Ben Fry, Aesthetics + Computation Group, MIT Media Laboratory
Genomic Cartography: Chromosome 18
2001
Digital image generated from processing software
Not on view
While pursuing his doctorate with the Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab, Fry—a central figure in the field of information and data visualization—devoted himself to translating information about the human genome into a visual format. The genome, a complete set of genetic instructions, consists of 23 chromosome pairs made up of DNA, which is built from four chemical bases, represented by the letters A, G, C, and T. The entire human genome’s genetic code comprises more than three billion letters. In this translation of chromosome 18’s seventy-five million letters of genetic code, darker colors depict code sequences used by a cell as instructions for building a protein; medium tones depict the instructions interrupted by unused code; and gray areas currently have no known function.
Pirouette: Turning Points in Design, January 26, 2025–November 15, 2025
Gallery label from Design and the Elastic Mind , February 24–May 12, 2008
For several years while pursuing his doctorate at the MIT Media Lab, Fry devoted his work to the visual translation of genomic findings. Several of his works are on view here, but it is apt to begin with one of his most encompassing and ambitious projects, the seventy million letters of genetic code that form chromosome 18. The darker color depicts sequences of code that are used by a cell as a set of instructions for building a protein. These instructions are interrupted by unused pieces of code, which have a medium tone in the image. The gray areas currently have no known function. At seventy-five million DNA bases (each represented by one of four letters), this is the sixth shortest human chromosome. It would take forty- five images of this size to depict the genetic code of the entire human genome, more than three billion letters.
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Coding/programming
Coding is the method by which computer programmers, or coders, transmit instructions to computers. Coding transforms human language into the binary language of computers (in which there are only two possible states, off and on, commonly symbolized by 0 and 1).
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