New findings in epigenetics suggest that we inherit ancestral memories. Could we then possibly inherit images and sounds–audiovisual signals–through genetic transmissions? In 2012, I returned to my grandfather’s hometown for the first time, and snapped close to 700 photos in 5 days using my smartphone camera. In 2021, I decided to re-shoot those photos into moving images. I wanted an analogue process; where the visual outcome encodes the artist’s presence. The camera lens was inverted, producing hazy, oculus images that required manual focusing and refocusing. The video soundtrack uses inverted gamelan sounds, a metallophone instrument from my birth country Indonesia. The music score is a hybrid DNA code. It consists of my Y-chromosome; DNA of the Chinese parasol tree (which my grandfather is named after); and an encoded text - a chimera of person, plant and poetry. The video is generative, an algorithmic composition that plays differently every time, and almost infinitely.
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