Copy.copy
A series of animation sequences - Running time 16’ 13”
The animations are based on the theme of copying in sequence, the essential function of PCR.
The copying sequences evolve as a visual equivalent of the parlour game Chinese Whispers, using the Chinese characters for ‘science’, ‘chain’ and ‘chain reaction’. They track a succession of copies hand-drawn by scientists and artists, printed on a photocopier, and generated by a computer.
The computer animations were made in collaboration with geneticist Dr Bob Tateson, who designed a computer program to make successive copies of vector graphic images, introducing small random errors at each generation, giving rise to dramatic and surprising changes which he likens to genetic drift.
The images resemble abstract artworks, raising the interesting question ‘Can a blind, random process produce art?’