Stranger Visions
2012–2013
installation, video 2:55
In Stranger Visions artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg creates portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material collected in public places. Working with the traces strangers unwittingly leave behind, Dewey-Hagborg calls attention to the developing technology of forensic DNA phenotyping and the potential for a culture of biological surveillance. Designed as an exploratory project based on emerging science, the forecast of Stranger Visions has proved prescient. For an example of DNA phenotyping at work in forensics check out the companies Parabon NanoLabs and Identitas and read about their collaboration with the Toronto police.
Stranger Visions, winner of an Ars Electronica honorary mention 2015 and a special mention at VIDA 15.0, has been exhibited locally and internationally at events and venues including: Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Article Biennial, Norway, Saint Gaudens national historic site, The New York Public Library, Ars Electronica, Eyebeam, Science Gallery Dublin, the 92Y Tribeca, Clocktower Gallery, Washington Project for the Arts, University of Technology Gallery in Sydney, among many others.
Pictures: Portrait and samples from New York: Sample 3 Collected 1/6/13 12:17pm Himrod st MtDNA Haplogroup: L2a1 (African) SRY Gene: present Gender: Male rs12913832: AA Eye Color: Brown rs4648379: CC Typical nose size rs6548238: CC Typical odds for obesity
http://deweyhagborg.com/projects/stranger-visions
Heather Dewey-Hagborg (1982) is a Chicago-based transdisciplinary artist and educator who is interested in art as research and critical practice. Heather has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Bienniale, the New Museum, and PS1 MOMA. Her work has been widely discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to TED and Wired. She is an Assistant Professor of Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a 2016 Creative Capital award grantee in the area of Emerging Fields.
Project RISK CHANGE (2016–2020) is co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.
The project is also supported by the Municipality of Maribor and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.
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