The Legendary Coelacanth

Alex Dodge, artist

born 1977

The Legendary Coelacanth, 2007

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: hand antiqued paper; wove paper; coelacanth computer virus executable file on EPROM memory chip; computer numerical controlled dry point engraving

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 495 x 464 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 19 1/2 x 18 1/4 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 601 x 565 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 23 11/16 x 22 1/4 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 33 1/2 x 31 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Letha Churchill Walker Memorial Art Fund

Accession number: 2012.0009

Not on display

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Label texts

In The Legendary Coelecanth, Dodge provides us with a provocative juxtaposition of biological and technological evolution; of genetic code and computer code. The woman in a fetal position, in the same briny world as the coelacanth, puts humanity in direct contact with both biological and electronic realms. Asked about this, the artist expanded:
The extended systems of communication that are nested in the work are genetic across multiple species, to more higher-level human systems of language and printing, and eventually non-human systems, but each intertwined with each other.
The memory chip is an AMD Am27C020 chip with ultraviolet 2 Mbit erasable, programmable, read-only memory (EPROM). The artist explains:
I don’t usually have the opportunity to explain the memory chip in detail. I chose this version of memory chip for a few reasons. On one hand the clear window allows the viewer to see the actual etched silicone semiconductor inside. This I thought was a wonderful way of revealing the extension from the seemingly antiquated and traditional printmaking process of engraving that the image on paper is made with... because the process of making integrated circuits is really just another form of printmaking itself. All modern chips are simply made with photo lithography ...very very small photo lithography, but in principle the same photo and acid resist techniques used to print all information since Guttenberg. The other reason I wanted to use this chip is that it is ultraviolet light erasable: that is, you can clear the chip’s memory by exposing it to extreme ultraviolet light. I thought that it was a wonderful sort of symmetry that even the virus contained on the chip could be vulnerable like all other life.
The virus itself is a real but harmless computer virus, a modified form of NRLG or NuKE’s Random Life Generator. The modified version that I made and dubbed the “coelacanth virus” doesn’t have a destructive payload…and wouldn’t even be able to run on/ infect most of the computers on the net todayCoelacanth at the KU Natural History Museum Latimeria chalumnae, 972mm total length. Weight 13.5kg. Captured on island of Grand Comore in the Comore Islands in 1986 by a local fisherman. KU 22082 (may be seen by request — contact Ichthyology Collection Manager)
Coelacanths are known from the fossil record from as far back as 65 million years ago. All were thought to be extinct until December 1938, when Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, curator at the museum in East London, South Africa, found a
strange fish in a pile brought in by a trawler to the harbor. There are now five known populations of coelacanth (Sodwana Bay, South Africa; Madagascar; Kenya; the Comore Islands; and Sulawesi, Indonesia) and two distinct species. Little is known of coelacanth biology or ecology. They are known to live between 150–200 meters down and migrate closer to the surface at night to feed. They are slow growing and give birth to live young from eggs larger than a softball. They selectively live in volcanic cave-type environments, hence their patchy distribution. The largest population is thought to be in the Comores, a small island group off the western coast of Africa, and number approximately 500 individuals which can be identified by the white spotted pattern on their bodies, much like whales tails are used to identify individual whales.
Coelacanths are classified as severely endangered and threatened species due to extremely small population sizes, slow growth and reproduction and relatively high incidental bycatch by local fishermen (10–15 per year). Every coelacanth in a museum has a Coelacanth Conservation Council (CCC) number. This one is number 140.

Exhibition Label:
"Cryptograph: An Exhibition for Alan Turing," Mar-2012, Stephen Goddard
In The Legendary Coelacanth, Dodge provides us with a provocative juxtaposition of biological and technological evolution; of genetic code and computer code. The woman in a fetal position, in the same briny world as the coelacanth, puts humanity in direct contact with both biological and electronic realms. Asked about this, the artist expanded: The extended systems of communication that are nested in the work are genetic across multiple species, to more high er-level human systems of language and 22 printing, and eventually non-human systems, but each intertwined with each other. The memory chip is an AMD Am27C020 chip with ultraviolet 2 Mbit erasable, programmable, read-only memory (EPROM). The artist explains: I don't usually have the opportunity to explain the memory chip in detail. I chose this version of memory chip for a few reasons. On one hand the clear window allows the viewer to see the actual etched silicone semiconductor inside. This I thought was a wonderful way of revealing the extension from the seemingly antiquated and traditional printmaking process of engraving that the image on paper is made with... because the process of making integrated circuits is really just another form of printmaking itself. All modern chips are simply made with photo lithography ...very very small photo lithography, but in principle the same photo and acid resist techniques used to print
all information since Guttenberg. The other reason I wanted to use this chip is that it is ultraviolet light erasable: that is, you can clear the chip’s memory by exposing it to extreme ultraviolet light. I thought that it was a wonderful sort of symmetry that even the virus contained on the chip could be vulnerable like all other life.
The virus itself is a real but harmless computer virus, a modified form of NRLG or NuKE's Random Life Generator. The modified version that I made and dubbed the "coelacanth virus" doesn't have a destructive payload…and wouldn't even be able to run on/infect most of the computers on the net today. SG