Corporate constructions of bio-digital identity: DNA-based playlists and the mandate to “listen to your DNA”

Abstract

This article analyzes the novel partnership between Ancestry DNA and Spotify to create DNA-based playlists and tracks publics’ responses to them. Analysis reveals how the companies construct a sense of self that is biologically determined, technologically mediated, and culturally expressed. Layers of abstraction and curation construct their corporate, techno-utopic view of bio-digital identity performances. Yet, publics perceived these media through a dystopic lens, critiquing invasions of privacy and genetic determinism. Conceptualized as hyper-objects, DNA-based playlists demonstrate collective desires to leverage media and technoscience for conceptualizing and managing identities.