n e a l w h i t e . o r g

This UK residency was the first at The Human Genome Mapping Project, based in the MRC Resource Centre at Sanger Centre, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, in 1999. Developed over a six month period, the work was made through research carried out with genetic speciliasts, such as genetic counsellors, and support staff, as well as the Bioinformatics (Genetics and computing/information) department of the centre.

The Inheritance series was made as a reaction to the abstract and massive information undertaking that constitutes the mapping project itself, set against the very personal and subjective dialogues implied by its potential discoveries. Institutionally, it also questions the role of the individual within this structure as part of the wider scietific endeavour for discovery.

Inheritance 1 was made in order to introduce mself within the HGMP project. It is made up of a series of photographs of scientists and staff at HGMP. They were asked for photographs that showed themselves and or family members at any time in their lives, for manipulation. This was after I had disclosed images that my mother had just obtained from her adoption file of her real mother (my real grandmother).

These photographs were then doctored to contain only one side of the physical features. The images question knoweldge of ourselves as a matter of visual interpretation and inherited qualities. The visual decoding of the true nature of this information is evident through their seemingly unnatural state.

Inheritance 2 uses genetic information to decode a pixilated image of myself. This portrait, which I made using genetic markers taken from the dna in a blood sample, uses a computer to decode this information, and as it does so it reveals an unfinished, low information, low resolution picture. Due to the nature of the pixelation, the visual identity only becomes clear if viewed at some distance.

Inheritance 3, formed the basis for the work, I Need to Know, and is based on the very real nature of information as knowledge, presented as audio dialogue . The dialogue was written with the help of author Lawrence Norfolk. Please see Artlab 5 for further information.

Photographs for IH3 at Wysing by Leanne Harris.