Ghostly Collector

"Ghostly Collector" explores whether fiction can make new scientific innovations more accessible. By linking nanotechnologies such as DNA folding and protein design with artistic storytelling, the transmedia installation challenges the notion of object permanence. "Ghostly Collector" is a multifaceted ghost, whose identity figures through micro-performativity. In the installation GC is represented as a 3D-printed DNA Origami that finds its voice through a poem reflecting on its desire to perceive light. This desire is translated into an exoprosthesis with help of predicted protein structures prompted by the poem. GC’s desire for motion is captured in the drawing. The video shows how it shifts shape as an ice sculpture, melting from the artist’s body heat. Fascinated by the invisible forces shaping our world, the artist uses scientific techniques to develop virtual environments seeking to provoke thought about the existential implications of DNA Origami and protein structure prediction. work-in-progress