Procedurally Generated Artworks Based on Multiple Sequence Alignment of Orthologous Gene Copies

Abstract

Abstract In this article, the author presents a novel approach to the procedural generation of artwork series based on multiple sequence alignment of orthologous gene copies. In the strategy developed, nucleotides present in a string of DNA (A, G, C, T) were each assigned to an existing artwork. New visual compositions were then created by collaging columns of pixels from each of the existing four artworks according to the arrangement of nucleotides after orthologous genes were aligned. The resulting outcome was a distinctive set of artworks in which visual differences were governed by nucleotide divergence at genes of interest due to evolutionary processes.