Mikael Hwang

With artificial intelligence (AI) representing the height of the information technology revolution, the internet is evolving from a human archive to a space increasingly shaped by artificial agents. This phenomenon, known as the Dead Internet Theory, prompts us to seriously reflect on how alien logic is reshaping our digital commons, making it urgent to reconsider our technological trajectory and the risks of surrendering our agency. Yet our myopia for silicon blinds us to DNA—the ancient medium we copy, repair, replicate, shed, ingest, and exhale daily—which offers an alternative so efficient at storing information that, by some estimates, all the world’s digital data could fit into a single bathtub (Goldman et al., Nature, 2017).

Propagation challenges an era reliant on artificial clouds. It draws from nature’s example, such as mushrooms releasing spores, to encode information (an album) into DNA, which is then dispersed into the atmosphere like smoke rings. Here, the act of release is not metaphorical: the song, materialized as molecular code, circulates throughout the biosphere. In doing so, the project marks itself as the world’s first biological release of music, using DNA rather than traditional digital formats and embodying the playful gesture of “uploading to the cloud” as a literal, atmospheric encounter between technology and life.

Today, virtually all music exists entirely within a digital ecosystem: it is created (often solely) using digital tools, encoded into digital audio formats (.mp3), and distributed through digital platforms for playback on digital devices. This seamless and ubiquitous process of sonic production and distribution is the outcome of a particular techno-social imaginary—one that renders information immaterial and culture infinitely replicable. Here, AI not only facilitates this process, but its convenience and fundamentally nonhuman logic tempt us to gradually outsource our participation, judgment, and creativity. The result is a digital landscape in which we become more passive, as agency and autonomy are surrendered to artificial agents.

While we have adapted to a world shaped by digital code, we must also question how digitization shapes life. By releasing music exclusively as DNA, resistant to AIs that feed on digitized data, Propagation insists that we must actively pursue other means to propagate information—not simply because alternatives are lacking, but because our one-sided reliance on AI is a profound risk. Propagation challenges the assumptions of digital universality and foregrounds the potential of living materialities as sites of resistance. What futures might have emerged if we had channeled our imaginative and material resources into biocomputation?

Proagation — FAQ

What exactly is being released into the air?
Short, naked, synthetic DNA fragments that encode music information. They are not cells, viruses, or organisms; they are chemically synthesized strands of DNA dissolved in a small volume of sterile water and atomized into a fine mist, which is then combined with the fog from a fog machine, generated by heating water and glycerin, and dispersed into the air.

Is this a GMO?
No. There are no modified organisms involved—only laboratory-synthesized DNA molecules. They cannot grow, replicate, or evolve on their own.

How is DNA everywhere?
All living things constantly shed DNA: skin cells, hair, saliva/mucus, pollen, spores, microbes, and plant bits. Much of this material breaks into environmental DNA (eDNA) that floats in air, water, and dust; it’s routinely measured in cities and rural areas alike. Recent national-scale surveys even read biodiversity from air-pollution filters. PubMed Central The Guardian

Is “naked” DNA different from DNA inside cells?
Only in stability. Outside a cell, DNA is quickly chopped up by enzymes (DNases), sunlight (UV), heat, and microbes. Your airways naturally contain DNases; in fact, doctors sometimes prescribe an inhaled DNase (dornase alfa) to cut extracellular DNA in thick mucus for patients with cystic fibrosis. PubMed Central

Can this DNA get into my body and change me?
No. Human cells do not readily take up free DNA from casual contact or ordinary breathing. In research and medicine, successful DNA delivery requires special carriers (viral vectors, lipid nanoparticles, polymers) or physical methods; naked DNA alone has very low uptake and does not integrate into the genome on its own. SpringerLink BioMed Central

Is there any infection risk?
No. Infection requires a viable pathogen (a virus, bacterium, or other organism). These releases are non-living, short DNA strands without the genes, structures, or life cycles that pathogens need. For scale: the genomes of the smallest known DNA animal viruses (porcine circoviruses) are ~1.7–1.8 kilobases—around four times longer than the ~450-base assemblies used here—and they also require specific gene organization and a protein shell. ScienceDirect

What if someone has asthma or allergies?
The vapor is just pure water and glycerin with trace amounts of DNA. There are no proteins, fragrances, or known allergens added.

How long does the DNA persist?
Not long. Outdoors, UV light, heat, and DNases degrade free DNA on the order of minutes to hours; bound to dust, it may persist longer but becomes ever more fragmented and unreadable. PubMed Central

Could microbes pick it up?
Some bacteria can naturally take up environmental DNA, but these strands are screened to avoid “sequences of concern” (no toxin genes, pathogen genes, etc.), and they lack promoters and context needed to express anything meaningful. The practical risk from such short, screened fragments is considered negligible.

Could plants or other organisms pick up this DNA and harm the ecosystem?
Highly unlikely. Plants don’t naturally take up and integrate airborne, free (“naked”) DNA; stable plant gene transfer typically requires Agrobacterium or other engineered delivery (e.g., particle bombardment) under lab conditions. Some bacteria can take up environmental DNA, but these sequences are short, screened for Sequences of Concern, and rapidly degraded outdoors, making ecological risk negligible. BioMed Central PubMed

Who checked the sequences for safety?
CATALOG uses a fixed library of short oligonucleotides to assemble ~400–500-base molecules and screens them against Sequences of Concern using the IBBIS Common Mechanism, an open, global screening tool aligned to the U.S. OSTP Framework for Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening. That framework requires routine screening of ordered sequences and tightens screening windows to 50 nucleotides by Oct 13, 2026. ASPR+1 Gene Synthesis Screening Information Hub IBBIS

Is this legal and compliant?
This artwork uses non-LMO, synthetic DNA screened to global biosecurity guidance and handled under standard lab hygiene. Regulations differ by place and evolve; the project follows current best practice and consults local policies where exhibited.

Is this legal and compliant in South Korea?
Korea’s LMO Act governs living modified organisms (aligned with the Cartagena Protocol); non-living, synthetic DNA like this artwork’s is not an LMO and isn’t explicitly regulated under that act. In April 2025, Korea passed the Synthetic Biology Promotion Act (effective 2026), which promotes synthetic biology, and signals evolving governance but doesn’t itself ban or newly regulate non-LMO DNA releases. Korean Legislation Research Institute MSIT INSS

Will I hear anything at the show?
The “music” is present as molecular code rather than audible sound. You encounter it as a material—a literal “upload to the cloud”—circulating through the city’s air, like spores or seeds.

Who can “listen” to this song?
In theory, someone could capture enough airborne DNA, sequence it, and—with the correct decoding map and error-correction scheme—reconstruct data back into a digital file. Let me know if you'd be interested in trying!