@article{Hamilton_2019, title={From Bits to Bodies: Perfect Humans, Bioinformatic Visualizations, and Critical Relationality}, volume={10}, url={https://imaginationsjournal.ca/index.php/imaginations/article/view/29429}, DOI={10.17742/IMAGE.CR.10.1.7}, abstractNote={<p><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;">In December 2014, computational biologist Lior Pachter posted the results of his “tongue in cheek” </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">in silico</em><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;"> genome experiment on his personal blog, where he declared his discovery that “the perfect human is Puerto Rican.” In this article, I analyze the “perfect human” experiment. I argue that despite the use of 21</span><sup style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -0.5em; caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">st</sup><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;">-century, cutting-edge technology in computing and genomics, Pachter’s experiment and his use of visualization can be usefully juxtaposed with earlier modes of </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">visualizing heredity</em><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;">, namely the development of composite portraiture in the late-19</span><sup style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -0.5em; caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">th</sup><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;"> century and late-20</span><sup style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 10.5px; line-height: 0; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -0.5em; caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">th</sup><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;"> century technologies of “morphing.” I temper the celebration of Pachter’s creation of a “mixed race” perfect human </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;">in silico</em><span style="caret-color: #484848; color: #484848; font-family: Karla, sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; display: inline !important; float: none;"> with a challenge to its ostensibly progressive stance. I instead suggest that it must be understood in the broader context of eugenic hauntings and contemporary tensions around questions of sex, sexuality, race, nation, and indigeneity. I argue that the scientific, specifically genomic, stories that we tell, can be productively read in light of critiques of biogenetic kinship and the naturalization of heterosexual love. I conclude by arguing that the perfect human experiment makes a particular kind of argument about what it means to be human and perfect and what constitutes legitimate and cognizable modes of relationality.</span></p>}, number={1}, journal={Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies}, author={Hamilton, Jennifer A}, year={2019}, month={Jul.}, pages={181–213} }