CONCEPT:
Are you bored with Western scientific practices?
Do you wish there was more compassion in lab work?
HOW TO MAKE SLIME MOLD LAUGH is an innovative new project birthed from the Bauhaus DIY Biolab. After an initial interest in physarum polycephalum, we [Marleen and Amy], stumbled across an article titled “Electrocute Slime Mold Long Enough and it’ll apparently make music”. Why is our first instinct to electrocute things? We decided that the slime mold was probably screaming…
Why not instead of making them scream we could make them laugh? This way you could still have the slime mold produce sound but from a place of pleasure as opposed to exploitation and cruelty. When considering new methods of working with live cultures we questioned the traditional scientific methods which seem to be hierarchical and focused on extractive practices. We wondered how this process could become an energy exchange and reciprocal; with the slime mold learning about us as we learn about them.
How to make something/someone laugh? By using jokes of course. The original plan included a study-like process with control groups, e.g. jokes being told to one group and scientific papers being read to the other.
However the actual process was a lot slower, with us first having to understand how to make the slime mold happy. We focused on trying to keep them alive, to learn which foods they like and how to not contaminate their (artificial) homes (petri dishes and jars). For a more holistic approach, we exposed them to different environments and gave them different foods, told them jokes and even took them outside of the lab: to the park, our homes, parties and the ice rink.
We were interested in whether giving them a good time and good vibes could encourage them to grow and flourish.
Our project is certainly ambitious and promising. For now we wish to simply record and document the process by paying respect to all of the slime mold we have used in the experiment thus far. We are aware that it’s been difficult to not reproduce traditional scientific methods within our practice but we hope that our practice has been gentle and a more pleasant experience for the slime mold.
FUNERAL BOOKLET:
HOW TO MAKE SLIME MOLD LAUGH BOOKLET:
HOW TO MAKE SLIME MOLD LAUGH VIDEO MARLEEN KÖLMEL: [1]
FUNERAL VIDEO/SLIDESHOW: [2]
WINTER WERKSCHAU:
