Robert Dooley :: Projects and Ideas

Projects

Design by Sequence

"Blue Genes (Original mix)” 5:53
“Blue Genes (Oops I Dropped It, Now I Can’t Find it mix)” 6:41
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Genetic Art Proposal

"Title"
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Ideas

Some of my links on the topic of genetic arts:

Martin, Liam. “Genetics, Culture, and Buddhism.” Interracial Voice. (2001.) 12 April 2003.
http://www.webcom.com/intvoice/liam2.html

This editorial examines the ideas behind mixed-race Buddhism and the impact of genetic differences on race and culture. Some interesting points in this article include the question of whether or not genetics determines race and in race, culture. The author uses genetics to refute the one-drop rule which discriminates against Africans. The author conflicts with the ideas behind “The Human Race” piece, because he claims that while there are connections between genetics and race there is no link between genetics and culture.

Deshaies, Jacques. “I art.” Jacques Deshaies – Painter. 1975-2003. 21 April 2003. http://www.jacquesdeshaies.com/bienvenue/index2.html
This is an artist statement from a French artist who has experimented in genomic art. He explains his recent move to DNA and double-helix art as a response to his “going back to basics” as an artist, in which he will “consecrate the image,” and focus on form and function. This essay shows the idea of genomic art as a metaphor for the importance of form to message in art, since DNA is the basic form of humans but influences our function too.

http://www.jacquesdeshaies.com/bienvenue/index2.html

“Genomic Art: Portrait of the 21st Century.” UC Santa Cruz Human Genome Symposium 2001. 21 April 2003.

http://genomesymposium.ucsc.edu/exhibit.html
This is a story about an exhibit at the symposium. The people running the exhibit believe that science doesn’t mean much without society’s valuation of it, and that art plays a crucial role in this valuation, connecting the invisible genome to societal reality through images. I cannot disagree with this idea, but it does seem a bit arrogant to say that art gives meaning to science. Much of genomic art might be “art for art’s sake,” merely taking the HGP as source material.