For this work, I cast a human head out of gelatin, which was enriched with common pantry items, e.g. tomato juice, red wine, chicken bouillon, and oats. Once the bust was set I inoculated it with microbial colonies that were present on and in my body, by physically handling it, coughing on it, and licking it. After inoculating the head with my biome, it was placed in an airtight chamber, then into an incubator, and was left to colonize for approximately 60 days. After 60 days, the head was removed, photographed, and used to enact a collaborative sound performance in which electrical signals detected via electrodes placed on the colonized head were used to acoustically process my voice. We now know that the human body contains more non-human cells than human ones, this work builds off of that by developing a method for artistic collaboration with the non-human colonies.
Profile No. 1 (2020)
Profile No. 2 (2020)
Detail No. 1 (2020)
Detail No. 2 (2020)