Trio Inheritance

Inherited DNA from each parent, mapped across all 22 human autosomes.

Every person is a genetic mosaic of their two parents. This piece displays one individual's twenty-two autosomes, with bands of color marking which stretches of DNA were inherited from each parent. Each band spans a 500 kilobase window; its color encodes the balance between paternal and maternal contributions in that window.

The chromosomes are shuffled and the labels removed — the pattern itself is the subject. A signature like this would resolve for every person on Earth, similar in form, distinct in detail.

Provenance

Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) benchmark VCFs — Ashkenazi Jewish trio HG002/HG003/HG004 (GRCh38)
https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/genome-bottle
Genome in a Bottle Consortium / National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Reference genome GRCh38 from the Genome Reference Consortium.

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

Genetics of Design is a data art studio that uses pen plotting as its medium. Each piece begins with a public record — road networks, genomes, star catalogs, species data — translated through custom code into composition, density, and line, and published alongside the provenance of the data it came from.