Decoding Life investigates how our perceptions of life, identity, and health are mediated by genomics. The project translates the human genome sequences into visual artwork by critically engaging with the genome as both information and medium. This approach seeks to reveal the fundamental units depicting human life by engaging directly with complex genomic data that is otherwise difficult to read, interpret and understand that data is never purely objective.

The project translates sequences into watercolour artwork, colour-coding nucleotides (A, T, G, C) to represent DNA strands, gaps, variations, and synthetic edits. The grids portray the structured protocols of the genome, while watercolour illustrates imperfections and variations, emphasising human mediation. These symbolise natural genetic differences, highlighting individuality and the unique interactions of genes and environment, in contrast to the reductive lens of medical databases. The manual process of painting foregrounds material engagement and temporal labour, creating a counterpoint to automated sequencing and highlighting the mediated conditions under which scientific knowledge is produced.

Decoding Life positions media as an active condition, emphasising process, interpretation, and cultural context, while encouraging reflection on the social, ethical, and material dimensions of genomics, including questions of control, ownership, and the framing of humans as data units within scientific infrastructures.