NEW YORK, U.S; Lifeweave, an artist-run company at the intersection of genomics and textile craft, launches a service that turns DNA into Jacquard-woven artworks. DNA sequencing is performed at Broad Clinical Labs, a subsidiary of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and all data is safely stored on Terra.bio, a renowned platform for biomedical data management. Proprietary software completes the pipeline, bridging art, science, and technology.
Amid disposable images, screen-only experiences, and mass-produced objects, people seek physical artifacts with deep meaning. Lifeweave meets this moment with a distinctive concept: converting genetic codes into Jacquard-woven textiles, allowing everyone to craft unique pieces of art based on their DNA.
“I started working on this idea soon after joining the artist residency program of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard,” says Lifeweave founder Emilio Vavarella. “I was looking for ways of representing the most intimate and unique aspect of a person, and I began to think of DNA as an artistic medium. In 2020, with support from Italy’s Ministry of Culture, I turned my own genome into a large tapestry—now in the collection of the Modern Art Museum of Bologna (Italy). My next step was clear: allowing anyone to turn their DNA into artworks they could live with or gift to someone special.”
Customers can submit their orders on lifeweave.app, with two styles available: Mathesis (geometric), and Floral (botanical). Each customer will receive a saliva collection kit via mail and will return their sample using a prepaid mailer. Customers' genetic data is used only to create the artwork and is handled under safeguards that meet and, where appropriate, exceed legal standards; see lifeweave.app/legal Once sequencing is complete, Lifeweave weaves the customer’s artwork and ships it to their address.
Each customer receives:
- A unique woven tapestry made from their DNA (queen-size: 82" × 62" / 208 x 157 cm; 3.3 lb / 1.5 kg; 95% cotton, 5% polyester)
- A digitally-traceable Certificate of Authenticity
- (Optional) Full raw-data download
Pattern details of the finished work derive from the customer’s genetic sequence, ensuring each artwork is one of a kind. Furthermore, each Lifeweave tapestry includes a woven 32-character hash code signature: a string of colored squares that serves as the unique ID for the genome represented in the tapestry. Every artwork is produced using ethically sourced yarns that meet YESS and OEKO-TEX standards.
“A sophisticated process,” writes art historian and early tester Alessandra Troncone, “that culminates in a product with attractive features and potential functionality: enveloping the same body that dictated its design and colors.”
DNA and textiles share an interesting property: their material structures do not serve as supports for information subsequently applied on top of them. This property distinguishes DNA and textiles from traditional media such as painting, photography, or writing. Structure and information, as much in textiles as in DNA, coincide. Lifeweave tapestries do not ‘represent’ information, like pigments or graphite on paper, but instead they embody and present it in a unique homology between form and content.
