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Spray the DNA away – an artist’s stand against encroaching genetic surveillance
We leave ‘genetic artifacts’ everywhere we go, and it takes little more than a bit of amateur DNA sleuthing to discern a startling amount about us from these traces. Through her ‘Stranger Visions’ series, consisting of masks developed from the genetic material of strangers, the American artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg grapples with some of the difficult moral issues of genetic surveillance. Another one of her pieces offers a solution: DNA-erasing sprays.
Directors: Veena Rao, Emily Sheskin
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Animals and humans
Why be dragons? How massive, reptilian beasts entered our collective imagination
58 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland
5 minutes
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Biology
How the world’s richest reds are derived from an innocuous Mexican insect
5 minutes
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Physics
The abyss at the edge of human understanding – a voyage into a black hole
4 minutes
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Stories and literature
Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone
5 minutes
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Film and visual culture
‘Bags here are rarely innocent’ – how filmmakers work around censorship in Iran
8 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Closed captions suck. Here’s one artist’s inventive project to make them better
8 minutes
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Architecture
The celebrated architect who took inspiration from sitting, waiting and contemplating
29 minutes
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Subcultures
Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community
5 minutes