Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s Stranger Visions series wins
Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention for Hybird Arts!

The Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s most time-honored media arts competition. Winners are awarded the coveted Golden Nica statuette and an opportunity to showcase their talents at the famed Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. The categories in 2015 are Computer Animation/Film/VFX, Digital Musics & Sound Art, Hybrid Art and [the next idea] voestalpine Art & Technology Grant competition.

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? …continue reading
– Heather Dewey-Hagborg