Rethinking the Dissension between Software and Generative Art

Definitions of software art and generative art have changed in the last ten years. This is because artists using the computer to create artworks and critics writing about their work have created invented categories to understand what is happening. It has been argued by some critics that there is no relationship between software and generative art. However, there are some critics who state that generative art has replaced software art, and that software art no longer exists. Yet, from a different perspective some critics argued that software does still exist but in a different form. This essay looks at the definitions of software art and generative art. It aims to show the relationship between software and generative art, including the differences between the two art forms

Implementación de una estrategia ​in-silico para la identificación de péptidos candidatos a vacuna terapéutica individualizada en tumor de paciente con PEComa

En el presente trabajo se expone la implementación de una estrategia ​in-silico para la identificación y priorización de péptidos candidatos a vacuna personalizada en tumores de cáncer aplicado a un caso de estudio de una paciente con PEComa que expresa el alelo HLA-A*24:02. Dicha estrategia se compone de 2 grandes etapas. La primera etapa consiste en la identificación de péptidos candidatos a vacuna personalizada a través de análisis de datos genéticos (ADN y ARN) que permiten la identificación y cuantificación de expresión de mutaciones somáticas presentes en el tumor, a partir de las cuales se obtienen todos los posibles péptidos mutantes (de entre 9 y 21 aminoácidos de longitud) que podría expresar el tumor; estos péptidos son filtrados a través de algoritmos que evalúan la afinidad y estabilidad con el haplotipo HLA del paciente para obtener una lista reducida de péptidos candidatos a vacuna personaliza. En la segunda etapa se realizan simulaciones de docking molecular entre los péptidos cortos previamente identificados (de entre 9 y l0 aminoácidos de longitud) y la molécula HLA-A*24:02 con el fin de evaluar y caracterizar la interacción péptido-HLA de tal manera que proporcione información que apoye el proceso de priorización de péptidos a evaluar de manera ​in-vitro​. Para nuestro caso de estudio, se identificaron 12 péptidos candidatos a vacuna personalizada (6 de los cuales son péptidos largos que enmarcan una epítope tanto para moléculas HLA clase I como para clase II), de las cuales se simuló el d ​ ocking molecular de 5 péptidos cortos (tanto la versión mutada como la nativa) con la molécula HLA-A*24:02. Dichas simulaciones permitieron identificar los puentes de hidrógeno entre el péptido y la molécula HLA y realizar una estimación de la energía del complejo, lo cual llevó a priorizar 2 de los 5 péptidos evaluados. Aunque la estrategia permitió identificar y priorizar péptidos candidatos a vacunas personalizadas en un tumor de una paciente con PEComa, queda como perspectiva extender la estrategia del docking molecular a péptidos largos con moléculas HLA clase II y evaluar la estabilidad del complejo péptido-HLA a través de dinámica molecular.In the present work we present the implementation of an ​in-silico strategy for the identification and prioritization of peptide candidates for personalized vaccine in cancer tumors applied to a case study of a patient with PEComa expressing the allele HLA-A*24:02. This strategy consists of two major stages. The first stage consists of the identification of peptide candidates to personalized vaccine through the analysis of genetic data (DNA and RNA) that allow the identification and quantification of expression of somatic mutations present in the tumor, from which all possible mutant peptides (between 9 and 21 amino acids in length) that could express the tumor are obtained; these peptides are filtered through algorithms that evaluate the affinity and stability with the HLA haplotype of the patient to obtain a reduced list of peptide candidates for a personalized vaccine. In the second stage, molecular docking simulations are performed between the previously identified short peptides (between 9 and l0 amino acids in length) and the HLA-A*24:02 molecule in order to evaluate and characterize the HLA-peptide interaction in such a way as to provide information that supports the process of prioritization of peptides to be evaluated ​in-vitro​. For our case study, 12 peptides were identified as candidates for personalized vaccine (6 of which are long peptides that frame an epitope for both HLA class I and class II molecules), of which the molecular docking of 5 short peptides (both the mutated and wildtype versions) were simulated with the HLA-A*24:02 molecule. These simulations allowed to identify the hydrogen bridges between the peptide and the HLA molecule and to estimate the energy of the complex, which led to prioritizing 2 of the 5 peptides evaluated. Although the strategy allowed to identify and prioritize peptide candidates for personalized vaccines in a tumor of a patient with PEComa, it is possible to extend the molecular docking strategy to long peptides with HLA class II molecules and to evaluate the stability of the HLA-peptide complex through molecular dynamics.Línea de Investigación: Diseño de Vacunas Terapéuticas para Cáncer Basadas en PéptidosMaestrí

Vernacular Posthumanism: Visual Culture and Material Imagination

Vernacular Posthumanism: Visual Culture and Material Imagination uses a theory of image vernaculars in order to explore the ways in which contemporary visual culture both reflects on and constructs 21st century cultural attitudes toward the human and the nonhuman. This project argues that visual culture manifests a vernacular posthumanism that expresses a fundamental contradiction: the desire to transcend the human while at the same time reasserting the importance of the flesh and the materiality of lived experience. This contradiction is based in a biodeterminist desire, one that fantasizes about reducing all actants, both human and nonhuman, to functions of code. Within this framework, actants become fundamentally exchangeable, able to be combined, manipulated, and understood as variations of digital code. Visual culture – and its expression of vernacular posthumanism – thus functions as a reflection on contemporary conceptualizations of the human, a rehearsal of the posthuman, and a staging ground for encounters between the human and the nonhuman. Each chapter of this project begins in the field of film studies and then moves out toward a broader analysis of visual culture and nonhumanist theory. This project relies on the theories and methodologies of phenomenology, materialism, posthumanism, object-oriented ontology, actor-network theory, film and media studies, and visual culture studies. Visual objects analyzed include: the films of Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, and Krzysztof Kieślowski; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997); the film 300 (2006); the TV series Planet Earth (2006); DNA portraits, the art of Damien Hirst; Body Worlds; human migration maps; and remote surgical machinery

Genomixer

Stanza worked with a medical lab to get his DNA profiled from a sample of his blood. The DNA was formatted into a set of letters, used to create raw texts and bitmaps from which images and sound are generated. Users can interact with each section of the web project to "alter the DNA." The online artworks are investigations into genetic codes mapped and re assembled online. The earlier series enables a cross reference all the code on the genome sequence allowing you to intermix or breed your own variable; you can look at the new mix of chromosomes in real time; on line