the body electric + crystal transmission

Recently, I was lent a book which has brought my entire project together for me: The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life (Robert Becker, MD and Gary Selden), 1985. It's an older, now fairly obscure text, which you can download in its entirety as a PDF by clicking the hyperlink above. This book not only addresses hydroxyapatite crystal formation in osteogenesis but also the function of electrical impulses which are conducted by the crystals, in the process of bone formation. FASCINATING stuff, and it's hard to believe that it has seemingly fallen out of collective memory as a significant work, since it is an early text on tissue engineering as far as I can tell - specifically tissue regeneration and healing, or regrowing tissue and in particular, bone. It gets much deeper, too - in the next post, I'll summarize the relevant parts and explain how this brings my project together in a way I didn't anticipate.

I get ahead of myself. As I develop more and more intuitive techniques around how I think I can construct a 'fake' bone (mock ossification) through my artistic creative process, I find more and more medical and scholarly research that informs me that these are actually the components of the biological processes I'm trying to mimic! For me, process is generative and informative, not the other way around (e.g. theory first). This organic process is one that many artists follow - the practice informs the research first, and then the bibliographical research circles back to further inform the practice. This is my baseline understanding of what we call "research-creation" and artistic ingenuity. I'll explain some of my random discoveries in a minute.

I need to first share the basic crystal growing and polyhedron construction work I've been doing as part of my project. The crystal growing is something I've been doing on my own, experimenting so far with copper sulfate, borax, epsom salts and monosodium glutamate. The polyhedron construction is something that I've recruited both a collaborator and a technician to help me with. My collaborator is a fellow grad student in Applied Mathematics here at Concordia named Alexandra Lemus Rodriguez. Alexandra is working to help me figure out the dihedral angles (interior angles) of the various geometric forms I'm constructing. The drawing to the left is a drawing of a triangular dipyramid I did, incorporating the dihedral angles that Alexandra calculated for me (you can click to enlarge the drawing). 

Geometric form of a hydroxyapatite crystal.

I'm designing at least six geometric crystalline forms and constructing them out of 3mm thick plexiglass. So far, I have the triangular dipyramid almost completely constructed and will begin working on a square trapezohedron next. The reason I need to calculate the dihedral angles, which are the interior angles between each plane, is because I then need to divide those angles in half in order to determine the exact angle of the bevel I need to cut the edges of the plexi at, in order to properly fit the planes all together to make the form.

My technical help in cutting the angles comes from a fantastic man named Antoliano Nieto who works here at Concordia in the prototyping lab (where they do all sorts of amazing things, including vacuum packaging and various kinds of 3-D printing, but I'll elaborate on that later as it relates to my project). Tony (as he is called) is a sweetheart, an artist in his own right and a genius problem-solver with constructing forms. So, I take Alexandra's angles to Tony and work with him to cut the shapes on a CNC (computer numerical control) machine and then bevel all the edges on a table saw according to spec. Then we join the bevels (which form the seams) with a solvent that melts the pieces together permanently. Voila - we have a plexi form. I'm not going to post any photos of my form until it's completely assembled.

I've also been laser etching pattern onto the interior planes of the plexi forms to make it more interesting. So far, my patterns are derived from a knit pattern called fish bone, which I've altered in Photoshop. 

The original fish bone knit pattern swatch.

My adaptations of the pattern, which resemble a cellular structure (above and below). These are the exact patterns I used for etching into the plexi for the top and bottom sections of the triangular dipyramid.

Here is a test example of the laser etching:

These plexi forms are to be the reliquaries/incubators for the mock ossified objects I'm creating with hog gut and mineral crystals. I will explain the reliquary/incubator aspect in a later post, and what I plan to do with them. In the meantime, here are some of my crystal growths on gut so far:

Epsom salts crystals on knit hog gut. Note that the top of the structure is white while the crystals appear like clear quartz points. When epsom crystals are exposed to air long enough, they turn white. All of the crystals on this piece will turn milky white after left out to dry for a few days.

Also an epsom salts solution on corked gut, but this gut was put into the solution wet. The results? All of the corked gut that sits above the water is hardened into a solid crystal form, yet still appears wet and smooth. Parts of it have begun to whiten.

This is a really overexposed photo but you can still see and understand the crystal growth. This is copper sulfate on woven gut, which was dried before putting it in the copper solution. Copper sulfate definitely makes the most beautiful crystals.

