Heather Dewey-Hagborg facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Heather Dewey-Hagborg (photo from her 2013 project DNA Spoofing)
Born	(1982-06-04) June 4, 1982 (age 43) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Bennington College, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Occupation	Information artist
Notable work	Stranger Visions

Heather Dewey-Hagborg (born June 4, 1982, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an artist who uses science and technology in her work. She is well-known for her project Stranger Visions. In this project, she created portraits from DNA she found on things people left behind, like hair, chewing gum, and cigarette butts.

She found these items while living in Brooklyn, New York. From the DNA, she could figure out things like a person's gender and background. Then, she used special computer programs and a 3D printer to make a 3D portrait of what that person might look like. Her art often makes people think about technology, privacy, and how much information can be found about us.

Her Education and Early Art
Art Projects
Other Exhibitions and Events
Awards and Grants
Images for kids
See also

Her Education and Early Art

Spurious Memories (2007)

Heather Dewey-Hagborg is an artist who combines art and science. When she was a student at Bennington College, she took computer science classes. These classes helped her learn about algorithms, electronics, and computer programming. This knowledge later became important for her science-based artwork. She earned her first degree in 2003.

She continued to improve her skills in art and computer programming. She studied artificial intelligence at New York University (NYU) and earned another degree in 2007. While at NYU, she organized a robot performance art show called Robots on the March! in 2005. She also showed her own artwork, Lighter than Air, which was about building a flying robot.

For her final project at NYU, Heather explored if computers could be creative. She called her exhibit Spurious Memories. She made a computer program that could recognize parts of faces. It would then compare them and create new, unique human faces by looking at many different face images. She later earned her PhD in electronic arts in 2016 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

As a teacher, Heather is interested in art and technology, digital photography, and computer science. She has taught at several universities, including NYU and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2019, she has been teaching in Abu Dhabi at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Art Projects

Totem: Talking Sculpture

Totem (2010)

One of Heather's earlier works was Totem (2010). It was a sculpture that explored how language and artificial intelligence work together. The sculpture used machine learning to listen to conversations happening nearby. Heather wrote computer programs that would find common words and phrases in these recordings.

The sculpture's computer was programmed to speak based on the words and phrases it heard most often. Over time, words that were not used much would disappear from its memory. The remaining words would then be spoken at random times. A critic from The New York Times felt that while Totem was interesting, it didn't quite connect human speech and technology in a deep way.

Stranger Visions: DNA Portraits

Stranger Visions Portraits (2012)

Stranger Visions (2012–2013) is an art project that uses science. It creates realistic 3D computer-generated portraits using DNA as a starting point.

Heather started this project by wondering how much information she could learn about someone from tiny bits of their DNA left behind in New York City. She thought, "The very things that make us human – hair, skin, saliva, and fingernails – can become a problem for us because we constantly leave them in public places. Anyone could collect them and find out information."

Stranger Visions portrait "Sample 2" based on the DNA sample from a cigarette butt collected on Myrtle Avenue in New York City, N.Y.

Collection site for DNA Samples; Corner of Wilson Avenue and Stanhope Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York.

Gum collected, that upon analysis revealed the genetic traits of a male of Native American and South American descent with brown eyes.

She hoped that by making realistic sculptures of unknown people from their DNA, she would start a discussion. This discussion would be about how DNA information could be used or misused, and about privacy and genetic spying.

To prepare for Stranger Visions, she took a short course at the Genspace laboratory in New York. There, she learned how much personal information an amateur scientist could find out from DNA using biotech methods.

She then started taking DNA from the samples she collected. For example, she would treat a hair sample with a special gel that dissolves the hair. She also used a special "primer" to help find features like eye color or gender in the genome (all of a person's DNA). She might repeat this process many times to find enough genetic clues to create a portrait.

After extracting the DNA, she would make many copies of specific parts of the genome. This is done using a method called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which was developed by Kary Mullis, a Nobel Prize winner. These copied parts of the DNA help find single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are tiny differences in DNA that give clues about a person's traits, like eye color. She then sent these results to a company like 23andMe for more detailed analysis.

Illustration of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)

Stranger Visions portrait "Sample 3"

Sample collected for Stranger Visions on Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

The genetic information she received back was a text file with coded data. This data showed the unique order of the four nucleobases (A, T, C, and G) in the parts of the genome she was studying. She put this data into a special computer program she wrote. The program would then tell her about traits like how likely someone was to be overweight, their eye color, hair color, skin tone, freckles, and gender. She used up to 50 of these traits in a face-generating program to create the 3D portraits.

Heather had experience with facial recognition programs. She changed an existing program from Basel, Switzerland, to generate faces instead of just recognizing them. The program would change face features like the width of the nose and mouth based on the genetic information. Before making the final 3D print, she would create several versions of the face and choose the one she liked best.

