Investigation of the solid state

Conceptual Bio-Art Project, 2017

This work investigates bio-ceramic implant simulations and skeletal metamorphosis in humans caused by pathological conditions including inflammation and heterotopic ossification. The project examines the pathological phenomena of calcium phosphate calcification in humans and the role of bacteria in this process, a metamorphosis of physical forms caused by (nano)bacteria in decalcification and recalcification cycles.

Ancient (nano)bacteria, co-founders of life, generate formations of calcium phosphate crystals that appear to cause numerous pathological conditions in humans. Since bacteria play a central role in pathogenesis, the mechanism that causes disease, we could approach pathology from a less human-centered perspective. Could pathological processes be reversed through technical reconditioning of the biological? This project investigates, theoretically, practically, and visually, ideas around medical reconstruction of the body and its capacity to regenerate itself when enhanced by bacterial intervention.

The work was developed during a research period at BioArtLaboratories in Eindhoven, experimenting with scaffolds of bio-ceramic simulations as structures for bacterial growth. The artist continued this investigation as a participant in the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity Body as Site residency program, exploring pathogenesis and a bone-china porcelain composite with properties similar to osteoporotic bone, alongside simulation of an injectable bacterial substance to regenerate bone growth.

To comply with institutional biosafety protocols at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada the living bacterial cultures were terminated using radioactive light sterilization prior to public exhibition. This requirement transformed the work's material state from active biological process to preserved specimen, creating a paradox: a work about regeneration and symbiosis that required the death of its living component for display. This constraint became integral to the work's conceptual framework; documenting the tension between living biological systems and institutional expectations for static, controllable art objects.

The artist is interested in the future body where bacterial implants reconstruct the body as an integral part of nature. Bacteria play an important role in pathogenesis, the mechanism of imbalance that causes disease. This work investigates the role of bacteria in pathological calcification and the metamorphosis of physical forms in these calcification processes. Why do bacteria calcify? Can a catalyst for human disease be utilized as a symbiotic living implant supporting the body's capacity for self-regeneration?

Results from the BioArtLaboratories Talent Pressure Cooker Program and Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity Body as Site residency were presented at Dutch Design Week 2017 as part of the BioArtLaboratories Lost in Transformation exhibition and Homeostatic Tension solo exhibition at Temporary Art Centre in Eindhoven.

Research supported by contributions from the Mondriaan Fund, the Banff Centre for the Arts Scholarship, and the Creativity and Mary E. Hofstetter Funds of Excellence in the Arts Scholarship..