light, but glows phosphorescent green in the dark. She is the subject of the brilliantly titled chapter I wanted to read in that book about Queering the Non-Human (education is such fun!)

Alba

Alba was designed by Eduardo Kac, a Brazilian artist, and Louis-Marie Houdebine, a French geneticist. The rabbit's DNA was modified by the fluorescent protein EGP, a synthetic variant of a naturally existing gene from the jellyfish Aquaria Victoria, which was introduced through zygote micro-injection.

Apparently, Alba's "rabbit remix" was part of Kac's investigations into Telepresence & Bio Art, and she is supposed to entail some kind of statement about hybrids and creativity and integrating into society. I'm not so sure about it, especially since I read that the scientists involved fell out with the artist and claim that the publicity pictures of Alba were Photoshopped to make her green glow look stronger than it actually was.

Two Disapproving Rabbits

I realise that the queer sensibility tries to "ungird" and de-stabilize our sense of what is and isn't "natural". But I also thought that identity politics was about not letting other people define our identities for us? Genetically manipulating an animal, and then manipulating the photographs of said creature, doesn't really symbolize liberation and diversity to me.

God, as I understand Her to be