Some people have questioned whether Stranger Visions goes too far ethically and legally. They wonder if collecting personal genetic information without permission is right, even if the DNA is "left behind." Laws about collecting DNA are different in various places. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Human Tissue Act of 2004 stops private people from collecting biological samples for DNA analysis. In the United States, laws vary by state, and they often don't cover private companies. Some states, like New York, make it illegal to do most DNA tests without written permission.

People also worry about what might happen if this information is misused. They fear discrimination based on health issues or if police could search DNA evidence without good reason. Heather said that one scientist and one art gallery turned down her project because they worried it would "cause a fright."

Others focus on the growing "do-it-yourself" or biohacking movement. Supporters say projects like Stranger Visions help people understand new technology. But others worry about unexpected problems from experiments done by amateur scientists outside of regular labs.

Some experts, including scientists and professors from Harvard Medical School and New York University, say that current technology cannot create a truly accurate face from DNA evidence. While it's possible to find some genetic markers linked to face features, scientists haven't found all the genes needed to make a perfect likeness.

Things like the environment, how DNA data is interpreted, and computer limits all affect the final result. Heather compares her work to that of a sketch artist. At best, her portraits only have a slight family resemblance to the people whose DNA was used.

Stranger Visions has been shown in art exhibitions and is part of the permanent collection at Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. The computer code for the genetic profiling is available online on github.

Invisible (2014)

In 2013, Heather was asked by a medical examiner in Delaware to help with an unsolved case. She was asked to help create a portrait of an unidentified woman whose case had been unsolved for 20 years. Heather agreed to advise on the case. She knew the portrait would only be as accurate as current technology allowed, but she felt it was a good use for this type of face-generating technology. She said, "If you can add anything at all to her description, if you can increase the possibility her loved ones may find her even one little bit I think it's worth it." However, some people worried about "D.I.Y. forensic science" and the role of regular citizens in police investigations.

Invisible: Hiding Your DNA

Invisible (2014)

Heather's work with Stranger Visions made her interested in how to protect against genetic spying. This led her to create two products designed to remove or hide DNA traces. The first product, Erase, is a spray that cleans surfaces like cups or silverware to remove DNA. The second, Replace, is a spray that adds a mix of other genes to a surface. This hides any original DNA that might be there. Heather sees these products as a way for people to defend themselves against a future where DNA could be used to spy on everyone.

Working with Chelsea Manning

In 2017, Heather worked with Chelsea E. Manning, a transgender activist, on an art show called A Becoming Resemblance. One of the artworks, Probably Chelsea, is now in the permanent collection of the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco. Another piece, Radical Love, is displayed at the New-York Historical Society and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Xeno in Vivo: An Opera About Organs

Heather Dewey-Hagborg’s Xeno in Vivo (2024) is a live multimedia opera. It was first performed in San Francisco in March 2024. The opera explores xenotransplantation, which is when living cells, tissues, or organs are moved from one species to another. It asks if CRISPR gene editing is a totally new technology or just a modern version of old practices like selective breeding.

The performance includes videos and sounds of scientists and animals in labs. Heather narrates the show, sharing conversations she had with scientists about the ethical questions of xenotransplantation. The live show uses projections, sculptures, and even live beating heart cells on stage. Four opera singers perform with original music.

Other Exhibitions and Events

Heather Dewey-Hagborg's art has been shown in many places around the world. These include museums and galleries in Guadalajara, Mexico; Long Island City, New York (at PS1 MoMA); Dublin, Ireland; Sydney, Australia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Bangalore, India; Rotterdam, Netherlands; and Linz, Austria.

Here are some other selected works she has created:

Trace Recordings: Surveillance and Identity in the 21st Century in Australia.
Cyber In Securities in Washington, D.C.
Plugged In: Interactive Art in Electronic Media in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey.
DNA and Dust (with Paul Hazelton) in East Hampton, New York.
Unlanguage (with Adriana Varella), a computer art installation in Poland.
Open Circuit at PS1 MoMA in Long Island City, New York.
Jaaga Dhvani, a sound art piece in Bangalore, India.

Awards and Grants

Heather Dewey-Hagborg has received several awards and grants for her work:

2008: Artist's Residency and Grant, Sculpture Space, Utica, New York.
2012: Residency at Eyebeam.
2012: Artist's Residency and Jerome Foundation Grant, Clocktower Gallery, Manhattan, N.Y.
2013: VIDA 15.0 Art and Artificial Life International Awards, special mention.
2016: Creative Capital Award.
2019: New Technology Art Award for "Probably Chelsea" in Ghent, Belgium.