Another badly exposed photo but this is the same sculpture from a different angle.

Borax crystals growing on loosely knit gut, which was dried before being put in the solution. However, borax softened the gut back to its original wet state (the other solutions did not do this). I discovered that the reason for this is that when borax is mixed with water, some of its molecules convert water to hydrogen peroxide (H202).

None of the above crystal growths are yet complete - all are in process, except for maybe the copper sulfate one. My next experiments will be with mixing different types of growth together. For example, I may put the copper sulfate crystal into a borax solution and see what happens. I've just randomly chosen minerals to work with, without any previous research into what relationship they may have to bone. I wanted to try everything I could to see what different types of crystals I could grow. I ended with borax. However, after doing some more research tonight, I discovered that borax is very much linked to bone growth, formation and health. Boron, which is the mineral element in borax, is necessary in the body for regulating calcium absorption. A deficiency in boron leads to osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and even fibromyalgia. Taking borax or boron capsules can be used in the treatment of these conditions. WHO KNEW? Not me, but now we all do. I have more sources for this information other than the US National Library of Medicine but they are less reputable so I won't include them here. Further to all this, borax/boron is linked to estrogen/testosterone levels and thyroid function, correlating bone health to hormonal balance. I don't want to go on too much about this because I'm not giving medical advice and I'm not a medical doctor - I'm making no claims here beyond what is useful for my bio-art research and practice. I'm just pointing to the fact that borax is directly linked to maintaining or building the structure of bone in the body, which is my research interest. Perhaps one day I'll win a Nobel Prize for curing osteo-conditions with my art and tissue engineering projects, but until then...

... this research could fall within the context of transhumanism for its fantastical potential to somehow extend or enhance human life. For now, it's a research-creation project. In the next post, I'll follow up with more thoughts on this as well as how The Body Electric fits in with what I'm doing (the electronic aspect I haven't mentioned yet) and finishes the concept nicely.

VectorWorks is the program we use to design for the CNC machine. This shows a visual, geometrical way of calculating dihedral angles.

Biomimesis ossificans

The mock ossification process/objects that I'm creating are a form of biomimesis.
Biomimecry can be defined as: "the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems." What complex human problems I'm trying to solve at this point is unclear, but that's typical of any creative process: leaping into the unknown. I'm comfortable with that.

I've been collecting images of bone structure, including diseased bone and deteriorating bone. With disease/deformity, the biological system that generates a working structure goes awry. As an artist with a strong technical background in textiles (material structures), this is extremely relevant to my work and research now in tissue engineering.

Bone cancer specimen. You can see what appears to be a crystalline structure growing outward.

Skeleton showing muscle and ligaments turned to bone.

Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva is a disease where the body thinks it's "healing" normal fibrous tissues by turning them into bone. Here's what one website says: "...your whole body is slowly being petrified, as you excruciatingly transform into a creature formed of bone. Except, it’s bone without the smooth and mobile joints of the normal skeleton, so it’s like having a body filled with twigs that scrape and hinder every moment. Why not just cut off the growths? That causes the repair system to kick into overdrive, converting more of the body into bone and faster. There’s no known treatment for the 450 sufferers worldwide, and in one famous case a sufferer survived up to the age 40, at which point his entire body except his lips transformed into bone, leaving him completely immobile." This is a fascinating and horrific system breakdown. A miscommunication of the body creating too much structure, if you will. Structural overload.
 

Normal bone (left)/ Osteoporosis (right)

Osteoporosis is when bone begins to structurally break down, leaving huge gaps between the fibres that hold the bone together. It's like a piece of lace that slowly has threads cut here and there until the lace falls apart. 

Bone is extremely structure-based. I'm creating gut structures that might provide a window into a new matrix for bone growth. This is the first step of my mock ossification. Who knows how this might be helpful in some way in the future, once I get into a lab and do this for reals? I'm also planning to experiment with breaking those structures down to see what other biomimicry I can play with.

I'm deeply compelled by the intelligence of bone to grow and to repair itself, as well as the malfunction of that intelligence system. Oron Catts informed me during the tissue engineering workshop that bone cells have a high level of intelligence, possibly even more than brain cells. It is this type of intelligence, body intelligence that I'm fascinated with as a fibre artist. We can also call this haptic intelligence, haptic being the word for the sense of touch, contact between membranes. This speaks to the idea of cultural contact, whether that be cell cultures or human culture and the role of empathy. Emotional intelligence. My interest in the intelligence of the body and its senses is what drives this research. Also, the way that this innate and perhaps subconscious (automatic?) intelligence manifests itself in our conscious lives, such as through common linguistic terms/expressions. I love the secret truths we tell ourselves all the time, without even realizing it. We think, remember, feel and act from a cellular level (in our bones) and possibly do have all of the answers.

