Saliva (2022)
print, digital
Design for artist Lauren Lee McCarthy’s installation, Saliva.
Exerpt from the artist’s website:
“We have now been trained to regularly swab, spit, and give up ownership of our bodily substances to corporations and government run centers. These fluids hold the data of our DNA, personal information, and identity. Can I as an individual human become your saliva deposit center instead? Can we take saliva exchange back into our own hands?
You are invited to exchange a sample of your saliva with one of my own. A Terms Of Exchange outlines my intention to protect the privacy of your identity and biodata. You are free to do as you like with my own saliva.
Along with the physical storage of the saliva sample, a digital representation of each sample is stored on the blockchain as an NFT. The growing collection of saliva is an archive of a moment when our boundaries of our bodies and DNA is shifting.
** Saliva 001 is currently available via Van Ham auction **”
Printed Saliva Exchange kit, featuring a neon green Pantone® spot color and tear-out saliva funnel.
Prototype for mobile Saliva registration site.
A project by Lauren Lee McCarthy. Photos by Carla Schleiffer.