Anna Dumitriu is the Director of the Institute of Unnecessary Research and an artist whose work is deeply grounded in scientific research. I met her a few weeks ago at the Mobile Music Workshop in Amsterdam where she was presenting Bio-Tracking, a mobile phone-based exhibition using GPS and a software called Socialight which enabled the placement of virtual sticky notes around various locations in Brighton. Anna sampled various locations in the city for bacteria and molds, revealing this unseen world to us through digital micrographs. Luciana Haill, Ian Helliwell Ollie Glass and Juliet Kac created a series of sound works to accompany the images. Microbiologist John Paul wrote scientific text descriptions of the microbes. The use of GPS to map the locations where the microbiological swabs were taken brought together the microscopic and the macroscopic, drawing a thread between the satellites orbiting the earth and the bacteria at our feet. Visitors could download the software and wander around the sites receiving SMS, sound files and images to their phones. Due to the nature of Socialight the exhibition is still live and can be viewed now. I was so impressed by Anna’s enthusiasm and the sense of poetry she brings to… (more)
(Posted by Regine Debatty in Arts at 5:33 AM)