Some more of my gut structures so far (two posts ago I published images of the first knit gut that I made - these followed):
 

Corked gut.

Tapestry-woven (2/2 twill) gut.

Loosely knit gut that I shaped into a scapula form (close to human-scale).

The scapula form still drying.

Dried scapula form.

In the next post, I'll really get into and post many photos of my work with crystal growing and building polyhedrons (crystalline geometric forms). This will lead to a larger explanation of my project so far. The components of all of this studio work are:

1. Mock Ossification

1. Polyhedron Reliquaries/Incubators

1. Disembodied Pilgrimages

1. Meta-enculturation

So far, I've partially explained mock ossification. The results so far are quite stunning, I think. Stay tuned for those very yummy photos.

Biomaterial processes: DIY tissue engineering for dummies

Checking on the growth of my new cell cultures in the Pelling Lab.

I always vowed to myself throughout my academic career that I would never, ever, ever do a PhD. It seemed ludicrous. It seemed like way too much academia, and I don't exactly love the structure of academia. I didn't think I would ever have a single idea that could sustain 5-7 years worth of research. Plus, an MFA is officially a terminal degree for artists. However, the tissue engineering workshop at the Pelling Lab changed my thinking completely. I gained a very clear sense that my entire art practice thus far has led me to this work, and that everything I've ever done now makes perfect sense. Then I discovered that SymbioticA has a PhD program in creative tissue engineering. Oh, dear.

Oron Catts is one of the world leaders and innovators of the intersection between tissue engineering and art. I really enjoyed working with him at the Pelling Lab. It wasn't just the technical processes he so openly and generously shared, but also his philosophy towards science and scientific research: that the ongoing mystification and media hype needs to be debunked, and that scientific research is accessible, feasible and important for artists. Also, artists are important for science. He did, however, inform us that we were quite privileged in being selected to participate in the workshop and in actually being given this kind of access so openly.

One friend, with an academic background in sciences, asked me outright how it was that I, someone with no training whatsoever in science, had access to these kinds of labs (type II containment labs necessary for working with biohazardous materials), and this kind of highly specialized work. I explained that through this workshop, I was paired up with biologists to learn the 'craft' (as Oron calls it) of tissue engineering. For me, as an artist with a background in fine craft practices, this is speaking my language. Interdisciplinary practice is hot in the art world and in the research funding world so more and more we are seeing different fields of research being paired up with art practices. This is ultimately very enriching. Oron is interested in disseminating information that will enable artists to use semi-living matter (definition: that which comes from a living entity but can only exist in a laboratory environment) as art material. This art material is essentially disembodied life. And, as an artist, I can muck about with wet biology processes to dream up and create a new body for that disembodied life! I can hear that [here unnamed] church congregation praying once again for the salvation of my soul. I joke about that but in all seriousness, there are ethical implications with this type of work, and those problematics are extremely interesting to me, and part of the work that Oron explored with us. More on that later.

In the first day of the workshop, we learned to construct DIY incubators to grow biological cultures in, and air purifier hoods for creating a sterile work environment. Oron brought everyone to the labs, showed us a pile of materials that he'd selected for us, and instructed us to collaboratively figure out how to use the materials to build the lab equipment we'd need for growing cell cultures. 

The inside of our DIY incubator.

I was in the incubator working group. We riffled through the pile and chose a styrofoam cooler, a heating pad, a heating wire with a temperature sensor, a thermostat, a digital thermometer/ barometer, and foil tape. We also had scissors and a hand saw. None of us had any experience with these things previous to this. With those materials and basic pieces of equipment, we turned the cooler into a successfully functioning incubator that kept a fairly evenly-regulated temperature of 38˚ (body temperature). Animal cells need to be kept at body temperature to stay alive and grow. Our incubator had a plastic window in the door, built from the packaging that the thermostat came in. Oron was tough and gave us a hypothetical grade of 51%. Our incubator was not cell culture quality, he said, but we could grow mushrooms or culture yogurt/bacteria in it if we really wanted to. In truth, the materials he gave us would likely never produce an incubator suitable for cell cultures, but the exercise of collaborating to put one together with no previous knowledge whatsoever was empowering.

