Genomic Media

DNA-based data storage

We propose “Genomic Media” as a concept that accounts for the history, legacy, and interdisciplinary nature of DNA in the context of data storage. Unlike DNA as media, Genomic Media calls on the entirety of a pre-existing industry, and the decades-long social and emotional investments in the codes of binary and molecular biology. Genomic Media are also the tools and technological advances of the last two decades that ‘make’ the gene – make it conceptual, visible, editable – and that have, in turn, spawned a billion dollar industry, the global field of genomics. So instead of asking ‘what is a gene?’ – which may, in fact, be best left to chemists and biologists – as critical media scholars, we must continue to ask: what have we made out of DNA? How can the molecular change, if not through the ways we mediate it, render it visible, market it, and deploy it? What stories does the genome narrate for us over time? How did we come to store data onto DNA?

Genomic Media (genomic.media) is also supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant.

Mél Hogan & Deb Verhoeven are currently working on a podcast series and Mél Hogan & Madeleine Mendell are currently working on an book project. More to come in 2024.