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DNA Sculpture Constructed with Shopping Carts
Posted by
simoniker
on Mon May 17, 2004 04:32 PM
from the not-dumped-in-river dept.
from the not-dumped-in-river dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "The U.K. supermarket chain Somerfield decided last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA in an original way. It commissioned British artist Abigail Fallis to create a sculpture of a DNA double helix made of shopping carts and to display it during the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign of 2004. The sculpture, named DNA DL90, is 31 feet high and weighs more than three tons. It is on display since April 2004 at "Sculpture at Goodwood," the 21st century British sculpture park in Surrey. This photo gallery contains several pictures of this original artwork."
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Does it Roll? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Does it Roll? (Score:2)
Re:Does it Roll? (Score:2, Funny)
let's get this out of the way: (Score:5, Funny)
/.ing a charity. (Score:5, Funny)
Great opportunity..... (Score:5, Funny)
And who said modern art isn't worth a dime!
Re:Great opportunity..... (Score:3, Funny)
Instead (oof) they just added (ugh) this stupid (c'mon, move) locking wheel (dammit) to the cart. If it goes out of range (ow!) of the store (umph) then the wheel locks.
Of course, sometimes the wheel locks inside the store too., and sometimes it just breaks and locks permentantly...
But at the very least (kick) no one is would ever try and (let go of the wheel already!) steal one...
Re:Great opportunity..... (Score:3, Interesting)
BAH (Score:5, Funny)
Re:BAH (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, I'm unemployed too.
Parent
How not to get caught stealing shopping carts (Score:5, Funny)
Piquepaille (Score:5, Interesting)
John.
Re:Piquepaille (Score:5, Informative)
On one hand, it it nice that his site is effectively a mirror that can actually take the slashdotting, whereas many of the original sources wouldn't be able to. But it still rubs me the wrong way.
Parent
Piquepaille == spammer == scammer (Score:5, Insightful)
Its not "his site"
Its Radio Userland's site AKA radio.weblogs.com AKA the company that Dave Winer [harvard.edu] founded. Winer is the RSS / OPML / XML guy who is now at Harvard.
Piquepaille == spammer [weblogs.com]. Instead of using email to spam [weblogs.com], he spams [weblogs.com] sites like Slashdot (and many others) using his blog.
Piquepaille == scammer [weblogs.com]
Here is a direct quote from Piquepaille's Blogads advertising entry:
Why doesn't he just say "So if you want to associate yourself with a spammer [weblogs.com], give me your money."?
Ignore the fact that he has no "stories" of his own, offers no original content and zero insight.
Like most spammers [weblogs.com], he has no incentive to stop because it's profitable for him to spam [weblogs.com] Slashdot and other sites.
Make it unprofitable. Stop visiting his weblog. Express your displeasure to the editors. Express your displeasure to Radio Userland (they are a quiet participant in his spamming [weblogs.com] since Userland has a small ad on the blog). Express your displeasure to the advertisers. Let them know you won't buy products they advertise there. Last of all, express your displeasure about his spam [mailto] to Piquepaille himself.
You make Piquepaille's continued spamming [weblogs.com] possible with your traffic.
(As for all the spam [weblogs.com] references in this post, some might call it poetic justice. Maybe Google will pick it up and let everyone know.)
Parent
We have one of these where I live... (Score:4, Funny)
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:1)
You know, if you build it...
Re:Wow (Score:3, Funny)
How appropriate... (Score:1)
wonky wheels (Score:3, Funny)
"ART! ART! ART!" (Score:5, Interesting)
About sums it up.
Does this piece challenge our materialistic preconceptions of the world of science and commerce and force us to re-evaluate our relationship with that which forms the core of our self-determined being?
Re:"ART! ART! ART!" (Score:2)
That depends on whether you have ever smashed a shopping cart to pieces with a sledgehammer for the sheer satisfaction it can provide.
In short, No.
SB
Shopping (Score:3, Funny)
ok...thought of the day... (Score:1, Interesting)
They should take pictures in the morning of the mutated DNA straind that is Homeless Erectus. I am sure all those shopping carts are a magnet for the vagrants.
Seriously though, how much money was wasted on this. I don't even think it looks like DNA. It looks like a double helix of shopping carts. It was a complete waste of time, shopping carts, and my break.
