Microorganisms & Their Hosts

Exhibition, 2020

In collaboration with: scientist Auksė Gaižauskaitė (microbiology), artists Antanas Gerlikas (glass), Laura Kaminskaitė (exhibition design and glass), curator Valentinas Klimašauskas.

https://youtu.be/yppwCnZ_dxY

The main idea behind this exhibition is how our aesthetic perception is affected by the fermented products we ingest. The project looks at how selected microorganisms affect our biota –– the populations of various microorganisms living in the gut. Biota contributes to the overall well-being of the human body and, as the exhibition considers, aesthetic perception.

The exhibition features seven different artworks, all approaching the theme from different perspectives. While the video Microorganisms & Their Hosts presents the conceptual part of the exhibition from consumer’s, scientist’s, and artist’s perspectives, other works demonstrate how microorganisms are approached from cultural, scientific, and maker perspectives. For example, Glass Containers displays the traditional way of making a fermented tee and Glass Vessels introduces the scientific method of fermenting yogurts. Two other installations provide an idea of how the Ph levels change through the fermentation process. While the Proposal for Microbial Therapy is designed to display the change of Ph levels of fermented yogurts, the capsule Rectal Candle is to track the change of Ph levels of our intestine. The installation My Collaboration With Bacteria for Paper Production, which includes a DIY lab, a toolkit, a video tutorial, a manual, and ongoing workshops is for the audiences to experience the impact of microorganisms while working with microorganisms right in the exhibition space. The last artwork, the workshop How to Personalize Yogurt? is conceptualized to have the participants produce individual yogurts.

Combining isolation of a single microorganism, cooking medium for it, looking after it, and finally consuming it, the audience is invited to experience the relationship between the targeted microorganism and itself.

In order to have a significant impact on humans, it is recommended to consume 500 g of yogurt per day for several weeks. Keeping in mind that homemade yogurt may contain pathogens and unhealthy chemical compounds, the author suggests consuming homemade consumables at their own risk.

Experiments

Experiment #1
Experiment #2

Artworks

Microorganisms & Their Hosts, video
Proposal for Microbial Therapy, glass vessels with yogurt, electronic device
Rectal Candle, electronic device, display
Glass Vessels, blown glass filled up with yogurt
Glass Containers, melt glass filled up with kombucha
My Collaboration With Bacteria for Paper Production, DIY Biolab, toolkit, video tutorial, manual
How to Personalize Yogurt?, workshop

Process

Having started with the toolkit My Collaboration with Bacteria for Paper Production, which provides tools to work around the interaction of microorganisms and in a broader sense the symbiotic relationships between living organisms and non-living things, I came up with a series of workshops around the isolation of bacteria. While tinkering, and discussing raised questions, together with the participants of the workshops, we sourced a few scientific papers worth referring to. To mention is a paper “Lactose digestion from yogurt: mechanism and relevance” by Denis Savaiano which claims that fresh yogurt with Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus has active bacterial lactase and therefore prevents symptoms in lactose-intolerant people. Another paper “Microbial lysate upregulates host oxytocin” by B. J. Varian et al concludes that yogurt with Lactobacillus reuteri may affect the release of oxytocin, a hormone that is responsible for social bonding. Speculation on the idea that the consumption of fermented dairy products may improve lactose malabsorption or affect the sense of social bonding, provoked further speculations on the impact of microorganisms to humans.

Acknowledgments

Further collaborations: Bon Alog (video editing), Tristen Bakker (proofreading), Juris Dunovskis (glass), Mark Eckstrand (glass), Alanas Gurinas (camera, sound), Brigita Kasperaitė (video editing), Nerijus Kėblys (graphic design), Juozas Masiulis (microbiology), Mindaugas Miselis (electronics), Mantas Rimkus (graphic design), Martin Schied (electronics), Bevan Taka (glass), Hege Tapio (workshop), Vilius Vaitiekūnas (video documentation), Adomas Žudys (3d modelling).

Thanks to the National Gallery of Art

Organised by Institutio Media and Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association

Supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, Bauhaus University Weimar, TOP e. V, Dunovglass.

Related Texts

‘Microorganisms and Their Host’ – an exhibition by Mindaugas Gapševičius on experiencing microorganisms at Atletika

Meno projektas tyrinėja, kaip mikroorganizmai gali pakeisti mus ir mūsų meno suvokimą

Lašelis balto juodame. Mindaugo Gapševičiaus paroda „Mikroorganizmai ir jų šeimininkai“ „Atletikoje“

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Photos: Andrej Vasilenko

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