CUTTING-EDGE CONTEMPORARY ART & SCIENCE
BY SCIENTIST-ARTIST-INVENTOR
OBDULIO PILOTO

MOLECULAR PORTRAITS
Probing the vulnerabilities of the existential human condition
Dr. Obdulio Piloto explores themes of identity, particularly what it means to be human in an exponentially technological period of human existence.
IN CONVERSATION
Dr. Piloto: For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the power of abstract art to bypass programmed scenic imageries and evoke strong emotions through amorphous markings. I am intrigued by how some artists can so skillfully explore similar topics from vastly different perspectives and create an understanding beyond what is physical and real. It is communication at the highest form.

© Obdulio Piloto.
The core of my art involves the capture of a person’s essence at a moment in time. Capturing one’s likeness is not a new concept (think of the countless royal portraits in Western civilization). However, a painting or a photograph poorly approximates the highly complex molecular mixture that is a living, biological being. Instead, my art utilizes ‘molecular portraits’; molecular constructs of individuals using a technology I co-invented with Ian Cheong, called NuTec, which utilizes nanotechnology, material science, molecular medicine, and artificial intelligence. A key scientific application of this technology is detecting diseases early, particularly cancers.
If the disease can be diagnosed early, without exaggeration, it can determine life or death for many who don’t experience any symptoms.
These Molecular Portraits are a series of 70 data-rich spots that are used to communicate biological information to artificial intelligence systems. As such, they remove the cultural, socio-economic, racial, sexual and religious baggage we automatically associate with traditional images of people and form the basis for my artworks.