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AIDS Virus The first computer generated image of the AIDS virus, based on information available in 1987. A colorized CAT scan of a person who died of AIDS, whose name was Messiah, was scanned and colorized in the background. The AIDS Virus is an icon of hope and human tragedy, a beacon of art and science, an expression of freedom and democracy, an instrument of healing and collaboration. (art)n ’s rendering confronts us with a portrait of what the AIDS Virus looks like. At first glance, we do not identify the portrait as a dead- ly virus. It’s a bright, colorful, lively abstraction–a beautiful stranger with it’s own will to dazzle and destroy. The collaboration of beauty and destruction within this art work confound both viewers and the artists who created the piece. The AIDS Virus was created by the process of collaboration. It is a dynamic way of working where limits of combined artistic freedom are unknown, but internally democ- ratized by the limits of the technology used to express collective ideas. Every artist who worked on the AIDS Virus contributed to the overall vision–aesthetically, conceptually, and technically, pro- viding a rich collection of ideas and approaches to realizing them that may not emerge when working singularly. The result is a collec- tive artistic statement about how freedom of expression challenges where artists draw the lines when they are working with others and working with new technology and unknowns. “The AIDS Virus is clearly the most talked about piece in our col- lection . . . while this country has the fourth highest concentration of HIV infection in the world, Zimbabweans are still generally reluctant to talk about the disease. The PHSCologram offers us a chance to discuss AIDS in an informal, less threatening way, but nonetheless important way. Zimbabweans are drawn to the technology that the piece evokes. Americans are stunned by the artistic feel, the vivid color and amazing shape of ‘the disease’.”