Maps and Journeys- Installation Idea

After my last post highlighting my concern for the installation idea, I decided that the product design was a little too commercial, and that I wanted to create something much more conceptual. So I returned to an earlier idea I had of growing the bacteria on the inside of light bulbs, as well as petri dishes. I have seen something similar done before for the purpose of testing water for toxicity, but I wanted to create something on a larger scale.

I began researching light bulb installations and came across a photograph album of one called 'Scattered Light' by Jim Campbell:

I liked the idea of suspending the light bulbs and allowing an audience to walk through them. This to me would create an enchanting environment for my audience to view bio-luminescent bacteria whilst still conveying it as a light source. As we are seeing biology as light sources becoming more and more popular (as I showed in previous posts) it seems likely that light bulbs that glow green or blue from biological incandescence is a sight we may see in the near future.

Also, as part of the installation I would like to observe the bacteria as it grows, to show the process in which it becomes something of use to us as humans, and to show how the installation was made. After talking with Leah at the end of last year about laying bare your devices, I've begun to put a lot of value into that idea where it is appropriate, and in this case I feel that the process of creating the installation fills the brief as much as the outcome. The creative and scientific journey in creating sustainable lighting, and even the progression of ideas from looking at the connection between biology and man-made machines, to realising that this line between machine and biology is becoming increasingly thinner, is something important to demonstrate to an audience if they are to fully appreciate the installation itself.

In recording the process, I was thinking of taking a time-lapse of the bacteria growing, much like in this video:

I would also like to photograph the bacteria possibly through a microscope, but certainly at stages in its growth cycle, but also using written observations to present like a research diary, detailing the life of the organism which the audience could then view or had just viewed in the light bulb. I feel that it gives the audience essential context on the piece.