In the second day, we learned the processes of decellularization and creating new cell cultures. Decellularization is absolutely fascinating. Animal tissues, when all cells are removed, exist as nothing but a scaffolding of collagen strands. Plant matter (as opposed to animal tissue), when decellularized, becomes cellulose scaffolding. Animal = collagen. Plant = cellulose. Those are the matrices that all living matter grow on, the underlying structures that hold everything together. I thought of Marvin the Martian in Bugs Bunny cartoons, with his disintegrator ray gun, and imagined that it must simply eliminate collagen. Without the collagen scaffolding, we might collapse into a pile of loose cells with nowhere to go. 

A decellularized apple with only the cellulose scaffolding remaining.

A decellularized piece of tissue (pork) showing just the remaining collagen scaffolding (top) - it appears as a translucent, random mesh of fibres.

Decellularization is important because it allows you to create a raw material to work with, which can then be repopulated with any kind of living cell culture you want (FYI, many different types of living cells can be ordered online). One of the projects that was being worked on in the Pelling Lab was to repopulate an apple cellulose scaffolding with mouse muscle tissue. The apple was stripped of all its apple cells, then enculturated with the C2C12s (mouse muscle tissue cells), to produce an apple-shaped mouse muscle. They were interested in producing an apple that would twitch. Cells behave the way they're supposed to behave, meaning that heart cells will beat with the pulse of the heart they're taken from and muscle cells will know to expand and contract when stimulated. One thing that they discovered at the Pelling Lab was that a decellularized mouse heart repopulated with muscle tissue cells actually shrunk to half its size because the new muscle tissues contracted and pulled the heart form in. 

This is work in progress by Andrew Pelling's research crew. The container on the left is a decellularized apple and the container on the right is a decellularized apple that has been repopulated with C2C12s (mouse muscle tissue cells). It's in a red liquid because this is the nutrient solution necessary to feed and keep cell cultures alive and growing. The nutrient solution is made of fetal calf serum (blood) and antibiotics (since in vitro cell cultures do not have immune systems to protect them from contamination by diseases).

Once my piece of tissue was in the appropriate solution* in the magnetic stirrer to decellularize, I learned next how to create and grow my own cell cultures. We worked in the lab to create new HeLa (cervical cancer cells) and C2C12 cultures. HeLa cells are often used for testing in labs because they are so robust and grow very quickly. There is a history of complicated ethics around the use of HeLa cells (which were harvested from a dying woman without her knowledge or consent, or that of her family).

With a partner, I learned how to trypsonize an existing cell culture to separate the individual cells from each other (they grow in a tight, single layer on the bottom of the pitre dish), extract the free-floating cells from the old liquid, select a small sample of cells and transplant them to a new pitre dish, replenish the nutrient solution to feed them and establish a new culture (which has to go into the incubator to grow and thrive). This all has to be done in extremely sterile conditions in order to not contaminate the cells and cause them to sicken and die. Sick cell cultures will discolour the nutrient solution, so it is easy to tell which cultures are successful and which aren't. We came back to the lab the next day to check on our cultures - mine (a C2C12 culture) was growing remarkably well and looking very healthy, and I felt wondrously proud as I viewed them under the microscope. I'd grown my first in vitro life.

A successful C2C12 tissue culture grown collaboratively with my lab partner, Ottawa-based artist Daphne Enns, along with the cooperation of the cells themselves, of course. You cannot see the cells here because they are microscopic - all you can see is the hydrogel, but it is in fact swarming with hungry cells ready to proliferate under the right conditions.

You will notice that the above image of the cell culture indicates that it is suspended in hydrogel. Creating a hydrogel suspension was one of three techniques we learned for creating three-dimensional cell culture forms (decellularization/repopulating collagen scaffolding was the first technique). Hydrogel is extremely accessible, and in fact, Oron brought in a package of disposable baby diapers and showed us how to cut them open to collect the hydrogel beads that are embedded inside (used to cause baby urine to coagulate to keep the diapers 'dry'). So, the above cell culture is suspended in a hydrogel solution that I made from no-name diapers. Apropos for a culture of new (baby) cells, no? The laboratory (false) motherhood metaphor was not lost on me. As I mentioned, cell cultures grow in a single layer, typically, on the bottom of a pitre dish and stop reproducing when they run out of room. But, creating a hydrogel suspension and enculturating it with cells will provide the cells a 'shape' to grow into and through, and they will eventually take over the whole form in multiple layers. Were the cells pictured above allowed to continue to grow for an extended period of time, they would create a large, cylindrical muscle tissue the same shape as the entire pitre dish up to the edge of the hydrogel. This technique has fantastic possibilities. One could essentially create a mold of any shape and size, fill it with hydrogel suspension, enculturate it, incubate it and grow a semi-living form of one's own design.

