In my artwork *Stranger Visions* I create portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material collected in public spaces. Working with artifacts that strangers unwittingly leave behind, this work demonstrates the possible future of forensic DNA phenotyping (determining appearance from DNA), and points to the emerging privacy issues related to the increasing accessibility and decreasing costs of biotechnology.

Much of my work begins with a question. In past works I have asked questions about language, AI, creativity and machines. The question behind *Stranger Visions* came to me as I was sitting in a therapy session, ostensibly with the purpose of introspecting and reflecting on myself. Staring at a generic print on the wall, I noticed that the glass covering the print was cracked and in that crack was lodged a single hair. I became fascinated by this hair. Who did it belong to? What did they look like? How did they act? What did they think about? How much could I find out about a person from a single hair?

I became entranced by this question of what I could learn about a person from a carelessly shed hair—like a detective story unfolding before me. On my way home that afternoon I began to notice all these genetic artifacts, all these *clues*, littered on the sidewalks, subway benches and streets. It occurred to me that if I could extract DNA from these kinds of items, I would have a pretty good indication as to who left them.

So I began collecting “samples”—traces of human DNA that I found on my travels. I brought the samples into a lab and performed DNA extraction. I amplify certain regions of the DNA using a technique called PCR—polymerase chain reaction. This allows me to study certain regions of the genome that tend to vary from person to person, known as SNPs or single nucleotide polymorphisms.

I determine what allele is present for a particular SNP on each sample, and then feed this information into a custom-built computer program I wrote, which takes all these values that correlate with physical genetic traits and parameterizes a 3D model of a face to represent them. I export the model and send it to a rapid prototyping machine that prints the model in full-color 3D.

It is important to remember that this is art, not the development of a new product or company.

*Stranger Visions* is meant as a provocation, a confrontation of the viewer with the possibility that someone might be able to examine their DNA, inspect their identity, from detritus they didn’t even notice that they had left behind. The point isn’t that I know *everything* about a person from a piece of chewing gum, rather that I, an amateur, know as much as I do. And I can potentially find out a whole lot more.

Links: http://strangervisions.com/

Supported by: Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, Genspace, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Music: Timothy Day

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (US) is a transdisciplinary artist and educator who is interested in art as research and critical inquiry. Heather has shown work internationally at events and venues including the Poland Mediations Bienniale, Ars Electronica, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, the Science Gallery Dublin, PS1 MOMA, the New Museum, and Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York City. Her work has been widely discussed in the media, from the *New York Times* and the BBC to TED and *WIRED*.