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Thank you for the invitation and opportunity to contribute to -empyre-
soft-skinned space, and Tim, for the generous introductions.
We were motivated by the theme for the 2018 Cornell Council for the Arts
Biennial — Duration: Passage, Persistence, Survival — to explore inarguably one
of the most durable storage mediums on Earth: deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA,
the molecule that organizes and manages the blueprints of life, for life.
DNA is comprised of 4 nucleotides (adenine [A], thymine [T], guanine [G] and
cytosine [C]) that form polymer chains. Individual, polymerized chains are
able to form bonds with itself or with other complementary chains, i.e., to
self-assemble molecularly, ultimately to form the double helical structure
realized in the early 1950s by R. Franklin, F. Crick and J. Watson. This
self-assembling, or hybridization, pairs A with T and G with C, forming the
“inner rungs” of the double helix. These expansive chains of DNA, constructed
of this simple 4 letter alphabet, are arranged in vastly varied configurations
— governed by a base-4 quaternary code, combinatorial uniqueness in DNA scales
by 4^n, where n is the number of bases within each sequence. For example, a
sequence of 10 nucleotides would have 4^10 or greater than 1 million
combinations of A/T/G/C. The nuclear genome of a single human cell houses ~6.4
billion nucleotides divvied up among 23 pairs of linear DNA molecules called
chromosomes. The human body has ~10 trillion cells; within each cell resides
nearly 1.8 meters of DNA, which means each human has about 16 billion
kilometers of DNA stored in them. Furthermore, DNA is far from static (though
it is negatively charged), as nucleotides in a genome are continually being
inserted, deleted, rearranged and modified, which over evolutionary time allows
Persistence and Survival via mutation. To say the least, DNA is an
inexhaustible, evolvable medium.
As a medium of archive, DNA retains information about the genome for thousands
to millions of years. Ancient DNA recovered from ancient specimens offers
sufficient preservation to be read in bacterial hosts, a true and elegant
testament to its Duration:. With current sequencing technologies and their
reduced costs, the ability to interpret nearly any genome, modern or ancient,
has become commonplace. By interpreting the genome, by essentially digging
through genetic archives, we gain knowledge about the deep past, migration,
adaptation, ecosystems, disease, and we are provided templates for strategizing
cures and adaptabilities to a changing climate.
For the Biennial, our genome-inspired light installation, ATGC, depicted a
nucleotide-by-nucleotide “walk” through genomic sequence of 24 globally
representative human populations. Each nucleotide was represented by a
different color of LED light (A, red; T, green; G, white; C, blue), and each
LED light represented a different genome. The lights blinked in syncopation
until genomic variation in an individual genomic variant was encountered.
Nucleotide variation in a population resulted in a brief pause in syncopated
sequence of blinking lights. We had no control over when or if variation was
detected in the genome; we simply wrote a code to decipher these genomes. It
was clear, however, by observing the installation, human populations are
extremely similar at the genomic level, despite how appearance, expression, etc
across individuals, cultures, populations may differ. Might we then think of
the genome as Cagean, in which heredity content is indeterminate and contingent
upon chance?
Josh Strable, Kate Greder, Yasir Ahmed-Braimah & Juan Felipe Beltrán
On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 1:42 PM Timothy Conway Murray
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
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Josh Strable (US)
Josh Strable is an NSF-NPGI Postdoctoral Fellow in the Plant Biology Section of
the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. His research
identifies and characterizes genes and genetic networks that underlie leaf and
floral development in the grasses, as well as understanding the genetic basis
of how environmental stress influences plant growth and development. Josh
earned his Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Iowa State University and holds a M.S.
and B.S. in Biology from the University of Iowa.
Kate Greder (US)
Kate Greder is a PhD student in the Department of Fiber Science and Apparel
Design, at Cornell University. Her research focuses on spatialization in the
fashion system and the subsequent onto-epistemological questions that emerge
within design theory. Prior to Cornell, she worked in art conservation at Iowa
State University and she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the
University of California at Santa Cruz.
Yasir Ahmed-Braimah (US)
Yasir Ahmed-Braimah is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of
Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell. His research utilizes various
approaches to understand classical evolutionary genetics problems, such as
adaptation and speciation. Yasir earned his PhD in Biology from the University
of Rochester, and holds an M.S. and B.S. in Biology from the University of Iowa.
Juan Felipe Beltrán (US/Colombia)
Juan Felipe Beltrán is a Colombian Ph.D. Student in Computational Biology at
Cornell. Before coming to Cornell, Juan Felipe worked on Human-Computer
Interaction and Musical Rhythm Analysis at NYU in Abu Dhabi, where he completed
his Bachelor's in Computer Science. His research at Cornell focuses on the
application of machine learning and similarity analysis to study genetic
disease and the human microbiome.
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empyre forum
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