Abstract
“GUI/GOOEY” is a critical examination of technological translations of the biological world. This paper and presentation interrogates design paradigms of biotechnological software, hardware, devices, machines, and their interfaces through a series of interdisciplinary artworks. Scientific tools and technologies have ideologies embedded in their design, code, options, language, and organization. With molecular visualization software tools like PyMOL, Chimera, Paraview, and Blender, we can explore how the tools biodesigners, scientists, and researchers use to represent, study, and manipulate the natural world might have an impact on how we define and imagine it. Using several interdisciplinary Sciart projects created in collaboration with scientists, GUI/GOOEY will unpack everything from drop down menus to naming conventions as a method of media literacy for young biodesigners. “Unraveling” (Splan, 2020) created with PyMOL molecular visualization software, speculates on how color options (i.e. forest) in software might reinforce idealized notions of nature. And it repurposes PyMOL’s “Sculpting Tool” as a performative interaction that embodies a direct tactile manipulation of the molecular world through a graphical user interface. “Baroque Bodies” (Splan, 2022) created with Blender/BioBlender 3D modeling software speculates on how representations of the molecular world can not only represent structure but can also imply function through aesthetic and creative strategies such as materials, lighting, sound, and animation. This visual paper and presentation will use a images, video, and sound from these artworks to present a critical analysis of the impact that technological translations of the biological world can have on agendas, methodologies, and philosophies of disciplines like Biodesign.
Supplementary materials
Title
Baroque Bodies (Ambient Portals)
Description
3D animation created with PyMOL and BioBlender using nucleosome models and AI-generated images
"Baroque Bodies (Ambient Portals)" explores the interconnectedness of the natural world and the built environment with an otherworldly meditation on post-human subjectivities. The conceptual underpinnings of the project are drawn from epigenetic research on environmental influences on gene expression. Drawing both inspiration and material from emerging research on the effects of trauma, climate change, food scarcity, pesticides, and other external influences on public health, the work explores the complex relationships between what is invisible and in plain sight, nature and nurture. The animations, made in Blender, were created using 3D molecular models of nucleosomes that reflect AI-generated landscapes. The mirror surfaces of genetic structures (histone proteins, DNA strands) reflect idyllic landscapes that are otherwise invisible in the animations.
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Title
Unraveling (Unraveling (Marine/Aquamarine/Skyblue)
Description
animations created with PyMOL using molecular models of the coronavirus spike protein
“Unraveling” is a series of animations that present mesmerizing meditations on invisible entanglements between natural and constructed worlds. The digital animations are created using molecular visualization software and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein models. Using specialized features of molecular visualization software in unconventional ways, the coronavirus spike protein is transformed by unraveling and morphing the folded and unfolded forms. The colors are chosen from the software’s palette for their references to nature such as plants, animals, and chemical elements. The video titles in the series echo the colors’ names that are evocative of idyllic representations of the natural world such as blue skies, green forests, ripe fruit and romantic flowers. The mere act of adding color is another layer of translation and fabrication since most viruses are smaller than visible wavelengths and therefore have no color.
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Supplementary weblinks
Title
"Baroque Bodies (Ambient Portals)" project webpage
Description
3D animation created with PyMOL and BioBlender using nucleosome models and AI-generated images
"Baroque Bodies (Ambient Portals)" explores the interconnectedness of the natural world and the built environment with an otherworldly meditation on post-human subjectivities. The conceptual underpinnings of the project are drawn from epigenetic research on environmental influences on gene expression. Drawing both inspiration and material from emerging research on the effects of trauma, climate change, food scarcity, pesticides, and other external influences on public health, the work explores the complex relationships between what is invisible and in plain sight, nature and nurture. The animations, made in Blender, were created using 3D molecular models of nucleosomes that reflect AI-generated landscapes. The mirror surfaces of genetic structures (histone proteins, DNA strands) reflect idyllic landscapes that are otherwise invisible in the animations.
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View Title
"Unraveling" project webpage
Description
animations created with PyMOL using molecular models of the coronavirus spike protein
“Unraveling” is a series of animations that present mesmerizing meditations on invisible entanglements between natural and constructed worlds. The digital animations are created using molecular visualization software and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein models. Using specialized features of molecular visualization software in unconventional ways, the coronavirus spike protein is transformed by unraveling and morphing the folded and unfolded forms. The colors are chosen from the software’s palette for their references to nature such as plants, animals, and chemical elements. The video titles in the series echo the colors’ names that are evocative of idyllic representations of the natural world such as blue skies, green forests, ripe fruit and romantic flowers. The mere act of adding color is another layer of translation and fabrication since most viruses are smaller than visible wavelengths and therefore have no color.
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