BIOLOGICAL HERMENEUTICS | THE LIBRARY
Dried blood agar, petri dishes, yet to be identified dehydrated bacteria, MDF, chromed brass.
Dimensions | H180cm x W80cm x D40cm
This work proposes a new method for libraries and archives to store not only the text of their archival materials, but biological data too. The work takes inspiration from a new technology that allows digital files to be encoded in synthesised strands of DNA, an entanglement of the digital and the biological. It asks the question: what does a transdisciplinary archive look like?
Biological Hermeneutics Library consists of a life-size light box containing 22 samples of bacteria cultivated from the pages of a 300-year-old copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Bacteria were isolated by microbiologist Dr Simon Park and then sub-cultured by streak dilution to obtain pure strains for DNA analysis. Instead of disposing of the used petri dishes and agar, as would be standard scientific practice, the bacteriological agar was carefully dried to generate thin, glass-like films. The resulting films are shown as sculptural forms, but also act as unconventional archival objects – a record of the book’s biological information.
Normally bacterial cultures are kept for the long-term in deep freeze stores, but here they are preserved in dried agar at a fraction of the cost and using minimal energy. During the drying process the bacteria either become latent or die and release genetically identical spores which can be reactivated at a later date.
As part of the fictional discipline of Biological Hermeneutics, the Library created new biological interpretations of the book’s pages, revealing the data it had collected throughout its history as it was acquired, stored and handled by humans. This included six bacteria known to be part of the skin’s microbiome – records of human touch – including one commonly residing in the armpit or pubic region. Bacteria from soil were also found, including one normally found living under mahogany trees in West Timor, Indonesia. Some of the cultures raised questions about whether they could predate the mutations leading to antimicrobial resistance. Bacteria displaying antimicrobial resistance – so-called ‘superbugs’ – are described by the World Health Organisation as one of the top 10 public health threats facing humanity. By interpreting these traces, the entangled relationship between book and reader was revealed, and nonhuman voices were allowed to tell an alternative story of the book’s past.
Copyright of Sarah Craske 2023