strangely appealing: dna portraits
I spotted this unusual art piece in the new MoMA store catalog: It’s a DNA portrait, which they call “a modern spin on a personal or pet portrait.” For $550, you will receive a DNA kit that helps you collect a “painless cheek swap” sample (though, perhaps not so painless if your pet bites you as you swipe). Mail your sample into a lab for processing, and in about six weeks, you’ll receive your DNA fingerprint on canvas in the color palette of your choice. Click here to read more about how the prints are made by DNA 11. Each one is signed on the back by the artists there, and like your own genetic stamp, completely unique. I know at first it might sound a bit gimmicky, but I have to say, I like the images. For a pet, well, that might be a bit silly… but how ’bout a high tech wedding gift? You can get two side-by-side in coordinating colors! What do you think: Are DNA portraits appealing or appalling? — Angela M.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:54 am
appealing, only for the color, not so much for the dna.
March 19th, 2007 at 8:20 am
This is so cool. But too pricey for me. They should use it in an episode of Law & Order… criminal undone by interior design.
March 19th, 2007 at 8:44 am
I got a gift certificate for this at a conference.
$100 off any custom piece at dna11.com
Enter code “xprize”
March 19th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Hmm, can’t say I like the idea of a private company having a sample of my DNA on file — who knows what they will do with them?
March 19th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I agree with Jennifer. Credit card numbers, names, and SSNs can get out by accident, no fault of your own. But imagine if someone steals your identity because you wanted a pretty piece for over your sofa. How embarrassing.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:19 am
I love how it looks, I don’t particularly care if it’s my DNA. Or even human. I think it would make a beautiful quilt.
March 20th, 2007 at 7:28 am
I love them. I caught an interview with the CEO, and I was extremely impressed. They are so creative and colorful. The company also does custom fingerprint art. The fingerprint art is a little cheaper and smaller in size. Overall the whole company is super appealing.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Am I the only one who thinks that you could easily blow up your own fingerprints or a picture of a Western Blot (that’s the DNA thing) from google images for a whole lot cheaper? While I adore the idea of the print, I don’t really need for it to come from me. Furthermore, you could easily spent hundreds and not ever know if it actuall IS from you…
March 21st, 2007 at 10:05 am
@season:
Western blots are actually all about protein and the gels that these guys do are all about DNA. I’m actually running a Western right now and about to run a DNA gel as soon as I stop procrastinating by looking at shelterrific!
If you want images that look similar to this company’s, you might use the search term “sequencing gel.”
I framed a series of agarose gels of various bits of cloned DNA for a friend of mine. Science makes wonderful art.
I was also thinking what if you just swabbed your pet’s cheek?
March 26th, 2007 at 8:03 am
My bad, that would be Southern Blotting. I was just saying that if you looked up a blot (westerns are the ones that came up for me on google when I wanted to do this before), you could easily make it into art without all the hooplah. I think it would be cool to print them onto transparencies and use them for a lampshade or a light box. Even putting the B&W image in a backless frame in front of a colored wall could yield cool effects.
The only real problem with blots though is that they are inherently blurry. I prefer my micrographs for art. I’m working on getting the electron micrographs I did over the summer blown up for display. Talk about original black and white photos.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:04 am
@Season Says
I’ve never gotten to do EM. I’ve done a little immunofluorescence in my time, but nothing worthy of framing. The place I work annually hosts a traveling exhibit of Nikon’s Small World competition.
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/
Once years ago I took a whole bunch of sequencing gels and made them into a sculpture of a bird held together with bits of scotch tape. I should revisit that idea. I want to make a large bird wing this time because that was the part that I liked best of my bird – the different transparencies of layers of the x-ray film were neat.
My other pet project idea is to do a dilution series of various stains in some tiny sample bottles and use them as a kind of stained glass cover for one of my windows. I’m just not sure how to seal them effectively.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
[...] I came across the artwork of Louisa Bufardeci the other day (via Anh-Minh) and it immediately reminded me of the DNA portraits we wrote about last week. These are visual interpretations of thirteen conversations — some were historically ‘tapped’ while others were just from the artist’s life. In a day-and-age when personal privacy is being eroded in the name of national security, they seem incredibly relevant — not to mention, I love the graphic imagery of them. I’m not sure if they’re available for purchase not, but you can view them here at Louisa’s site. — Angela M. [...]
March 30th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I totally love it. My husband works in a lab. I’m thinking maybe he can run our DNA and we can put it on canvass ourselves. We already have framed western blotts (which looks gorgeous although sounds wierd) in super modern frames above our bed.