The third technique for growing tissue in three dimensions is via a 3-D printer. In the Pelling Lab, there is a 3-D printer that extrudes a polymer cellulose in successive layers, building up whatever form you program it to print. We printed human vertebrae. Remember that cellulose is the plant-based matrix that cells can grow on, so this cellulose polymer is a friendly place for a new cell culture to grow, into the form you've printed. Eventually the polymer breaks down and the cells replace the underlying scaffold just as with the hydrogel.

These are the (two) vertebra we printed using the cellulose polymer extrusion process. If you look closely (or click the image to enlarge), you can see the layers of polymer that were built up. Polymer means 'plastic', but this is a vegetable- (cellulose-) based plastic that is biodegradable. Perfect for cells.

Some specialized labs are 3-D printing human organs. This is done with a different type of 3-D printer, one that prints cell-enculturated droplets of hydrogel into the form of a liver, etc. These experiments have been successful for reproducing organs in the lab.

A microscopic image of C2C12s on a computer screen at the Pelling Lab. These muscle tissue cells are being manipulated through a process of microscopic magnetic suction to attempt to align them all into the same direction or to change their shape. This is important for growing a muscle that will actually work properly to expand and contract in one direction.

Here an old iMac casing is being upcycled into an incubator (Pelling Lab).

This shows my (mostly) decellularized tissue after 24 hours in the magnetic stirrer, along with all of the others.

What happened with our living, thriving cell cultures? They were eventually disposed of (killed). We were asked first to think about what this really means and to collectively agree to allow those cultures to die. Personally, I did not have a problem with this decision, but ultimately, I did wistfully imagine taking it home and continuing to nurture this semi-living material the same as one would a plant or a pet or a child or any other living thing we care for, I suppose. This is impossible, of course, but I did still entertain the thought. Ideas of attachment to life and responsibility for that life, even in the process of engineering life in a false environment, is an important consideration, among others.

*I do have the recipe for the chemical bath that decellularizes tissue, along with all of the other recipes for feeding and sustaining cell cultures, etc.

Gut Feeling

I've just ordered this box of catgut from eBay:

Catgut is a bit of a misnomer: it's actually a surgical thread made from sheep or goat intestines, not cat. Catgut eventually dissolves within the living body as tissue 'heals' and is therefore perfect for internal sutures. Here is how catgut used to be packaged and sold, historically (I'd love to have this object):

Click here to go to the medical antiques website.

I'll tell you why I've ordered this in a minute. Last week, I went to a local butcher and bought 10 meters of pig intestine (hog gut) for $10 and then knit it into a tight swatch. I had to knit it while it was still wet and malleable, meaning I knit it in a sink under a running faucet. Here's what it looked like afterwards:

You can see here that it is in the process of drying. The whole thing took about two days to dry.

Knitting intestine was relatively easy, its tensile nature cooperating with the looping and pulling I put it through. The end result, completely dried, looks similar to a piece of beef jerky:

The gut twisted as it dried.

Why gut as a material? In my process of mock ossification, I'm using gut as a stand-in for collagen. I don't currently have access to a lab (yet), so I have to be creative and substitute materials in the meantime. Originally, I chose gut because I feel that the level of elasticity, the tensile strength and the general material quality of gut closely resembles that of collagen strands. At least, enough for me to work with it in pushing my research forward.

