Pretoria - The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Creative Microbiology Research Colab is presenting the first exhibition of biotechnology to be held in South Africa and on the African continent.
The Creative Microbiology Research Colab is an inter-faculty collaboration dedicated to producing creative work located at the interface between microbiology, visual representation, and creative practice.
Biotechnological art, or bioart as it is also known, involves artmaking practices that deal with the application of biotechnologies.
This includes living and non/living matter used as raw material and subjects for artistic production, using scientific practices and protocols.
UJ’s exhibition foregrounds the intermeshing of human and microbial life to create awareness of how humans are in constant contact with the microbial world.
The artworks are made using various microbes – including bacteria and mycelia – and other living and non/living matter to render the invisible visible.
The exhibition also marks the launch of the Creative Microbiology Research Colab biolaboratory in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. It is a fully equipped microbiology lab, which offers creative practitioners access to the kinds of specialised scientific equipment and expertise required to engage with wet biology practices.
It was founded by Professor Leora Farber, director of the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, and Professor Tobias Barnard, director of the Water and Health Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences.
The Creative Microbiology Research Colab is also based on the conviction that bioart holds the potential to generate new insights, perspectives, scholarly and indigenous knowledge that arise from, and pertain to, an African context, something Professor Farber is thrilled about.
“This is exciting because it is an unusual combination of two different disciplines and it is a sense of adventure and innovation as disciplines are no longer discreet,” he said.
“It is much more productive to work across disciplines in order to come up with something creative and new. We are embracing bioart as a new opportunity to see what can be done in the African context.”
The exhibition runs until August 19.