Mutation Drift (Human)

DNA replication errors accumulating slowly across many generations of mammalian-style copying.

Every time a cell copies its DNA, there is a small chance of error. These errors (mutations) are not flaws in the system. They are a feature of it: mutation is the raw material of natural selection, providing the steady stream of individual variation that drives evolution.

I replicated a single sentence across many generations, giving every character a small probability of changing at random at each copy. The rate here is low, as it is in the mammalian germline, so errors accumulate slowly and the sentence stays legible from top to bottom. Its companion, Mutation Drift (Retrovirus), runs the same experiment with the error rate turned up a thousandfold.

Provenance

Generative simulation, slow mutation drift
The mutation rate is a relative parameter, not a calibration to any specific empirical figure. The contrast against the companion frame, Mutation Drift (Retrovirus), whose rate is roughly three orders of magnitude higher, is the subject. It illustrates the difference in replication fidelity between high-fidelity germline DNA copying and low-fidelity retroviral copying.

Materials

Archival giclée print on fine-art paper, a faithful digital reproduction of a pen-plotted work. Each print ships with a signed data-provenance insert card.

Included

• One archival giclée print (unframed)
• Signed data-provenance insert card
• Care instructions

Studio

We are Genetics of Design, a data art studio that uses pen plotting as its medium. Every piece we make begins with a public record, whether road networks, genomes, star catalogs, or species data, which we translate through custom code into composition, density, and line, and publish alongside the provenance of the data it came from.