A Wellcome Trust funded project
Artist Anne Brodie, microbiologist Dr Simon Park and curator Dr Caterina Albano will be collaborating in researching the communication and light producing properties of bioluminescent bacteria outside of the usual confines of pure scientific practice. Over the course of 2009 we will develop a body of artwork based on less traditional scientifically quantifiable attributes; an alternative data collection based on subjectivity, emotion, playfulness and instinctive human enquiry." /> </head><script type="text/javascript">
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try {
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} catch(err) {}</script>A Wellcome Trust funded project
Artist Anne Brodie, microbiologist Dr Simon Park and curator Dr Caterina Albano will be collaborating in researching the communication and light producing properties of bioluminescent bacteria outside of the usual confines of pure scientific practice. Over the course of 2009 we will develop a body of artwork based on less traditional scientifically quantifiable attributes; an alternative data collection based on subjectivity, emotion, playfulness and instinctive human enquiry.
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A Wellcome Trust funded project
Artist Anne Brodie, microbiologist Dr Simon Park and curator Dr Caterina Albano will be collaborating in researching the communication and light producing properties of bioluminescent bacteria outside of the usual confines of pure scientific practice. Over the course of 2009 we will develop a body of artwork based on less traditional scientifically quantifiable attributes; an alternative data collection based on subjectivity, emotion, playfulness and instinctive human enquiry.
The one-night installation in the Herb Garrett threads in Brodie’s work with ceramics and glass and continues to question the role of the object in life’s daily rituals. Brodie’s collection of old cups, saucers, glasses, spoons, bowls and vases bought in car-boot sales and charity shops are displayed filled with nutrient agar gel inoculated with Photobacterium phosphoreum. The bacteria have a life span of approximately thirty-six hours. In the process the array of objects glimpses back exposing the impermanency of use in daily life and beyond. Unsuited for the laboratory, they magnify the precariousness of fashion, habits, and sentimentality.
‘The projected photographs in the Old Operating Theatre were displayed within the original photo-booth in which the images were taken using the light emitted by living bacteria. The images restage the long exposure of the camera lens in the improbable and at times disquieting bioluminescence that gradually fades as the bacteria die. Brodie’s lens quietly captures the ineffableness of life’s formation and the fleeting reality of subjectivity.’
Sep28
“From the earliest times, human civilization has been no more than a strange luminescence growing more intense by the hour, of which no one can say when it will begin to wane and when it will fade away.”W. G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn
Sep16
The ‘Bioluminescent photograph booth’ was installed for two days at the British Science Festival. The dark space filled with hundreds of glowing petri dishes engaged with children and adults during the day, on sat evening it went into action as 9 willing volunteers stood naked, immersed in bacterial light in order that a photographic image could be produced. A huge thank you to all of the volunteers for their intrepid spirit. Everyone reported back that they felt the experience to be extremely positive and uplifting.
We undress for medical reasons, exposure usually associated with discomfort and fear. Exposure in this case, cocooned in the faint blue light brought calm and quietness.
Poster put up around Surrey Univeristy Campus during British Science Festival
Aug30
Aug25
May27
‘…the luminous material was scraped off and was then used to make other corpses glow’
May22
Galiieo’s Daughter en route to Italy, watching over the Lister proceedings below.
May19
The archives of Joseph Lister are held in the Wellcome Library, beautifully folded, stored and wrapped in ribbon.
They give an insight into who Joseph was; a man who bought a lot of biscuits, gave money to the poor, sometimes forgot to take his library books back, moaned to his sister Mary about not having time to write.
His personal and surgical notebooks chart the development of his theories on bacterial infection and the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic agent. There are records of pivotal discoveries, connections and communication with Louis Pasteur, but there are also records of the mistakes, the scorings out - ‘the carbolic acid was too strong’ , ‘it didn’t work’
We used the bacterial light to illuminate Joseph Lister and in doing so felt we brought him out of the archive and back to life for just a short time.
This was made possible with the help of Rowan De Saulles, and the archivists at the Wellcome library. Thanks also to photographer Vaughan Forbes for all his help and advice.
Joseph Lister 1835 ‘My dear Mary’
Joseph Lister Jan 31st 1866 Laboratory notes. ‘the carbolic acid seems to have been a little too strong’
