Alive Without Breath by Keng Lye
Stranger Visions by Heather Dewey-Hagborg
This super interesting project consists of 3D printed portraits based on DNA samples taken from objects found on the streets of Brooklyn (like gum, cigarettes and hair). Dewey-Hagborg worked with a DIY biology lab called Genspace, where she met a number of biologists who taught her everything she now knows about molecular biology and DNA. Via an interview with the artist:
So I extract the DNA in the lab and then I amplify certain regions of it using a technique called PCR – Polymerase Chain Reaction. This allows me to study certain regions of the genome that tend to vary person to person, what are called SNPs or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms.
I send the results of my PCR reactions off to a lab for sequencing and what I get back are basically text files filled with sequences of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs, the nucleotides that compose DNA. I align these using a bioinformatics program and determine what allele is present for a particular SNP on each sample.
Then I feed this information into a custom computer program I wrote which takes all these values which code for physical genetic traits and parameterizes a 3d model of a face to represent them. For example gender, ancestry, eye color, hair color, freckles, lighter or darker skin, and certain facial features like nose width and distance between eyes are some of the features I am in the process of studying.
I add some finishing touches to the model in 3d software and then export it for printing on a 3d printer. I use a Zcorp printer which prints in full color using a powder type material, kind of like sand and glue.
Layered Photographs by Nerhol, the photograpy collective which includes Yoshihisa Tanaka and Ryuta Liada. This is their latest project and consists of piles of photographs rather than a single image. Their subjects sat for three minutes while they took several pictures of them and then the prints were stacked and cut to reveal the layers, resulting in a warping of the subject’s subtle movements.
