New York artist creates 3D masks using strangers’ DNA

Posted on: 4:46 pm, December 26, 2013, by CNN Wire Service, updated on: 08:05pm, December 26, 2013

(CNN) We leave our DNA everywhere on the side of a wine glass or on a strand of hair left in a public restroom. An artist is proving that what you leave behind could be a lot more than you think.

You may want to think twice before you spit out your gum or drop a cigarette butt in public. New York Artist Healther Dewey-Hagborg might pick it up extract the DNA and turn it into a 3D face that could look like you!

A lot of my work begins with a question. In this particular place the question was what can I learn about someone from a single hair? Dewey-Hagborg said.

Once she finds a sample, she takes it to the lab to mine it for DNA, and then analyzes the results.

From a cigarette butt where someones ancestors likely came from, their gender, eye color, hair color, complexion, Dewey-Hagborg said.

That information is then fed into a computer program that generates a 3D model of a face.

The way that Im using code here is a lot like how a sketch artist would use a pencil, Dewey-Hagborg said.

It takes about eight hours to print in 3D at NYUs Advanced Media Studio.

Then, the excess powder is removed to reveal the disembodied face from a strangers DNA but there are limitations the length of a persons nose or the shape of his or her face cannot be determined.

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New York artist creates 3D masks using strangers’ DNA