September 13, 2016, 7:30pm
Join us on Tuesday, September 13 at 7:30pm for the lecture “DNA Semantics” by Gregor Mobius. The lecture is Mobius’ first public presentation in New York, and celebrates the launch of his recently published book of the same name.
Gregor Mobius
DNA Semantics: Visual Representation of DNA and RNA
“DNA Semantics” presents an interpretation of DNA/RNA as visual structures with specific formal properties and relationships. Instead of the existing DNA/RNA alphabet representation of U, C, A, G, and T, the bases are expressed as five discrete values of the gray-scale: T = white, G = light gray, A = gray, C = dark gray and U = black. Arranged in 3 x 4 matrices, DNA strands are converted from linear structures consisting of alphabet letters into 2D images with distinct visual properties. This representation allows us to learn more about DNA/RNA, not only as biological (functional) structures but also as a specific language that can be expressed visually.
Gregor Mobius is a theoretician of languages that are expressed visually. His early work was in the field of Graph Theory developing an algorithm for visual representation of all planar and regular graphs. As a Fulbright scholar he received a Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT with the paper “Discrete Visual Structure – Elements of Visual Grammar” (Fulbright Scholar, 1984). A few years later, based on his thesis paper, Mobius proposed a specific representation of DNA and RNA that converts linear alphabet DNA structure into a 2D image. This work was presented to the public in the exhibition Gene(sis) that traveled through Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2002), Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley (2003), Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis (2004), and Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston (2004). It is now for the first time presented in a comprehensive way in the book DNA Semantics (Visual Language Research Institute, 2015), available from www.mottodistribution.com.
For more information contact program [at] e-flux.com.