Event Blog 2: Blood: Medieval/ Modern

This week, I visited the exhibit titled “Blood: Medieval/ Modern” at the Getty museum. This exhibit showed art and artifacts, medieval and modern, about blood and lineage. One of the artworks I found that was interesting was the artwork titled “Glenn, Dario, and Tyrone”, depicting three individuals’ (Glenn, Dario, and Tyrone) DNA sequences into a photograph. These DNA sequences as photographs are a contemporary view of familial networks and bloodlines (“The Getty Museum”). 




Fig. 1: “Glenn, Dario, and Tyrone” 


In present day, we are able to view DNA sequences to match bloodlines through services such as 23 and Me (23 and Me). However, in older times, bloodlines were depicted through diagrams, tables, and book records. As seen in the exhibit, there are tables and diagrams depicting lineages of prominent historical figures including Jesus and the royal family. 




Fig. 2: Table of Consanguinity, Table of Affinity, and The Tree of Jesse


Fig. 3: Diagrams of Royal Lineage


The contemporary depiction of lineages through our DNA to create art reminds me of the art that was created using a map of the Milky way int he ear of the transgenic mouse. This art used the map of the Milky Way and reduced the information to a sequence of 3867 DNA base pairs in order to test the theories of self-assembly (Vesna). Similar to this Milky Way art, using DNA sequences to create art comments on how different characteristics are assembled. The art helps us compare the small molecules and decipher it to see how it can be used in other ways that could benefit the bigger understanding of life and society.

 





Works Cited


23 and Me. The Science Behind 23andMe - Our Science and Testing Process - 23andMe. www.23andme.com/genetic-science.

“The Getty Museum.” Getty Museum, www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/blood.

Vesna, Victoria. “5 BioArt pt1.”


Image Citations


Manglano-Ovalle, Inigo. Glenn, Dario, and Tyrone. 1998, The Getty Center, Los Angeles.


Table of Consanguinity, Table of Affinity. About 1170-80, The Getty Center, Los Angeles.


The Tree of Jesse. About 1240-50, The Getty Center, Los Angeles.


Diagrams of Royal Lineage. 1400s, The Getty Center, Los Angeles.






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