WEBVTT 00:00:00.738 --> 00:00:02.722 This is a vending machine in Los Angeles. 00:00:02.746 --> 00:00:05.456 It's in a shopping mall, and it sells fish eggs. 00:00:05.887 --> 00:00:07.869 It's a caviar-vending machine. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:09.837 --> 00:00:11.950 This is the Art-o-mat, an art-vending machine 00:00:11.974 --> 00:00:14.684 that sells small artistic creations by different artists, 00:00:14.708 --> 00:00:17.855 usually on small wood blocks or matchboxes, in limited edition. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:18.423 --> 00:00:19.592 This is Oliver Medvedik. 00:00:19.616 --> 00:00:23.112 He is not a vending machine, but he is one of the founders of Genspace, 00:00:23.136 --> 00:00:25.103 a community biolab in Brooklyn, New York, 00:00:25.127 --> 00:00:26.898 where anybody can go and take classes 00:00:26.922 --> 00:00:30.076 and learn how to do things like grow E. coli that glows in the dark 00:00:30.100 --> 00:00:31.852 or learn how to take strawberry DNA. 00:00:31.876 --> 00:00:34.927 In fact, I saw Oliver do one of these strawberry DNA extractions 00:00:34.951 --> 00:00:37.988 about a year ago, and this is what led me into this bizarre path 00:00:38.012 --> 00:00:39.954 that I'm going to talk to you right now. 00:00:39.978 --> 00:00:43.024 Strawberry DNA is really fascinating, because it's so beautiful. 00:00:43.048 --> 00:00:45.832 I'd never thought about DNA being a beautiful thing before, 00:00:45.856 --> 00:00:47.247 before I saw it in this form. 00:00:47.271 --> 00:00:49.573 A lot of people, especially in the art community, 00:00:49.597 --> 00:00:51.843 don't necessarily engage in science in this way. 00:00:51.867 --> 00:00:53.742 I instantly joined Genspace after this, 00:00:53.766 --> 00:00:56.350 and asked Oliver, "If we can do this with strawberries, 00:00:56.374 --> 00:00:57.761 can we do this with people?" 00:00:57.785 --> 00:01:00.414 About 10 minutes later, we were both spitting in vials, 00:01:00.438 --> 00:01:02.956 coming up with a protocol for human DNA extraction. 00:01:02.980 --> 00:01:04.483 I started doing this on my own. 00:01:04.507 --> 00:01:06.469 This is what my DNA actually looks like. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:06.493 --> 00:01:09.044 And I was at a dinner party with some artist friends, 00:01:09.068 --> 00:01:11.087 and I was telling them about this project, 00:01:11.111 --> 00:01:13.829 and they couldn't believe that you could actually see DNA. 00:01:13.853 --> 00:01:16.685 So I said, all right, let's get out some supplies right now. 00:01:16.709 --> 00:01:19.861 And I started having these bizarre dinner parties on Friday nights, 00:01:19.885 --> 00:01:22.558 where people would come over and we'd do DNA extractions, 00:01:22.582 --> 00:01:24.226 and I would capture them on video, 00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:26.932 because it created this kind of funny portrait as well. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:26.956 --> 00:01:29.445 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:29.469 --> 00:01:32.870 These are people who don't necessarily regularly engage with science. 00:01:32.894 --> 00:01:35.059 You can kind of tell from their reactions. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:35.083 --> 00:01:36.882 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.906 --> 00:01:38.510 But they became fascinated by it, 00:01:38.534 --> 00:01:41.961 and it was really exciting for me to see them get excited about science. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:41.985 --> 00:01:44.115 And so I started doing this regularly. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:44.139 --> 00:01:45.712 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:45.736 --> 00:01:48.015 It's an odd thing to do with your Friday nights, 00:01:48.039 --> 00:01:49.618 but this is what I started doing. 00:01:49.642 --> 00:01:52.859 I started collecting a whole group of my friends' DNA in small vials 00:01:52.883 --> 00:01:54.060 and categorizing them. 00:01:54.084 --> 00:01:55.529 This is what that looked like. 00:01:55.553 --> 00:01:58.267 And it started to make me think about a couple of things. 00:01:58.291 --> 00:02:00.499 First, this looked a lot like my Facebook wall. 00:02:00.523 --> 00:02:03.711 So in a way, I created sort of a genetic social network. