Medium Type

Multimodal project

Installations

VR artwork, acrylic sculptures

Year

2019-2021

Many sexually-reproducing species, including ourselves, are what is known as ‘diploid’, genetically speaking. This means that we have two sets of chromosomes. These sets of chromosomes are brought together by two haploid organisms (an organism with a single set of chromosomes) known as gametes, or eggs and sperm. One set of chromosomes come from your biological mother and the other comes from your biological father. We tend to think of ourselves as a single, diploid organism, but sexually reproducing species do spend a brief moment of our genetic lifecycle as two haploid organisms, and we explore this phase through the Haploid Selection project.

Lead researcher Dr Immler and her group at the University of East Anglia study an active area of genetics that has profound implications on the understanding of sexual reproduction. It was previously thought that gametes (eggs and sperm) are merely a delivery mechanism for getting two sets of chromosomes together, and that the DNA contained within them was essentially just a passenger for the process. Recent research has shown that gametes express their DNA and that the DNA expression in gametes is related to the DNA expression in the resulting lifeforms.

The implications for this are profound for sexually reproducing species. Each gamete is a unique recombination of two sets of chromosomes. Now, consider the short lifetime of a sperm. In zebrafish, one of the organisms that is used to study haploid selection, can produce a million sperm in an ejaculation. A female zebrafish produces around forty eggs, so the sperm are in a competition where only one in twenty-five thousand will get to fuse with an egg. If the DNA in each sperm expresses itself, then the traits of each sperm help determine whether it will fuse with an egg. This is a far more extreme form of evolutionary pressure than is ever experienced by the resulting diploid organisms!

On our initial visit to the lab, we were very warmly greeted and shown around by Dr Immler and her research team. One of the aspects of their work that very much left an impression on us is the analog nature of so-called ‘wet science’. Good results depend not just on the design of the experiment, but on the execution of the procedures, and the scientists are very well practiced at the procedures required to harvest eggs and sperm from the organisms that they work with.

Another aspect of our visit that left an impression on us was how strongly the manner of leadership by a lab leader influences the culture of the lab. Dr Immler is very much interested in public engagement and encouraging creative thinking in her lab, and it reflects in the attitudes of the researchers there. Many of them have found creative ways to reflect upon their work, particularly in the creation of artistic microscopy images that they have used in public engagement activities to highlight the research.

Tension is a sculpture that focuses on the evolutionary pressure placed on gametes, given their environment and the numeric differences between eggs and sperm.

Untitled – haploid selection; science experiment is a virtual reality prototype that gives the participant the chance to replicate the kind of experiments performed in Dr Immler’s lab. The participant is immersed into the environment of a school of abstract model organisms with simple genomes.

Sexual antagonism is an evolutionary tug-of-war that can arise within sexually reproducing species. Faced with a new mutation that is beneficial to one sex but detrimental to the other, the sexes can enter an arms race with the fate of that mutation as the prize. Sex chromosomes often end up being the peacemakers; mutations in sex chromosomes allow gene expression to vary between sexes.

Far from being a problem, this difference in gene expression, known as sexual dimorphism, allows the sexes to pursue slightly differing strategies using the same underlying genome and can result in major physiological differences between them. Phases of sexual antagonism are frequently observed in nature and thought to be a major contributor to sexual dimorphism.

All genetic expression begins at the cellular level. The transcription of DNA begins a process that is “emergently-complex”, where small changes to the DNA can cascade through the processes of genetic expression to create major changes to the resulting organism. We use John Conway’s “Game of Life” as a metaphor for the machinery of genetic expression.

Game of Life is a cellular automata with very simple rules, but in which anything that is computable can theoretically be computed. Given a large enough board, it can evolve emergently-complex, dynamic, stable structures.

Here, the two boards are the genetic machinery of a single cell; one of trillions within an organism. One is the cell in one sex, the other is the corresponding cell in the other sex. A small change in the functioning of that machinery gives rise to a sexual dimorphism, a difference in how that machinery functions between the two sexes.

This video is an excerpt of a virtual reality artwork made as part of Agonism / Antagonism, a series of artworks on the subject of sexual antagonism and sexual dimorphism. Agonism / Antagonism was the result of an artist residency between Neus Torres Tamarit and the Max Reuter Laboratory at University College London in 2017-2018. In the original virtual reality artwork, the viewer is immersed in the unfolding game of life. They can move around the board and introduce mutations, creating sexual dimorphisms at the cellular level. This artwork was a precursor to Haploid Selection.

Phenotypica is an initiative created by computer scientist Ben Murray and artist Neus Torres Tamarit in 2016. Their objective is to create evocative artworks and immersive experiences about genetics and evolution that engender an emotional response so that audiences react to scientific concepts and practice as a human experience. Working at the intersection between art, science, and technology, they are interested in how artworks about genetics interact with the subject and with the audience, and how accurately such artworks present their scientific concepts.

Neus Torres Tamarit studied fine arts (Universitat Miguel Hernandez, Altea, Spain) and a Masters in Art and Science (Central Saint Martins, London). Ben Murray studied a degree and masters in computer science and is currently a data scientist and PhD candidate at King’s College London. Ben and Neus combine their artistic practice with the curation of exhibitions, talks and discussions organisation about the themes of art, science and creativity, as well as taking part in outreach and public engagement events. They have collaborated with the Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, The Royal Society, The Francis Crick Institute, University College London, University of East Anglia and Cardiff University.

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