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Melissa Walter

  • Home
  • Plexus
  • I am completely calm.
  • Of All Things
  • Dark
  • Distortion
  • Other Works
  • Mural & Public Works
  • About
  • Contact
  • Science Illustration & Design

 

Melissa Walter   PLEXUS August 17 – December 29, 2024  For over a decade, San Diego-based artist Melissa Walter (b.1976, Providence, RI) has been translating complex scientific concepts into intimate and accessible visual&nbs
Melissa Walter   PLEXUS August 17 – December 29, 2024  In a series of projects from 2021, Walter traces the three main stages in the development of forensic DNA analysis since its invention in the 1980s. Works such as STR Sy
Walter’s series of 3D-printed ceramic nucleotides, each filled with a different type of lab equipment, alludes to our assumption that new technologies automatically improve our lives. Text: Jordan Karney Chaim, Curator, ICA San Diego Photo: Philip
Southern Blot Method The Southern Blot method is a laboratory technique first used in police forensic labs in the 1990s. The process separated DNA fragments according to size to create a visual pattern; the pattern of the DNA taken from a crime
Southern Blot Method (detail) The Southern Blot method is a laboratory technique first used in police forensic labs in the 1990s. The process separated DNA fragments according to size to create a visual pattern; the pattern of the DNA taken fro
DNA Series In the DNA series, three hand-built helix-like forms holding synthetic hair offer an abstract meditation on time in the context of incarceration. Text: Jordan Karney Chaim, Curator, ICA San Diego Photo: Philipp Scholz Rittermann
DNA 003 In the DNA series, three hand-built helix-like forms holding synthetic hair offer an abstract meditation on time in the context of incarceration. Text: Jordan Karney Chaim, Curator, ICA San Diego Photo: Philipp Scholz Rittermann
DNA 001 In the DNA series, three hand-built helix-like forms holding synthetic hair offer an abstract meditation on time in the context of incarceration. Text: Jordan Karney Chaim, Curator, ICA San Diego Photo: Philipp Scholz Rittermann
Autoradiogram (left) represents one of the earliest technologies (1977), in which a photograph of DNA is produced by radiation from radioactive material within the DNA. The photograph reveals the distribution and location of the nucleotides that f
Left Behind Throughout the gallery, Left Behind is a reminder of the biological data we shed everywhere we go and the vulnerabilities that may result from those inadvertent traces. Text: Jordan Karney Chaim, Curator, ICA San Diego Photo: Phili
Systems Video, 2024 13:00 minutes; no sound Systems , Walter’s first-ever video work, is a response to the ways that our individual genetic makeup determines how we experience–or are treated by–the systems that govern our lives. Her animation s
Autoradiogram 003 This piece presents a reinterpretation of the autoradiogram, first developed in 1977, which is a photograph of DNA that is produced by radiation from radioactive material within that DNA. The photograph reveals the distribution
STR Systems 005 Our DNA is made up of four different molecules, together called nucleotides (usually represented in biology by the colors red, green, blue and yellow), the order of which is unique to each individual. Currently in crime labs acros
Obfuscated Phenotype 001 Created in collaboration with Ellen McRae Greytak, Ph.D., Director of Bioinformatics, Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. The process of DNA phenotyping reads the parts of an individual’s 23 pairs of chromosomes that code for the diff
Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes/Or? Created in collaboration with Ellen McRae Greytak, Ph.D., Director of Bioinformatics, Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. This work considers the decision-making process that the algorithmic intelligence invented by Parabon Nanolabs u
Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes/ Or? (detail)