Electronic And Organic Roots: Art and Synthetic Biology

Though it may not be an obvious pairing, biology and art have often influenced and informed each other throughout history. Take for instance the works of Surrealist painter Max Ernst, who often used images from scientific catalogs as inspiration for his work. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze similarly drew upon scientific images to build his philosophy of networks, rhizomes and interstices and the Romantics’ employed nature motifs in many a poem and landscape painting. In modern times, however, science and art have a more symbiotic relationship that makes it difficult to draw the lines of distinction between the two, and nowhere is this tension more acutely felt than in the work of artist Roman Kirschner, uses biological systems in his sculpture Roots.

Kirschner studied philosophy, art history and audiovisual aesthetics before pursuing his interest in the process of transforming materials. Among them, he found ground for the development of micro-universes made of images, sounds and physical materiality. In Roots, an aquarium-shaped installation, he explores the cycle of a crystalline formation from a mutant and sound structure animated by electricity. Every three hours, we can observe a crystalline object expanding in space and producing a sound of progressive tension. The system is powered by an electric current that influences the growth the "plant" as it changes its flow through it.

According to the artist, the piece is inspired by the concept of a chemical computer designed by Gordon Pask in the 50s. The scientist tried to build a computer that would feed itself from iron crystals formed in a solution of iron oxide exposed to an electric current. The result is an intriguing installation that explores the similarity between organic and inorganic formations. As for the electricity elements and the sound captured from the process, they refer to another boundary where the differences are very subtle to the naked eye: the visual experience of the super-natural (root and cells in activity) mediated by a camera and generative images of digital nature.

Kirschner's piece is part of the Synth-ethic: Art and Synthetic Biology Exhibition, a video festival on synthetic biology that is taking place in Austria.