Eye Candy (34)
By:
June 16, 2020
This week Eye Candy looks through the lens at the microbial productions of Simon Sublime, the non de plume of a UK scientist whose observations and collaborations with the tiny creatures are producing fascinating results.
Using strong magnification and an algorithmic photography technique he developed, Simon Sublime captures the glyph-like trails of the microbes’ movements:
From the website:
“Via Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) microscopy (100-times magnification) and algorithmic photography, the artworks (complex and moving glyphs are produced by the activity of the microorganisms themselves and by their interplay in what could described as a nonhuman performance.”
From Twitter:
“Complex glyphs made by the activity tracks of microorganisms in minute drops of various surface waters. Natural waters resonate with these unique & living frequencies & wavelengths. 100-times magnification, algorithmic photography. & 3 different waters.”
He investigates the interaction between pond water’s living citizens, and the ever-increasing tangle of plastic fibers shed by our fleeces, in videos both beautiful and damned:
Hybrid Ecologies: synthetic/organic. Found microbes interact with a mesh of found plastic microfibres. 100-times magnification, DIC microscopy. and time-lapse pic.twitter.com/l5f7LmWDaN
— Simon Sublime (@SimonSublime) May 14, 2020
Some pieces are slower-paced. For instance, in these cloth works, a line of different bacteria is infused at either end of the fabric, growing and spreading until they meet and diffuse in the middle; as Simon observes, “bacterial” Rothkos:
“Bacterial Rothkos? Paintings made by bacteria growing/ moving through a canvas & interacting with each other. Red, (Serratia marscens), Purple (Chromobacterium violaceum) & yellow (Micrococcus luteus). Before growth, bacteria were inoculated as thin lines at either end of canvas.”
And occasionally one must gaze inwards; here Simon investigates part of his own microbiome:
A frenzy of motile bacteria moving with "purpose". Part of my microbiome. 1000-times magnification, DIC microscopy. pic.twitter.com/Qf3qVwEOSw
— Simon Sublime (@SimonSublime) May 17, 2020
“So in a single drop of water the microscope discovers, what motions, what tumult, what wars, what pursuits, what stratagems, what a circle-dance of Death & Life, Death hunting Life & Life renewed and invigorated by Death … a many meaning cypher.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
For further weird and wonderful investigations of our symbiotic nature, follow @SimonSublime on Twitter.
Simon Sublime: website; Twitter