Stranger Visions: Reconstruction Through Genetic Surveillance

smriti

smriti

@smriti-ZtAJsx Oct 22, 2024
With each living breath, and the places we go, we are unnoticeably leaving behind evidences of our existence that could trace back to us, and yield personal data. Information artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg is working on such a surveillance system which amounts to a genetic intelligence database of computer-generated 3D profiles constructed from hair samples.

The hair samples are picked from public places and serve as physical traces which link to the person in question, hence depriving of anonymity. It's amazing, yet equally scary, the potential and scope of this project titled Strange Visions. Strange Visions brings forth the fact that the day is near when tools needed to unveil the secrets behind physical evidence of a human being will become accessible.

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Futuristic and astonishing in its concept, Strange Visions showcases the power of detail, wherein a single strand of hair could reveal race, resistance to diseases, eye color of a person. The collection of hair samples is broken down by extracting known predictive traits from the sequenced genome. The results are then used to chart ancestry across a large printed map, eventually conceding enough information to construct 3D portraits of the subject. Dewey-Hagborg's has tested this concept on herself and found the result to be a physical likeness.

Strange Visions is on display this entire month at the Eyebeam technology center in Manhattan.

Source & Image Credit: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/3138563/stranger-visions-genetic-surveillance-eyebeam" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Stranger Visions: a genetic surveillance project goes snooping for pieces of ourselves - The Verge</a>

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