Our Living Legacy

An Investigation into Art as Research

Dr. Dewey-Hagborg presenting her project Stranger Visions, a series of portraits developed using genomic research of DNA samples collected from hairs, chewed up gum, and cigarette butts around New York City.

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Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg, a New York-based artist and biohacker, explores the intersection of art, biology, and politics. Biohacking reverse engineers genetic data to uncover the identity of the person behind the sample. Her work exposes the boundary between what we consider private and what we leave behind in public, raising questions about the vulnerability of genomic information and comprehensive informed consent. 

Dr. Dewey-Hagborg has also created a love virus, challenging the traditional uses of biotechnology to imagine a world in which a retrovirus infects human cells to increase production of oxytocin, promoting emotional connection.

In a current series, a 400 base-pair sequence of human mitochondrial DNA is engineered into trees and psychoactive plants, creating a living memorialization of a lost loved one. Dr. Dewey-Hagborg referred to this approach as a kind of “conceptual medicine,” where art becomes a medium for grieving and healing.

Medical students, undergraduate students, faculty, and staff at the talk.