Part of Science Xchange, October 23 2011, Guildhall Cambridge, CB2 3QJ, 11am – 4pm, FREE Entry

This post is on behalf of Anna Dumitriu who will be exhibiting two works at the Science Xchange event: Communicating Bacteria Dress and MRSA Quilt. Anna will also be giving a short talk as part of our afternoon session in the Gallery.

© Anna Dumitriu. Communicating Bacteria Dress and MRSA Quilt

My work as an artist is deeply inspired by my collaborations with scientists and medics. I am currently Leverhulme artist in residence on the UK Clinical Research Consortium’s Modernising Medical Microbiology Project at The University of Oxford in the Nuffield Centre for Clinical Medicine, which looks at the changing face of medical microbiology in light of the possibilities of (near) real-time genome mapping of bacteria and developments in bioinformatics. I was invited to undertake this role based on my many years of prior artwork involving clinical and environmental microbiology as part of my “Normal Flora Project”. I also run accredited art/medicine courses at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. My aim is to work in a truly transdisciplinary way, so my collaborators are as hands on with the artistic practice side of the work as I am with the scientific side. Working with me is often seen as a means of public engagement in science but I think I am also the introduction of a small element of chaos, someone who pushes the boundaries of the medium and may ask questions that lead researchers to think beyond their standard paradigms.

Public understanding of science, in particular biomedical science and the ethics of emerging technologies is so important, particularly in terms of microbiology and I feel a responsibility to share the knowledge I acquire with the wider public. I feel strongly that anyone can understand anything if it’s explained in the right way for them. Many businesses play on public fears in order to add value to their products, and newspapers and TV shows fill our minds with images of bacteria as armies of tiny monsters ready to attack unless we buy some new hand wash or detergent. The press and its desire to sell newspapers can even sway political opinion at the highest level.  I recently created indigo blue coloured patchwork quilt stained with MRSA bacteria grown on chromogenic agar and patterned with clinical antibiotics and other tools in the research and treatment of this disease. Each square on the quilt can be explained in terms of the research work that went into making it. The public are fascinated to come face to face with the famous ‘superbug’, but in the case of my work the piece has been sterilised (autoclaved) so it is no longer dangerous. Quilts are historically used as story telling devices and this piece tells the story of MRSA and facilitates dialogues. Another recent work “Communicating Bacteria” uses (sterilised) genetically modified bacteria to explain about bacterial chemical communication.

I frequently find myself deeply embedded within scientific institution or projects. The collaborations tend to happen very organically as my research interests develop and various threads intersect, sometimes I will instigate a residency and sometimes I am invited. The next step in my Modernising Medical Microbiology residency will be to shadow Tuberculosis researchers in a bio-safety level three lab. For me even the process of being inducted into such a lab is fascinating and I am able to reflect deeply on that experience through my work, bringing the emotional, the aesthetic and the scientific sides of it together and giving the public an insight into this world. Tuberculosis is the worlds greatest infectious killer and the researchers I will be working with are helping to understand it better through whole genome sequencing. It is an exciting time for the science of microbiology as new technological developments are revolutionising the field and I feel very privileged to be working in this area.

Anna Dumitriu

October 2011