Baroque Bodies (Sway), 2024
Interactive audio-visual installation including data-driven sound and 3D models with AI-generated imagery, 16 x 20 x 25 feet;
Courtesy of the artist. Commissioned by the Beall Center for Art + Technology’s Black Box Projects residency program
Baroque Bodies (Sway) is an interactive installation exploring the impact of the environment on gene expression. Nurturing embodied sensations of micro and macro scales, the work features a projected 3D model of a nucleosome, a cluster of DNA and proteins that holds genetic information. Landscapes reflected on surfaces were AI-generated using text excerpts from epigenetics research. Visitors’ movements influence views of the nucleosome. Multiple visitors’ movements share equal yet unpredictable “sway” over the view, just as environmental effects on gene expression compound in unpredictable ways. Movement also triggers sounds created with sonified data from simulations of chromatin (the material substance of the genetic chromosome).
→ Behind the Science
Baroque Bodies (Sway) engages emerging epigenetic research. The name derives from Greek: “epi” means “on” or “above” and “epigenetic” describes factors beyond the genetic code. It focuses on inheritable changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression, rather than modification of the genetic sequence. If one’s genetic sequence were a musical score, its epigenetic expression could alter the way a song is played, without changing the song’s underlying notes. Environmental exposures, diet, lifestyle, stress, and social factors can have an impact on our health and disease risk through epigenetic changes that regulate whether genes are turned on or off.
“Genetic expression does not operate in a vacuum, and can’t be reduced to genes, but is affected by external stimuli and environmental influences. I wanted to use interactivity to create an embodied experience of this uncertainty and complexity while also eliciting agency through exploration, play, and collaboration.” —Laura Splan
2024. Commissioned by the UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology’s Black
Box Projects residency program, with support from Getty. Photo by Zeke Kimball.
Courtesy of the artist.
Laura Splan is a New York City-based artist exploring intersections of culture, science and technology. Often working collaboratively and between disciplines, Splan’s practice reframes artifacts of the posthuman landscape. By playfully illuminating the sociopolitical dynamics of sensory experiences, Splan’s work cultivates intuitive and embodied comprehension of the interconnectedness of cultural and biological systems. Her research interrogates the “GUI/gooey” or liminal spaces that mediate our relationship to nature and to our bodies. Splan has exhibited her work internationally and is held in collections including the Thoma Art Foundation. Commissions include projects for the CDC Foundation, Vanderbilt Planetarium, and the Bruges Triennial.
Baroque Bodies (Sway) was made possible with support from the UC Irvine Beall Center for Art + Technology, The Beall Family Foundation, Getty, Simons Foundation, EY Metaverse Lab, NEW INC, Onassis ONX, and Wave Farm MAAF. Collaborators include EY Metaverse Lab (Danielle McPhatter, Steven Dalton, Joseph Bradascio, Domhnaill Hernon), Hannah Lui Park (Principal Investigator, UC Irvine Park Lab) and Adam Lamson (Theoretical Biophysicist, Flatiron Institute).
