| Statement:
What I had hoped to accomplish through this
work is the physical manifestation of the notion that we all have
DNA contributions from every race on the world. Though not every
race is here represented, I hope the idea comes through. By combining
the physical facial attributes of each race, I was representing
the fact that we are all, either physically or otherwise, comprised
of genes from a number of races.
In order to create this piece, I first photographed
my subjects. Some of my early subjects were unusable and new subjects
had to be used. Following this, I arranged and compiled the images
in Adobe Photoshop® to create a starting point. I then, manually,
combined the images of the four races in order to create a new,
novel face. The order was determined by the DNA sequence. Since
I had split up the 100 bases into groups of four, I also split up
the face into four sections. The first was the hair and forehead,
the second was the brow and the eyes, the third was the nose and
cheekbone area, and the fourth was the mouth, chin, and ears. The
distinction of which race to use for which part of the face was
determined by the order in which the sequence dictated they be in.
After creating, through recombination, 25 novel faces, I added a
filter in Photoshop® in order to create further harmony between
the different facial regions. For the mutation, I took the “normal”
sequence, desaturated it, and added distortions to it. I compiled
each of the pictures, along with the legend and proper labels for
each picture, into a PowerPoint® presentation for ease of view.
I found that having a DNA sequence determine
the structure of the faces expressed my theme perfectly. Our genes
work in unpredictable ways, and, truly, I did not know how the faces
would appear after they were combined. I was trying to express that
we are all comprised of more than one race, as each face is here.
By allowing a DNA sequence to dictate how the face was to be constructed,
the combinations were random, and, quite interesting to see. My
mutated sequence represents the destruction of physical attributes
at the hands of mutated genes. Though many gene mutations are not
expressed, my hope was to express degradation and decay as caused
by genetic mutations.
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