At the annual Science New Wave Festival, SNW Luminaries nominate the latest crop of singular science cinema: long, short, medium, micro, macro, documentary, fiction, animation, video art, installation, VR/AR, 360, research data, field work & hybridities of all these forms et al.
To be exact, sixty four (64) works are selected every year and each one of these receives a Science New Wave (SNW) Certificate.
≈ A SNW Certificate will be given to each of the 64 films selected in the SNW festival. This is not an award per se but an acknowledgement that the work aligns and feeds into the spirit and ideals of the Science New Wave. The certification is done by Luminaries who subsequently invite the contributors (director, producer, researcher, actor…) of the film into the Luminary Member Circle.
≈ A SNW Certificate comes with a unique 18-nucleotide DNA sequence in perpetuity (nomenclature explained below).
≈ The SNW Certificate and/or DNA tag may be placed in the primary material (ex: opening/ending credits) and/or in the supporting material (press kit, field notes, research paper, poster, brochure) of the film.
What’s the big deal with 64?
64 is a biologically sacred number. The language of DNA/RNA is made up of 4 possible nucleotides - A, C, G, T/U. Each sequential 3 nucleotides in an Open Reading Frame is a codon and there are a total of 64 possible combinations.
In the process of cellular translation, the DNA/RNA language of nucleotides is scanned, (proof)read and subsequently converted into 20 possible individual amino acids, shorter peptides and longer proteins that take on beautiful shapes and structures.
The sublime DNA-to-amino acid translation matrix is known as the Genetic code and it is universal. It applies to all organisms irrelevant of size, shape or complexity from single-cell bacteria to humans. It is also redundant and for a good reason! Three or four codons translate to the same amino acid. The third nucleotide of a codon can be any of the four nucleotides. Hence, a modification in this ‘wobble’ position does not alter the amino acid and will instead a trigger a ‘silent mutation.’ These micro—changes drive the evolutionary force/flux known as the Genetic Drift.
Why have a DNA-encoded Film Certificate?
In a not-so-distant future, our identity / material possessions / virtual data will be genetically preserved so why not include cinema in the mix! How do we store and preserve the audiovisual pieces we make? The SNW certificate is an sci-poetic and ambitious attempt to do so. We’re trying to create a biological archive of the images/sounds produced by human and other organisms.
The SNW certificate is inspired by a plethora of things from the living and non-living, notably film theory/concepts and biological wonders/innovations. Below are two noteworthy references.
Inspiration #1 : Scientists Can Use CRISPR to Store Images and Movies in Bacteria (Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 07/12/17)
A few years ago, Seth Shipman et al. in the Church Lab at the Harvard Medical School published a paper that caught the eye of our Luminaries. DNA was successfully tested as an excellent biological material for archiving movies! Images, sounds, experiences, narratives transformed into genetic sequence and then stored inside living organisms using high-precision genetic engineering!
The movie-to-DNA transfer experiment was done one of the first motion pictures every made: The Horse in Motion, a sequential sequential series of “automatic electro-photographs” shot by Eadweard Muybridge in June 1978.
Here’s a passage from the 2017 Nature Letter article’s abstract:
“Here, we use the CRISPR-Cas system to encode images and a short movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria. In doing so, we push the technical limits of this information storage system and optimize strategies to minimize those limitations.” CRISPR-Cas encoding of a digital movie into the genomes of a population of living bacteria, Seth L Shipman, Jeff Nivala, Jeffrey D Macklis, and George M Church, Nature. 2017 July 20.
Inspiration #2 : Dogme95 Certificate (Wikipedia, Dogme certificate for Bier's Elsker dig for evigt / Open Hearts, 2001), Dogme No. 28.)
The Science New Wave certificate is heavily inspired by the Dogme 95 certificate that was given to only 31 films The Dogme95 avant-garde film movement seemingly ceased to exist in 2002. However, you can still go to the official site and fill out a form - DOGME CERTIFICATE FORMULA.
“The first film to receive the Dogme 95 certificate of authenticity would be Vinterberg's Festenor The Celebration, a dark comedy that follows a family convening for the patriarch's birthday party only to dive into drunken confessions about their family's troubled past.” The 10 Rules of "Dogme 95", The Danish Film Movement, Jeff Merrick, Collider, 08/30/22
“The Dogma 95 (Danish: Dogme 95) is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" (Danish: kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the directors as artists", as opposed to the studio.” Wikipedia
Nomenclature explained
XXX-YYY-ZZZZZZZZZZZZ
X, Y, X are composed of the 4 nucleotides (A,T,C,G) of the genetic code.
ex: ATGCTTTGATATAGCTTC -> ATG-CTT-TGATATAGCTTC -> 18 (=3+3+12) nucleotides
ATG: start codon | CTT : A Common Sequence | TGATATAGCTTC: Mary Helena Clark (co-director) SNW Luminary ID
[XXX] - Codon Year (64 possibilities) - The numerical year is based on the Gregorian calendar and genetically encoded/translated. The codon corresponding to each year (2023-2087) is decided by our Luminary Members and announced on the first day of the new year. 2023 is the inaugural year that films will be SNW certified and hence it has been attributed the start codon ATG.
[ZZZ] - Codon of the Motion Picture (64 possibilities)
[XXXXXXXXXXXX] = 12-digit SNW DNA code of a Science New Wave member creatively affiliated with and invested in the motion picture (filmmaker, producer, actor, researcher) composed of the 4 nucleotides (A,T,C,G) of the genetic code.
Science New Wave XVI Genetic Code (top) / SNW Certificate of ‘A Common Sequence’ (bottom)