Recently in 1st exploratory conversatons Category

When Rachael and I met about two weeks ago on 2/23/12, it was before the class sat down and discussed all the projects everyone was thinking about.

We talked about our interests in the animal and some of our favorites among them - giraffes, leafy sea dragons (a type of sea horse), elephants, and birds to name a few. We both also liked combining different parts of animals to create anatomically new creatures.

We talked out the possibilities of collaborating on making one large, life-size sculpture or if we would do separate projects and just get feedback and bounce ideas off one another since we are interested in the same concepts but have different ideas on how to execute and display those concepts. Rachael is interested in possibly making a book, or a sculpture for an installation in a room just to look at while I am more interested in creating a creature (not actually alive) that moves and can interact with viewers.

We didn't come up with a cluster name or a solid idea of a project we were interested in - it was more of a brainstorming session.

After having a great conversation with Anna about mutual interests and possible collaboration projects, I just wanted to share a little bit of what we talked about. Since Anna is interested in relationships between humans and nature (i.e. plants, animals, bacteria, etc.) and I'm interested specifically in how people control and mimic natural systems, we got on the subject of bacteria. We started discussing how we've not only manipulated bacteria in this class, but also how we have no control over the bacteria growing on our bodies. We started asking, what if the body is just another kind of vehicle for bacteria? What if our main purpose is simply to act as a vessel of transport for bacteria?

Keeping this question in mind we started thinking about bacteria as a social entity. They are constantly reproducing, eating, changing, growing, moving, etc. It's like you're the host of one big bacteria party on your body. We started thinking about things that people do at a party or in preparation to go out to a party. For instance, we may adorn ourselves with jewelry or dress up for a party. We might put on make-up if going to a party. Once we get to the party we might have a cocktail or partake in some dancing. As our conversation continued we started to throw out some ideas about possible projects related to the theme of parties and bacteria:

1.) Bioluminescent make-up: adorning the body with bacteria for pure vanity

2.) Bioluminescent garments: in honor of raves and playing off of glow sticks, adorning the body with plastic clothing that could house bioluminescent bacteria inside. We would hold a dance party and have people wear the garments

3.) Probiotic cocktails: playing with the notion of serving guests "living drinks" (i.e. yogurt based things, fermentations, etc.)

4.) Probacteria gel: creating a bacteria gel to counteract the hand sanitizer craze in hopes of building up strength in one's immune system

These were the main concepts we came up with for possible projects. If any of you are interested in collaborating on some of these or have research/execution advice. Feel free to comment.

-Teréz

In my delightful conversation with Joey, I mentioned this project to him because it is ultimately a musical art piece, but also quite visual. It is a turntable of sorts, which interprets tree core samples and assigns a piano note or chord to the texture of the sample.

I came here to share it with Joey, but I also thought that it was a good project for everyone to see. I found it interesting because it is sort of a destructive method of documentation, but it extends over many layers and, subsequently, ages of growth.

I've always wanted to make a link like this, but I've never known how to until now!