Featured: "A Better Living Through Germs" by Christina Agapakis
Bacteria are everywhere. They take part in every aspect of our physical lives, working to keep our internal and external environments in balance. These microscale ecosystems do not however exist in our digital lives.
Metagermination is a project that examines the transfer of digital information through speculative digital "bacteria". Inspired by micro strategies and horizontal gene-transfer Marcus Guttenplan and I designed a set of digital programs and their information transfer strategies. By making contact, using a mouse, a hand, a gesture, or a wearable device information is haphazardly exchanged.
Working quietly beneath the digital surface these digital "bacteria" move through code causing confusion while restoring balance. As a user travels through their digital life, bits and pieces of metadata are transplanted or swapped. Would this system undermine metadata harvesting by advertisers and governments? What is this was a type of operating system? How would this digital system eventually manifest in the physical world? By using these strategies inspired by bacteria what are the effects on the digital? Would we better understand how we move through the digital space? What we are in contact with? What our own digital microbiota is made up of?
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TRANSFER PROCESS
I was interested in exploring the bacteria production processes and found it interesting how similar it was to our food production and consumption process.
INTERACTION
In one scenario the user hovers over a photo. Data collected from a previous site is swapped with the photos information. The underlying structure changes. Superficially, this change is subtle and easily missed. But for advertisers, data analytic companies, and corporations that harvest massive amounts of data for marketing purposes this subtle change undermines their pervasive tactics. In the interconnected ecosystem of the internet, bacterial data exchange attacks ad-exec meta-predators and restores digital symbiotic balance to online communities.
PROTOTYPE
Using python scripts and Processing we created a prototype that tracked the cursor. This prototype was a proof of concept to help communicate how the user could travel through their computer and exchange code.
FIELD RESEARCH
As a class we visited various sites and scales. This immersion was a way for us to quickly jump in and get inspired. Throughout my research I was most interested in the transfer and effects of bacteria. Initially interviewing Fecal Transplant Doctors and Patients I became interested in the concept of heritage microbiota. The effects of this became difficult to explore, well beyond my knowledge. I decided to be inspired by my previous work and bring that information into the collaboration with Marcus. Everything that I had learned on bacteria transferring lending itself to this project but in a completely different context.
CLASS / LAB INQUIRY: BACTERIAL CULTURES
Instructor: Ben Hooker and Dr. Christina Agapakis