As an Intagram participant, and a mother of teenagers, I’m more than familiar with the “selfie”.  For those of you in the social media dark, this is the term for a photo taken of ones “self” and published out to friends and the other 3 billion people on earth with access to the internet.  The tell-tale sign of a “selfie” is a right arm jutting out in the lower left hand side of the frame indicating that the subject is holding their phone to take the picture.  Here is an example:

The Selfie

Artist Joanne Arnett has focused on another genre.  Her mug shot series is brilliant in both concept and execution.  Her works are meticulously handwoven representations of actual mug shots.  Nothing “insta” about about it.

Artist’s website: www.joannearnett.net

Artist’s website: www.davidrathman.com

Gallery representation: Mark Moore Gallery

I live in one of the most biodiverse areas in the country.  With an abundance of flora and fauna  one cannot help but be amazed at its beauty.    Many of the  Native American tribes shared the space as sacred for hunting so one might think of the area as the prototype for preservation and land management.

Photographer extraordinaire, Elmore DeMott, captures this wonder in her nature photography.   Her work reveals the hand of man along side the hand of the Maker.  Fires burn along rows of trees which have replaced the virgin forest.  Get the picture?

Artists website: Elmoredemott.com

Gallery representation: Paul Kasmin Gallery

Artist’s website:  www.alexroulette.com

I look at a lot of weird stuff on the internet in an attempt to entertain you people (i.e. gentle readers).  The sifting and sorting I do to be sure, 1) you don’t get bored; 2) keep you current; and 3) provide a modicum of entertainment,  is really my greatest joy and pleasure.  I’m trying hard.  If you only knew what I restrain myself from posting you could appreciate better what I am saying.   In any case, today’s post just stretches credulity.  I’m going to ask that you take a minute and read this one rather than scroll through in a rush.  If you share my reaction to it, it may take you some time to process it.

Here’s the borrowed text from thisiscolossal.com:

It’s a cold January day and you’re walking down a street in Brooklyn gnawing on a piece of gum that just passed the point of flavorful into the realm of tastelessness. In a hurry, you spit it on the ground without a second thought and continue about your day. Hours later a mysterious woman arrives and surreptitiously collects the sticky gum from the sidewalk and drops it into a clear plastic bag which she carefully labels. Flash forward a month later: you’re walking through an art gallery, and there, mounted on the wall, is a familiar face staring back at you. Astonishingly (or terrifyingly) it’s a 3D print of your face generated from the DNA you left behind on that random piece of gum that now appears in a petri dish just below the portrait. A few years ago this would seem like science fiction, the stuff of films like Gattaca, but to information artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg it’s how she makes her artwork here in 2013.

They say inspiration can strike anywhere and for Dewey-Hagborg that moment happened while sitting in a therapy session. While staring at a framed print on the wall she began to fixate on a tiny crack in the glass into which a small hair had become lodged. As her mind wandered she began to imagine who this seemingly insignificant hair belonged to, and more specifically what they might look like. After leaving the session she became keenly aware of the genetic trail left by every person in their daily life, and began to question what physical characteristics could be identified through the DNA left behind on a piece of gum or cigarette butt.

Stranger Visions is the result of her fascinating if slightly disconcerting line of questioning and experimentation that lead to the creation of 3D printed portraits based on DNA samples taken from objects found on the streets of Brooklyn. Dewey-Hagborg worked with a DIY biology lab in Brooklyn 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.

The resulting portraits are bizarre approximations of anonymous people who unknowingly left their genetic material on a random city street. So how accurate are the faces created from this genetic experiment? The artist likes to say they have a “family resemblance” and no, unlike the scenario depicted above, a person has never recognized themselves in any of her exhibitions. Yet. There are some things such as age which are virtually impossible to determine from DNA alone, so Dewey-Hagborg casts each portrait as if the person were around 25 years of age.

THE SAME MAN…Picture of him at 25 LEFT, HIS DNA derived portrait, HIS picture TODAY

Dewey-Hagborg will be giving a talk with a pop-up exhibit at Genspace next month on June 13th, and QF Gallery on Long Island will host a body of her work from June 29th through July 13th. You can follow the artist via her website and also her blog. All imagery courtesy the artist. (via smithsonian)

For the record, I’m pulling for Orb in today’s Kentucky Derby.  Muddy track and all.

While you wait, take a moment and view this winning video project by Bego Santiago.

Artist’s website: http://www.sophiacollier.com