Camille Utterback’s 2001 art installation.

“The Drawing from Life installation was developed as a commission for the ‘Genomic Revolution’ show at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The exhibit opened in May 2001 and ran through January 1, 2002. In this piece viewers see a live video of themselves composed completely from the letters ‘ATGC’–the letters symbolizing the 4 proteins of DNA. This piece appears in the last room of the exhibit on the human genome and helps raise questions for visitors ‘am I more than my DNA’? ‘Does my DNA define me?’ The light or dark value of each letter is determined by the light or dark value in the incoming video, but the characters themselves change randomly–hinting at the vitality and chaos of life itself.” (From the web site.)

The text’s behavior is even more tightly coupled to the viewer; their images are completely transformed into the letters A, T, G, and C, representing the four proteins of DNA. (222) “By distancing this connection through the abstracting of the live image into letters, viewers become more aware of the discrepancy between the abstraction and their bodies […] Viewers recognize that this abstraction is simultaneously ‘them’ and ‘not them’” (Utterback 2004: 223).

Starter Links: Drawing from Life