On Big Bacteria Picture Series
Note on sales
Each series is produced in two separate edition lines. There is a portfolio edition (an edition of 5, collectible only as a complete set) and a single-image edition (an edition of 25 per motif, available for individual purchase).
Substantive aspects
“big bacteria” is a long-term project by Sabine Kacunko (since 2002) that features bacteria as the facts of the permanently changing and sensing living matter. It documents microbially induced transformation processes when applicated to art and heritage, health and societies as well as to analogue and digital ecosystems. Big bacteria is a kind of ongoing, “living” art archive and an original artwork at the same time. Under the same, EU-patented lable, the artist co-founded also an international research network back in 2014.
In her earlier projects (Project p.o.l. art), the artist “animated” the analogue b/w negatives due to colonization by bacteria, and she documented the decay with a digital imaging procedure that generated a variety of colorful microscopic images of the pigment-producing bacteria; in the next stage, some of these images were projected onto the large architectural surfaces, from which they stem – they moved from the artistic studio and scientific lab out to the public space to initiate the open discourse about health and heritage (Project bootschaft); since then and at present, the big bacteria archive is set up as a free accessible work-in-progress to question and publicly discuss the inimitability of the presented life cycle of „non-fungible“ life that becomes a „non-fungible“ art (and perhaps vice versa). (Project big bacteria)
By her Picture Series related to the big bacteria-project, Sabine Kacunko adresses all at once:
– “life” and its constraints
– “dead” and its “healing”
– deterioration and remediation
– materiality and visuality
– “animated” and “artificial”
– structuralism of microscopy and circuitry of processes
– stitching and sequencing
– “citizen science” and “world health”
– medical and environmental microbiology
– non-fungible “life” and non-fungible “art”
– archive and curation
– human and non-human “autorship”
– scalleability of „images“ and „pictures“
Bacteria in this context,
– stand for original one-cell “living matter”
– stand for diversity, variety and ubiquity
– serve as models for individuation, agency and selfhood
– serve as models observing- and interpreting systems
– serve as models for study of humans
– are applicable in the natural- and cultural health- and heritage contexts
– exhibit a form of organization that is responsible for interpreting and changing the processes in which it is involved
Formal Aspects
The following remarks address constants—relating to image theory and the apparatus, as well as morphology and material-medial characteristics—found in Sabine Kacunko’s picture series.
1. Constants of Image Theory and Apparatus
In her investigations into transformative (micro-)biological processes, the artist employs various imaging techniques that enable the identification of the relevant structures or organisms within their environments; these include: light microscopy (transmitted-light and reflected-light microscopy, including brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, polarization, stereomicroscopy, and fluorescence), electron microscopy (scanning electron microscopy [SEM] and transmission electron microscopy [TEM]), and scanning probe microscopy. As the artist frequently utilizes these three microscopy methods, they are briefly explained here:
a. In brightfield microscopy, the microbe presents itself as an absorbing area through absorption contrast: light shines directly through the specimen from below. Structures become visible in the image only if they absorb a portion of this light. This is necessary because most microorganisms (such as bacteria) consist largely of water and are nearly transparent; consequently, in their living, natural state, they provide little contrast. Chemical preparation and staining (e.g., Gram staining) are usually essential to distinguish internal cell structures or cell walls from one another. In this setup, the resulting image appears predominantly flat, graphic, and two-dimensional. The microbe appears as a dark or colored silhouette against a dominant, bright background.
b. In darkfield microscopy, a central stop in the condenser blocks direct transmitted light. The sample is illuminated exclusively by oblique light rays forming a hollow cone of light. Scattered-light contrast causes homogeneous, transparent areas of the cell to remain dark, while edges and fine surface details—which often remain invisible in brightfield—stand out sharply. As a result, the resulting image possesses a highly three-dimensional, almost sculptural quality. The microbe appears immaterial, …self-illuminating and isolated against a pitch-black background—a presentation often reminiscent of astronomical imagery.
c. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) creates a unique visual language that differs significantly from classical light microscopy. Its impact can be categorized into structural and aesthetic effects: extreme depth of field is the most striking structural effect; unlike the extremely shallow focus of a light microscope, the SEM keeps almost the entire three-dimensional object in sharp focus. The SEM scans the object with an electron beam, directing focus toward surface topography: only the outermost interface (the relief) is imaged. The interior of the sample remains hidden, bringing physical texture (cracks, pores, fine hairs) radically to the fore—all at nanometer resolution. Aesthetically, SEM images resemble sculptural, three-dimensional forms or monumental landscapes (“microlandscapes”). Since electrons lack color, original images are always black and white. This focuses attention purely on form, contrast, light, and shadow (akin to analog black-and-white photography) and emphasizes the geometric purity of the structures. At the same time, the objects appear monumental, alien (“surreal”), and often like artificially created, futuristic art objects.
