Blind Genes

Courtesy of Bettina and Thomas Hebell

Following on from »Digital Scores«, which represent the world’s first photograph (Niépce, 1826) in various digital encodings, »Blind Genes« are derived from a genetic database. The raw data was acquired from the Internet GenBank using the search term »blindness«, thereby ignoring the subject, completeness, and quality of the data. Nonhuman, partial, or sequences gained from simulations, and those of as yet merely postulated, nonlocalizable genes were also used, and are indicative of the metaphorical aspect of »Blind Genes«, alluding to the current status of research in genetic science in general: finding the tree of knowledge in the jungle of information. In keeping with conventional notation, the sequences of letters are presented in blocks of ten, each 100 cm wide, and then transcoded into the tactile writing system Braille in the colors yellow, blue, red, and green, whereby adenine (a) = yellow; guanine (g) = blue; cytosine (c) = red; and thymine (t) = green. The height of the individual works is related to the different lengths of the depicted genetic sequences. Each is a unique piece.