Literature encoded in DNA

The J. Craig Venter Institute this year managed to build a complete genome sequence--artificial DNA-- and install it into a bacterial cell. The strand took over operations of its host cell and began reproducing. Many have claimed that this event might be remembered as a major step toward artificial life.

There is something sinister about the entire enterprise, to me at least, but there is one aspect of the story that reminds us that even the mad scientist bent on playing God harbors a latent artist within.  The Venter team apparently encrypted several literary passages and coded them into otherwise unused portions of the DNA sequence.  This is actually something of a trend nowadays amongst that small group of actual artists (harboring latent scientists within) for whom genes are a primary medium.  See, for example, artists Joe Davis and Eduardo Kac.


The quotations encoded onto the bacteria's DNA:

“See things not as they are, but as they might be.” -- Robert Oppenheimer

“What I cannot build, I cannot understand.”  -- Richard Feynman

“To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, and to recreate life out of life.” -- James Joyce


I would like to learn that the Venter Institute folks have given up their Frankensteinian hubris and have instead chosen to devote their time to a hunt for encoded poetry in the unused portions of existing creatures.  Could there be alien Kabbalah the strands of my own cells?

A Religion of the Senses and a Resistance to the Present

From the opening of section 4.3 of Hardt and Negri's Empire, 2000.
(Downloadable 1.3M version: http://www.infoshop.org/texts/empire.pdf)

The great masses need a material religion of the senses [eine sinnliche Religion]. Not only the great masses but also the philosopher needs it. Monotheism of reason and the heart, polytheism of the imagination and art, this is what we need . . . [W]e must have a new mythology, but this mythology must be at the service of ideas. It must be a mythology of reason.
- Das altesteSystemprogrammdes deutschenIdealismus,
by Hegel, Holderlin, or Schelling

We do not lack communication, on the contrary we have too much of it. We lack creation. We lack resistance to the present.
- Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

the Future

Torniamo all antico,
e sar a un progresso.

We go back to the ancient,
and that will be a step forward.

Duncan Phyfe

adapted from Columbia Encyclopedia:

circa 1768–1854, American cabinetmaker, born in Scotland.
He emigrated to America c.1783, settling at Albany, N.Y., where he was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker. In the early 1790s he established a shop in New York City for the production of furniture; after several moves he finally settled in Partition St. (later changed to Fulton St.), employing over a hundred craftsmen.
He made chairs, sofas or settees, tables, and sideboards, using in great part solid mahogany but also some mahogany veneer, satinwood and maple, and, in later years, rosewood. During his most productive period (until 1820) he was influenced by, and adapted the forms of, the Adam brothers, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton and characteristics of the French Directoire and Consulate styles. Later, his designs followed the Empire style, becoming in his final period heavily ornamented.
Phyfe employed in general the highest standards, applied under supervision to carefully selected woods. His first designs are characterized by excellent proportions, graceful curves often accentuated by parallel rows of reeding, simple ornaments well placed and carved with precision, and decorative motifs such as the lyre, the acanthus or oak leaf, and the drapery swag. Although much furniture termed Phyfe may not have been produced in his workshop, his designs were the nucleus of the Duncan Phyfe style.

Duncan Phyfe style (1795-1848)
Appearance : Graceful and refined.
Chair Arms : Arms slope down to meet posts from seat.
Chair Back Material : Upholstered, Wood
Chair Back Shape : Crossbar - X-shaped splat, Crosspiece - single flat vertical slat, Lyre - lyre-shaped central splat, Scroll - curved X-shaped splat.
Chair Leg : Curule - X-shaped curved legs, Splayed - legs with a concave shape, Straight, Tapered
Chair Seat Material : Cane, Upholstered
Chair Seat Shape : Horseshoe with a rounded or serpentine front, Square.
Drawer Pull : Oval back plate with conforming handle of stamped brass, Mushroom-shaped brass knob, Mushroom-shaped glass knob, Lion's head with pull ring attached through mouth, usually in brass, Loop bail handle without a back plate.
Fabric : Brocade, Damask, Hair cloth, Needlepoint, Satin
Finish : Oil varnish
Foot : Continuation of leg, Paw or claw - animal paw or claw, carved or in brass, Knob - Small, round turned ball.
Hardware Material : Brass, Glass.
Joint : Dovetail
Line : Gently curving lines, Straight lines
Motif: Acanthus Leaf, Arrows, Circle, Drapery swap, Lyre, Plume
Ornamentation : Carving - cutting or chipping shapes or design, Fluting - carved or molded vertical channels, Fretwork - decorative carving or openwork with interlacing lines, Gilding, Inlay
Proportion : Graceful and delicate
Resembles : Chippendale, Empire, Federal, Hepplewhite, Sheraton
Underbracing : Limited usage.
Upholstery : Most seating pieces are upholstered.
Wood : Black walnut, Cherry, Fruitwood, Maple.