One year after the Life Flag project in Berlin, the media art project SAY(IL)ING – CRYSTAL MIRROR was presented at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris on 27th November 2011. In an accessible media sculpture made out of carbon there was a video microscope, beneath which was a Petri dish, which contained animated cell cultures that could be experienced in an audio-visual manner. The cells in question were the historical bacteria culture from the Ehrenberg, which had also been the starting point in BOOTSCHAFT – LIFE FLAG and were reactivated or ‘reanimated’ by Prof. Dr. Anna Gorbuschina. Images of the growth process of the reanimated bacteria cultures were transmitted live on the Internet and were thus accessible on the project’s website for virtual visitors.
The carbon sculpture referred to the coordinates of the Pyramid of Cheops and consisted of the reflection of the pyramid apex in an octahedron, to which ultra sound spots were attached. By using special developed software, the bases of the bacteria cultures’ DNA were transformed into tones and by using the current wind coordinate on site they were output as sounds and thus passed onto the external world. The desert dust was originally found in Calabria and handed to the humanist Alexander von Humboldt in Paris in 1823, who then submitted it for evaluation in Berlin. It was determined that the dust originated from the Sahara and had been carried over the trade winds to Italy. This was the first scientific proof of the correlation of various ecosystems. The micro-organisms from the Sahara Desert today feed further ecosystems on their way to Europe, as well as the rainforests in South America. The Sahara dust reaches Paris via a strong south current over the Mediterranean and the Alps. The winds bring plant nutritive substances such as calcium, magnesium or microorganisms with the North African dust. Dust, sand and organic material have permanently been transported from the barren dry desert of the Sahara to the tropical rainforests of South America by the wind.
The ‘rebirth’ of an almost 200-year-old bacterium as a product of interdisciplinary collaboration and the productive interplay of culture, politics and science is seldom so strongly associated with a historical personality like Alexander von Humboldt. The German humanist lived and worked in Paris for many years up until 1827. As is well known, there were many practical aspects to Humboldt’s research work. Human beings were supposed to be allowed to use nature as sustainably as possible. This narrative was conceptualized and reflected in the structure of CRYSTAL MIRROR.
