Artist Creates 3D Printed Portraits of Random People Based on DNA Samples Found on Cigarette Butts Found on Streets
Technology and art combined
Technology is a wonderful thing. It allows us to do things we couldn't even dream of a few decades ago. One of these advancements is reconstructing a person's appearance from a single hair or saliva sample.
What's even more impressive is that we can also learn about that person's health—all through the fascinating world of DNA.
You might say that it is impossible to combine art and cutting-edge technology, but some people manage to do it. When Heather Dewey-Hagborg found a single hair stuck within a photo frame a few years ago, it inspired her to create unique works of art—3D representations of unknown people's faces solely based on their DNA samples.
She was motivated to embark on a mission to learn as much as she could about the individuals who left these small traces of themselves in the world, inspired by forensic TV series like Bones.
Stranger Visions is a set of 3D portraits created from DNA extracted from chewing gum, cigarette butts, and hairs found on the streets and subways. Dewey-Hagborg takes these samples to a lab, separates the gene sequences herself, and then sends pieces to a different lab for DNA sequencing.
This analysis helps her determine a variety of characteristics, including sex, ethnic background, eye color, hair color, height, freckle likelihood, and obesity proclivity. She created special software to generate a 3D model based on these genes, which she then prints on a 3D printer to create a life-size portrait.
Installation at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
Heather Dewey-HagborgSept 6, 2014
Heather Dewey-HagborgInstallation at Laznia Museum of Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Poland
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Dewey-Hagborg exhibits the 3D portraits alongside a box containing information gained from DNA testing, the original chewed gum or cigarette butt, and a photograph of the location where she discovered it.
Sample box for NYC sample 4
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
New York: Sample 4
1/6/13 12:20 PMMyrtle Ave. and Himrod St., Brooklyn, NYMtDNA Haplogroup: T2b (European)SRY Gene: absentGender: Femalers12913832: AALikely Eye Color: Brownrs4648379: CTSlightly smaller nose sizers6548238: TTSlightly lower odds for obesity
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
New York: Sample 2
Myrtle Ave. and Himrod St., Brooklyn, NYMtDNA Haplogroup: T2b (European)SRY Gene: absentGender: Femalers12913832: AALikely Eye Color: Brownrs4648379: CTSlightly smaller nose sizers6548238: TTSlightly lower odds for obesity
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
New York: Sample 3
MtDNA Haplogroup: L2a1 (African)SRY Gene: presentGender: Malers12913832: AAEye Color: Brownrs4648379: CCTypical nose sizers6548238: CCTypical odds for obesity
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
New York: Sample 6
MtDNA Haplogroup: D1 (Native American, South American)SRY Gene: presentGender: Malers12913832: AAEye Color: Brownrs4648379: CCTypical nose sizers6548238: CCTypical odds for obesity
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
New York: Sample 7
MtDNA Haplogroup: L1b (Central or West African)SRY Gene: presentGender: Malers12913832: AAEye Color: Brownrs4648379: CCTypical nose sizers6548238: CCTypical odds for obesity
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
East Hampton: Sample 7
MtDNA Haplogroup: M48 (North East Indian)SRY Gene: absentGender: Femalers12913832: AAEye Color: Brownrs4648379: CCTypical nose sizers6548238: CCTypical odds for obesity
Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Watch Heather Dewey-Hagborg talk about her artistic process:
Technology is impressive, right? Who knows what scientists will be able to do in a couple of decades?
Maybe they will be able to grow a complete human from a single sample. Scary, right?
It's not hard to imagine a future where people won't throw away cigarette butts, plastic coffee cups, or anything they've touched into public trash bins. Instead, they'll carry them around until they reach a safe spot where they can dispose of them properly, because if they don't, someone might take their DNA sample and create their clone.