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:03.735 --> 00:02:04.970 And the second thing was, 00:02:04.994 --> 00:02:07.783 one time a friend came over and looked at this on my table 00:02:07.807 --> 00:02:10.000 and was like, "Uh ... why are they numbered? 00:02:10.024 --> 00:02:12.301 Is this person more rare than the other one?" 00:02:12.325 --> 00:02:14.111 And I hadn't even thought about that. 00:02:14.135 --> 00:02:15.295 They were just numbered 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:17.930 because that was the order that I extracted the DNA in. 00:02:17.954 --> 00:02:20.064 But that made me think about collecting toys, 00:02:20.088 --> 00:02:23.303 and what's going on right now in the toy world with blind box toys, 00:02:23.327 --> 00:02:25.386 and being able to collect these rare toys. 00:02:25.410 --> 00:02:28.407 You buy these boxes, but aren't sure what's going to be inside. 00:02:28.431 --> 00:02:31.438 But when you open them, you have different rarities of the toys. 00:02:31.462 --> 00:02:33.901 I thought that was interesting; I thought about this 00:02:33.925 --> 00:02:36.834 and the caviar vending machine and the Art-o-mat all together. 00:02:36.858 --> 00:02:39.816 And for some reason, I was one night drawing a vending machine, 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:42.175 thinking of doing paintings of a vending machine. 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:43.979 The vial of my DNA was sitting there, 00:02:44.003 --> 00:02:46.929 and I saw a beautiful collaboration between the strands of DNA 00:02:46.953 --> 00:02:48.626 and the coils of a vending machine. 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:52.147 So I decided to create an art installation called the DNA Vending Machine. 00:02:52.171 --> 00:02:53.405 Here it is. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:53.429 --> 00:02:58.506 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:58.530 --> 00:03:00.588 [DNA Vending Machine is an art installation 00:03:00.612 --> 00:03:02.814 about our increasing access to biotechnology.] NOTE Paragraph 00:03:02.838 --> 00:03:07.431 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:07.455 --> 00:03:10.413 [For a reasonable cost, you can purchase a sample of human DNA 00:03:10.437 --> 00:03:12.178 from a traditional vending machine.] NOTE Paragraph 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:17.234 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:33.451 --> 00:03:34.765 [Each sample comes packaged 00:03:34.789 --> 00:03:37.985 with a collectible limited edition portrait of the human specimen.] NOTE Paragraph 00:03:38.009 --> 00:03:40.546 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:43.370 --> 00:03:46.103 [DNA Vending Machine treats DNA as a collectible material 00:03:46.127 --> 00:03:48.943 and brings to light legal issues over the ownership of DNA.] NOTE Paragraph 00:03:48.967 --> 00:03:53.289 (Music ends) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:53.313 --> 00:03:54.464 Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: 00:03:54.488 --> 00:03:58.001 The DNA Vending Machine is currently in a couple of galleries in New York, 00:03:58.025 --> 00:03:59.624 and it's selling out pretty well. 00:03:59.648 --> 00:04:01.636 We're in the first edition of 100 pieces, 00:04:01.660 --> 00:04:03.614 hoping to do another edition pretty soon. 00:04:03.638 --> 00:04:05.717 I'd like to get it into more of a metro hub, 00:04:05.741 --> 00:04:07.424 like Grand Central or Penn Station, 00:04:07.448 --> 00:04:10.298 next to some of the other vending machines in that location. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:10.322 --> 00:04:12.703 But really, with this and a lot of my art projects, 00:04:12.727 --> 00:04:14.559 I want to ask the audience a question: 00:04:14.583 --> 00:04:18.405 When biotechnology and DNA sequencing becomes as cheap as, say, laser cutting 00:04:18.429 --> 00:04:22.315 or 3D printing or buying caviar from a vending machine, 00:04:22.339 --> 00:04:25.639 will you submit your sample of DNA to be part of the vending machine? 00:04:25.663 --> 00:04:27.450 How much will these samples be worth? 00:04:27.474 --> 00:04:29.339 Will you buy someone else's sample? 00:04:29.363 --> 00:04:31.724 And what will you be able to do with that sample? NOTE Paragraph 00:04:33.096 --> 00:04:34.270 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:34.294 --> 00:04:38.873 (Applause)