Mick Lorusso and Joel Ong

If we see the world from the microbial perspective, we might better understand and appreciate the complex living interdependencies between the air, earth, water, plants, and animals. Through the collection and analysis of samples, the writing of microbial narratives or myths, and the construction of a small world that can be experienced by only a few people at a time, we intend to crack open a door to the microbial umwelt. To begin, we propose workshops to involve interested citizens in collecting microbial samples from the air using balloons and kites, from local water sources (Great Lakes and Niagra River) using boats and buckets, and from the soil using shovels and probes. With a fraction of these samples we will conduct scientific tests, including metagenomic profiles, to consider the ecological networks, communication, and horizontal gene transfer between all of these realms. We will integrate the other fraction of these samples into an interactive installation, where fans, heat lamps, air currents, and water currents converge around built topographies. Similar to Japanese Zen Gardens or Bonsai this will be a miniature version of the world where are we can better somatize and experience the convergence of micro and macro in our own lives and ecosystems, giving us perspective on the complex and often fragile networks of microbial exchanges in the world.

Some additional questions we are thinking about include: How might the air carry the microbiome from one ecosystem of the earth to another? How might water nurture and contain microbes that exist in the body? How does maintaining a healthy microbiome in a city or in the dirt help keep the body healthy?

Joel Ong studied a PhD student at DXARTS interested in the intersections of art, science and technology. He has a background in ecology and has an MA in Biological Arts from the University of Western Australia. His current research focuses on the parallel histories of artistic and scientific thought and how interdisciplinary explorations have and continue to inspire paradigmatic shifts in modern art - notably in the fields of biotechnology, nanoscience and ecology. His work also explores the cultural and artistic development of mediated listening and sound art.

Joel is a sound designer and is a co-founder of the Loft Collective (Singapore).

Mick Lorusso, an interdisciplinary artist with an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and BA from Colorado College, started his art|science journey as a teenage apprentice to a Hopi Kachina sculptor and a summer intern at a biochemistry lab researching yeast for bioremediation. His current projects blend microbes, animism, dreams, nanoparticles, mythology, ecology, psychology, physics, ontology and oncology in cabinets of curiosity and theatrical scenarios. He has participated in urban ecology collaborations in Mexico City and as a resident in various interdisciplinary art programs, including PLAND / ISEA 2012: Machine Wilderness (Taos, NM, USA) Make Art with Purpose 2013 (Dallas, TX, USA), and the Rising Waters Confab 2016 at the Robert Rauschenberg Residency (FL, USA) to deal with the consequences of climate change. At a residency in Schöppingen, Germany, Lorusso harnessed electricity-producing bacteria to illuminate a sculptural village, which received a hybrid art honorary mention at Ars Electronica 2013. He has also been integrating UCLA research on nanodiamonds in the treatment of cancer and other musings on health and entanglement as part of the ongoing collaborative project “Museum of Endoluminosity,” part of which will be featured in the online collection of arttextum.net. Lorusso currently manages exhibitions and programs at the UCLA Art|Sci Center.