Genetic Sum is a self portrait based on the concept of a person being the sum of two parents' genetic material. As the son of two scientists, I took the abstracts of two of their research papers, and transposed the text into RNA codons using an altered version of the pre-existing amino acid one-letter code. I printed this text on translucent paper, so that the buildup of genetic material is evident throughout the book.

Guide for the amino acid one-letter code, altered to include all 26 letters. The pre-existing code does not assign amino acids to the letters B, J, O, U, X, or Z.