Experiments at Djerassi

LANDSCAPE 37.363944–122.299333

This still image is from a video of point-cloud data streaming from a three-dimensional camera installed in an outdoor location on the Djerassi property. The video display consists of thousands of individual points, creating a 3D model of a living stand of trees. The color of the individual pixels shifts from blue to green in response to their relative distance from the camera. This color shift illustrates the dynamic depth of the three-dimensional field, giving the scene an artificial appearance and producing a formal contrast between the natural forms and the digital system collecting the data. As the system monitors and collects data from this location, it relays an incomplete physical representation of a dynamic living organism and its fluid environmental conditions in digital form.

FLIGHT OF THE CENTISPERM (WITH ADAM ZARETSKY)

Human DNA was combined with the DNA of a centipede. Relative electrical flow was measured over time from the DNA-producing data as the cells decayed. This data was scaled and correlated to latitude, longitude and altitude, respectively. The coordinates were uploaded to a drone, which flew autonomously based on the DNA instructions. The image is a long exposure of the nighttime flight, showing the course the drone took as it was driven by the data collected from the DNA sample.

37.364063-122.300926 @20M– 037.353716-122.306756

This is a photographic compilation consisting of more than 300 individual photographs taken during a 1.5-kilometer drone flight adjacent to the Djerassi property. The title refers to the starting and ending GPS coordinates of the flight.

David Bowen, landscape 37.363944–122.299333, 2016. (© David Bowen)

David Bowen and Adam Zaretsky, flight of the centiSperm, 2016. (© David Bowen. Photo: Weidong Yang.)

David Bowen, 37.364063-122.300926 @20m–37.353716-122.306756, 2016. (© David Bowen)