Émilien Dubuc

Film

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I’ve just stored memories of my grandmother Mado in synthetic DNA. My memories have taken on physical form. 

Before, in order to store our images and share our recipes, there was the Internet, but the web is getting old and is being privatised at breakneck speed, while its energy consumption promises us scorching tomorrows. 

DNA is the future: its storage requires no energy, and it can be kept for eternity (even if fifty years would have been enough for me). But DNA is expensive to synthesise. With my budget, I can only afford to store 200 kilobytes of data; the suitcase of the future is small. What memories should I choose? And how should I do it? So far, there are no tutorials.

I saved a few traces: a letter to Mado, the recipe for the dessert that made her famous (the coconut flan), the image of a red disc that I will use in my film, a family photo and an imprint of her voice. 

ODAMADO, an imperfect manual for saving memories in DNA.

Émilien Dubuc

Born in Bordeaux in 1987, Émilien originally studied biochemistry in France and then in the Netherlands, focusing on the emergence of life on Earth, before turning to photography and film. While at the KASK & Conservatorium/School of Arts in Ghent (Belgium), he developed a practice based on film, the chemistry of images and sound reconstruction, with which he bid farewell to synchronicity. At Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, the conjunction of scientific and artistic research is fully effective.

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