Homeless Erectus (Score:3, Funny)
Gee, that's really attractive (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gee, that's really attractive (Score:2, Funny)
Helix Sculpture @ Linus Pauling House, Portland,OR (Score:4, Interesting)
The chemis spent his teen years in this house; the sculpture is located right outside his bedroom window where he had his first lab.
Re:Helix Sculpture @ Linus Pauling House, Portland (Score:2, Insightful)
A meta-comment about article submissions (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A meta-comment about article submissions (Score:2)
Re:A meta-comment about article submissions (Score:2)
Very unimaginative. (Score:4, Interesting)
There's one problem. (Score:3, Funny)
Who wants to clean that thing? (Score:2)
Boring, uninspired, first year art student project (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean seriously, she was given an interesting project (DNA representation) and certainly an original and interesting medium, and all we get is shopping carts welded to a stick-figure style double helix frame. It's boring and unimaginative as hell.
On the whole, yes it came out nice and it is engaging visually, but I feel like there could have been a lot more interesting variations on this. Perhaps build the helix itself out of carts, rather than just stick them on a prebuilt frame. Maybe use cables to create a self-supporting tension structure. Actually cut up some of the carts with a plasma torch and use the pieces to create individual molecules (G T C A) on the helix, there's lots of interesting structures to be built with the steel grids and wheels and legs, etc.
To me it seems like the end-result of this project was something that could have been built by any welder given the task "make a DNA helix from shopping carts." It was interpretted 100% literally by the artist and doesn't seem to convey any sense of insight, elaboration, or conceptual development.
Re:Boring, uninspired, first year art student proj (Score:2)
I like the cutting idea. You could cut the cart one way to produce the two molecules for a GC pair and another way to produce a TA pair. So if the left half of a cart represents G and the right half of a cart represents C, you've got a visual reminder that the two molecules are al
Strange looking (Score:2)
Appreciation for Art (Score:4, Interesting)
But this? This is shit. It's not so much that it's made of shopping carts, but it's more that it looks like a jungle gym and the baskets are just going to fill up with leaves and trash. I can hardly believe that such a work was actually *commissioned* without seomeone thinking of this.
It's kind of like how the city I live in has recently taken to painting all of the new highway overpasses an earthy red color. I can appreciate that lots of people think that it looks nicer than bare concrete, but for what it costs, the only thing it really buys you is the need to repaint it again in 5-10 years at an equivalent (or greater) cost. If they really wanted red overpasses, they should have done it properly and dyed the concrete red to begin with.
Disappointing (Score:3, Interesting)
Shopping carts slide into each other, so they have a natural way of connecting. Add some extra twiddles so you have four types, such that only some pairs can slide into each other and you can use the shopping carts as the nucleotides.
This sculpture is supported by a single central column (absent in DNA) but is missing the two helical backbones. It isn't so much that this is less accuate, but it is also less interesting (but undoubtedly cheaper and structurally simpler.)
Bad idea (Score:2)
They didn't like my idea (Score:2)
Artist Intent (Score:2)
The best I have come up with in my two or three minutes of pondering is the idea that life has become cheap - essentially that DNA is now like a commodity at a supermarket.
If that's not it - I'm stumped.
Bingo. (Score:2)
No, I think that's it. -Except I somehow doubt the commissionaires saw this creepy little metaphor. I can't imagine that they did; why advertise such a horrific thing unless they were deliberately trying to force the public into submitting to the idea?
Somehow, I don't think the fine gents in charge of grocery store chains are entir
Re:Is weblogs stealing (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sussex, not Surrey (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Dear Mr. Editor, (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, call me old fashioned, but as a paying subscriber I think I have the right to complain about the quality of the product I'm paying for.
Did they really need an artist? Yes. (Score:2)
BTW, the artist in question here is female.
FWIW, I think it's pretty cool, but then, I tend to like modern art anyway.
Re:Did they really need an artist? Yes./No (Score:2)
I guess my point is that given the problem "create some sort of helix -- like DNA -- made out of shopping carts" you couldn't hardly do anything other than what she
Oh, for goodness sake! (Score:2)
Since when did Slashdot moderators turn into a bunch of patriotic numb-skulls? The Bush clan is KILLING America! --And Americans, for that matter. How many kids have been murdered and mutilated in Bush-boy's idiotic, false war which the world begged him not to jump into? People with brains KNEW it was going to turn into this, -and worse.
The American death toll is climbing into the 1000's, and if you damned fools don't pull your heads out, the Middle