LIFE BLOCKS | A PHYGITAL KINETIC DNA EXPERIENCE
by Carla Molins Pitarch
Carla Molins Pitarch
Carla Molins Pitarch is a creative technologist and educator working in the intersection of art, technology, and biology to bring a tangible instance to complex scientific concepts. At this moment, my domains are molecular and cell biology, thanks to my participation at a European research project called ChromDesign.
Marie Curie fellow researcher at ELISAVA ( ChromDesign project), Barcelona School of Design & Engineering; doctoral researcher (GRECC & OCC) in science communication at Pompeu Fabra University (Spain); Design & Technology MFA '19 Parsons, The New School (USA).
Over the years, I've explored multiple mediums such as the Blips & Blops project created while being a fellow at Brooklyn research next to Nuntinee Tansrisakul. We offered the possibility to visualize different growth patterns in Slime Molds ("Physarum Polycephalum") decoding NOOA satellite signals. Lately I’ve also developed 3D Encode DNA, a kinetic piece to bringing genetic code to the physical world thanks to digital fabrication methods (Fabacademy).
Contact info
Life blocks is a tangible interactive modular experience to explain, learn & play with complex genomics, in particular 3D genomics.
The experience consists of a mechanical display that allows us to see 50 DNA bases in a tridimensional space, changing and moving according to the 4 bases: the letters A,C,G and T. Life blocks becomes alive when showing the genetic code non-stop by moving its nodes. Thanks to the controller you’ll have the power to choose between real DNA sequences to display, fix a faulty one and the best part, make your own code. Take full control of Life Blocks and empower your inner researcher!
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Life Blocks is part of a larger Experience called Life’s Journey:
Come and see the exhibition 'Life's Journey, The Blocks That Build Us All', an experience created by Carla Molins Pitarch for the European project ChromDesign.
Our organism is a fascinating high-tech machine made up of multiple levels, layers and scales. Many parts of the body work tirelessly to make it function, repair it and constantly update it. The parts that compose it are so small that they often go unnoticed due to lack of resolution.
What happens at the scale of a nanometre? Can we visualise such a complex component on a scale a billion times smaller than a metre?
Visit the life's journey exhibition to discover how YOU come to life thanks to DNA. There is much more to say about DNA than its 4 letters: A, G, T, C. Dig into the DNA and genetics history, facts and anecdotes. If that's not enough, imagine if you had the power to programme DNA in three dimensions... See what happens!
This project has been developed in a molecular biology network, ChromDesign, which will be exhibited for the first time in Barcelona before sharing it with the other international members of the project. This project has the support and collaboration of the CRG and CNAG.
People involved
Life Blocks is part Life’s Journey, The Blocks That Build Us All, an experience created by Carla Molins- Pitarch. www.carlamolins.com
Life Blocks brought to life by Protofy.xyz https://www.protofy.xyz
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813327.
Acknowledgements: Eva Ríos, Francesc Ribot PhD, Daniel Ricart, Livia Condemi, Marc Martí-Renom PhD, Jonas Krebs PhD, David Brena PhD, Sergi Comabella, Pol Valverde, Ander Alvaro, María Fabuel, Pau Garcia
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