However, through subsequent digital colorization, these SEM images can also take on a hyper-real, almost “pop” or psychedelic aesthetic. However, through subsequent digital colorization, SEM images can also take on a hyper-real, almost pop-art or psychedelic aesthetic—though the artist has not employed this technique so far. To date, she has used only the method of labeling: typically employed in light or fluorescence microscopy, this involves chemically marking biological samples with special dyes or fluorescent antibodies prior to imaging. Specific cell components or proteins then glow on their own under the microscope. In this case, the color is generated during the imaging process itself, rather than being added later on a computer.
The artist harnesses the diversity and captivating nature of microscopic images by critically examining the image itself and the imaging processes involved.
2. Morphological Constants
In Sabine Kacunko’s series, one encounters all the principal morphological forms of bacteria—spherical (cocci), rod-shaped (bacilli), as well as comma- and spiral-shaped structures. Furthermore—reflecting the more common scientific method of bacterial classification—the bacteria appear with either thicker (Gram-positive) or thinner (Gram-negative) membranes; this indicates that the identification and further differentiation of these ancient life forms are often linked to the medium or environment in which they “appear.” The diversity in the visual appearance of microbiological organisms within their equally varied growth media has thus become a virtually inexhaustible field of artistic exploration, finding a particularly fitting medium of expression in Sabine Kacunko’s various image series.
The artist also addresses the interplay between the visual appearance of microbiological growth media and the morphology of the microorganisms cultivated or simply observed within them. The medium reveals itself to be a morphological agent, for preparatory media do not behave passively. Chemical fixation, dehydration processes (e.g., for SEM), or resin embedding physically alter the organic material (causing shrinkage or membrane collapse). The documented form is invariably a hybrid of biological structure and instrumental intervention.
3. Material and Medial Constants
Microbiology employs a wide variety of culture media (or types of agar) to cultivate, select, or differentiate bacteria and fungi based on their specific properties:
a. enriched and general-purpose media such as blood agar (red, matte, and opaque), chocolate agar (chocolate-brown and opaque), or nutrient agar (pale yellowish to amber, clear and translucent; visually resembling firm, light-colored gelatin);
b. selective and differential media (for Gram-negative bacteria) such as MacConkey agar (reddish-violet to pale pink and slightly translucent), CLED agar (pale green to blue-green and slightly translucent), and XLD agar (bright red and clear/translucent);
c. selective media (for Gram-positive bacteria) such as mannitol salt agar (Chapman agar; pink to reddish and transparent) and Columbia CNA agar (visually almost indistinguishable from standard blood agar: deep red and opaque, as it also contains sheep blood);
d. specialized media for fungi and mycobacteria such as Sabouraud agar (SDA; pale yellowish, beige, or light amber and relatively light in color) and Löwenstein-Jensen medium (opaque and mint-green to blue-green).
In her series of pictures, the artist combines the morphology of bacteria and fungi with the diverse visual characteristics of microbiological culture media; she allows a wide range of material samples or objects—as well as her own breath, saliva, or blood—to merge with the solidified substrate in the Petri dish. She observes the phases of these reactions, of growth or “decay,” and in doing so poses artistic questions that—not least—inspire wonder or provide inspiration to both laboratory professionals and the art-viewing public alike. Art and experiment merge into one another. The relationship between (instrumental) measurement and (human) perception is called into question, as is their respective connection to the famous dictum often attributed to Louis Pasteur: “The germ is nothing; the milieu is everything.” And what if milieu and germ were one and the same—and everything? (The famous quote “The microbe is nothing, the environment is everything” (often shortened to “The germ is nothing, the environment is everything”) is said to not have originated with Louis Pasteur himself, but with his great scientific rival, the French physician and chemist Antoine Béchamp.)
On the distinction between “image” and “picture”
The distinction between “image” and “picture” is of central importance in artist´s context. It marks the difference between a dataset and an object for viewing. The microscope generates an „image“ (a machine-readable, invisible data space representing the sample). However, once this image is finalized through stitching, color-coded, and viewed as a finished visual work—or assigned to a series by the artist or published as such—it becomes a „picture“ (an artifact with aesthetic and communicative impact).
- The “Image” (The epistemic image / The construct)
In science, an „image“ is primarily a dataset, a matrix of information. It is not necessarily tied to a physical medium and is often highly abstract.
- In microscopy: When a scanning electron microscope (SEM) scans the surface of a sample, it does not take a photograph. It measures electron currents and translates them into digital values. The result is an „image“.
- Stitching & sequencing: The tiles used in stitching or the Z-stacks (focal layers) are „images“. They consist of pure, manipulable data coordinates (X/Y/Z). An „image” can be calculated, algorithmically filtered, encoded with false colors, and seamlessly stitched together (image processing).
- The concept: The „image“ is the tool of knowledge acquisition.
- The “Picture” (The concrete artifact / The depiction)
A „picture“ is the concrete, physical, or framed manifestation of an „image“ for the human eye. It is the image as an object
- In practice: As soon as you view the computed image (the stitched bacterial colony) on a monitor as a self-contained visual work—embedding it in a PDF, exporting it as a JPEG, or printing it on photo paper—it becomes a „picture“.
- The significance: A „picture“ has a border (a frame), a surface, and often an aesthetic or representational intent. It represents an attempt to translate the complex, invisible data of the „image“ into an intelligible, two-dimensional form for the human viewer.
