portfolio
software is to poetry as architecture is to sculpture

AIDS Virus, Third Edition, 1989
The first computer generated image of the AIDS virus, based on information available in 1987. A colorized CAT scan of a person who died of AIDS, whose name was Messiah, was scanned and colorized in the background.

 

Credits:
Stephan Meyers & Ellen Sandor, (art)n Laboratory
Dan Sandin and Tom DeFanti, Electronic Visualization Lab, School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Chicago
Special thanks to Kevin Maginnis

Media: PHSCologram rendering output to Cibachrome film, mounted on plexiglas

Software: Proprietary

Quotes:
"The AIDS Virus is clearly the most talked about piece in our collection . . . while this country has the fourth highest concentration of HIV infection in the world, Zimbabweans are still generally reluctant to talk about the disease. The PHSCologram offers us a chance to discuss AIDS in an informal, less threatening way, but nonetheless important way. Zimbabweans are drawn to the technology that the piece evokes. Americans are stunned by the artistic feel, the vivid color and amazing shape of 'the disease'."

Anmarie McDonald
American Embassy Harare Zimbabwe 1998

"The work is straightforward, moving, and chilling."

Tom Finkelpearl Curator, P.S. 1 New York 1990

Exhibitions:

  • The Art in Embassies Program (Zimbabwe)
  • National Gallery of Zimbabwe
  • Mt. San Antonio College Art Gallery, Walnut, CA
  • Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO
  • The Evergreen State College Gallery, Olympia, WA
  • SIGGRAPH '92 Chicago
  • NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
  • Computer Museum, Boston, MA
  • Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL
  • Images du Futur '92 Montréal
  • Pacific Science Center, Seattle, WA
  • Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland,OR
  • Reuben Fleet Science Center, San Diego, CA
  • Impression 5, Lansing, MI
  • Museum of History and Science, Louisville, KY
  • Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC
  • Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond, VA
  • Museum of Science, Boston, MA
  • Fermilab, Batavia, IL
  • Retretti Art Centre, Punkaharju, Finland
  • The Art Institute of Chicago Junior Museum
  • Argonne National Laboratory, IL
  • Center for Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
  • Columbia College, Chicago, IL
  • Feature, New York, NY
  • SPIE Conference, CA

Literature:

  • Understanding: Viruses, (video) Cronkite, Ward & Company, ©1994 Discovery Communications, Inc.
  • Henderson, Harold, "Art or Science?" (article), Chicago Reader, August 16, 1991, pp. 1-21
  • Emmett, Arielle, "In Search of the Miracle Hologram" (article), Computer Graphics World, February 1991, pp. 44-52, and cover
  • Science in Depth catalogue, NASA Ames, Computer Musuem & Museum of Science and Industry
  • NASA Ames Science in Depth video documentary
  • Beyond 2000, international syndication, Sydney, Australia, Summer 1991 (video)
  • CNN, Cable Network News, "Science and Technology" international syndication, 1990 (video)
  • Wild Chicago, local syndication 1990 (video)
  • Foerstner, Abigail, "Inside views" (article), The Chicago Tribune Magazine, October 21, 1990, pp. 32-34
  • Neal, Margaret, "More than Art" (cover story), IEEE Computer graphics and applications, November 1988, pp. 3-5
  • Draznin, Wayne, "Gallery Tripping: computer artists work on their image" (article), Chicago Reader, September 2, 1988, Section 1, p. 6