What I have discovered about gut after making my decision and beginning my experiments, is amazing - the fact that it can be used to fuse together living tissue and will be absorbed by living organisms makes it even more a perfect material to work with for my purposes, and I think it may be entirely possible that I could explore real in vitro ossification (bone tissue engineering) with it. I also discovered that intestines have their own neurons (click to read an article about it), meaning that they 'think' on a certain level. Imagining the possibility that the intestine I'm working with is forming a response to me as I handle it is interesting. Well, such would be the case were it still alive. Scientifically speaking, this 'thinking' is more to form an emotional response, giving credibility to the old expression, "gut feeling". Also, there have been new discoveries that show that the gut brain is related to bone formation. All of the work I do is completely an intuitive invention of my own, but its relationship to hard science is fascinating to me, as I go along and discover ever more connections. It is precisely the metaphoric, the abstract and the intuitive that I'm operating through with this work of mock ossification. We'll see what else unfolds over the coming weeks. Ultimately, as the conceptual component of my tissue engineering work, I'm interested in understanding the intelligence of bone to design itself.

In the next blog post, I'll explain more about actual tissue engineering itself and what I know from my own lab work. Then, my work with crystals.

So, what am I planning to do with the catgut that I've ordered? Well, to see if commercially prepared intestine 'string' will behave the same way as the 'string' I've created from fresh intestine in my experiments. Besides, it's much thinner and will allow me a greater level of detail with my work. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.  

Ossilicious

Today's research thread: The Grove Encyclopedia of Materials and Techniques in Art (beautiful and complete online resource!) > Bone > Ossification > Hydroxyapatite

What I learned: Bone is basically a bunch of calcium crystals grown on collagen strands.

What is so exciting about this for me?

Basic Context: I've been intuitively developing a creation process that I'm calling mock ossification. Until today, I didn't realize my process had hard science truth to it. I will get to explaining this all throughout the blog as the days go by. You can subscribe or follow the blog to see the research and creation unfold. My mock ossification work is a component of a larger project that I've received generous SSHRC funding for this year as part of my Master's thesis work at Concordia University, and which will lead towards my future continued work in creative tissue engineering at SymbioticA. My project will also incorporate digital technology in my ongoing investigation of what I've dubbed digital psychogeography, the simultaneous existence of a physical and twin digital plane and its effects on our emotions and thinking about spatial reality (as in, the landscape and what I call the e-scape).

I've been invited to do a three-month residency at SymbioticA in 2014 to research what I hope will result in some very exciting and innovative bio-art. Oron Catts, the founder/director of SymbioticA and former Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School, will supervise my research. I was led to this residency opportunity after I was selected to participate in a three-day tissue engineering workshop this past May (2013) at the Pelling Lab at the University of Ottawa, with Oron Catts and Andrew Pelling. The work I participated in during that workshop was profoundly life-altering for me as an artist and individual. I realized, full-on epiphany-style, that everything in my life and professional practice up to that point had clearly led me to this highly specialized work.

I found this microscopic image of calcium crystals that reminded me of the image of my work I'm using as the background image for this blog. My blog image is the side view of a rolled up 20 ft smocked roll of waxed paper that I created in 2012. 

Ossification is the process of bone formation. This process is what I plan to research and experiment with in depth during my tissue engineering activities over the next year or twenty.

When I was a seven year-old kid, my parents took me on an extended, wild road trip adventure across the North American continent, from the east coast to the west coast. One of our adventure breaks along the way was to roam about the Badlands of North Dakota. It was a dusty, barren place, but my mother managed to unearth a treasure amid the empty landscape. She saw something sticking up out of the hard-packed clay ground and kicked at it until it broke loose a little, and then she dug it up. It was a fossilized skull of some unidentified animal, complete with darkened molars and empty fang sockets. To this day, I still have no idea what this petrified animal could have been but it is small, fitting into the palm of my hand. This single event shaped my entire life's passion. When asked in grade 3 what I most wanted to be when I grew up, I stated confidently, "An archaeologist."

I did not become an archaeologist, but an artist specializing in fibre and material studies, predominantly utilizing bone, flesh, hair and fur in my practice. Till now, I have worked with dead matter, bringing it back to life through mythic, artistic reconstruction. This is both a spiritual and physical practice. Naturally my next step is to literally bring materials to life through wet biology processes, to construct new semi-living (and perhaps still mythic) artistic objects. It amazes me that I have the tools and resources to do this as an artist-researcher.

My research will be focused at Concordia University this academic year, partially independently in my private studio, as well as through peer discussion, hopefully some consultation with professor Tagny Duff, as well as eventually (maybe next year) in the new tissue engineering lab that Tagny is establishing at Concordia if she will agree to have me in!

I'm particularly interested in this as a calcium (bony) growth that resembles knitting. This is a fossilized heliastar (starfish).

In the next post, I will share my actual studio and lab work around all of this so far.