This Semester I have been exploring with Physarum Ploycephalum and wanted to find a sophisticated project through this. After struggeling for some time I have decided to make my project about Living and Coexisting with the Slime Mold.
I have expeimented with growing it over different objects, up to the point where it is taking part in my life and in my room. I am sharing my personal space, privacy and personal items with Physarum Polycepalum.
WHAT IS PHYSARUM POLYCEPHALUM
EXPERIMENTING
Mirror and Physarum Polycephalum
Building a Petridish with a mirror as the base
26.06.2022 building the top
28.06.2022 trying to cover the mirror with agar (failure)
Clothing and Physarum Polycephalum
04.06.2022 Observing the growth in Petridish
05.06.2022
(A)Carefully placing the Organism on the T-shirt with a cardboard beneath. Then wetting and feeding with oats just around the aga cover. In order to control grow a cover is put over. Fabric: Cotton
(B) Placing the Organism in the Center of the Tshirt. It is not wet or feed with additional food or water. The Agar moisture spreads out on the fabric. I hope this will create a differet sturcture in growth than from A. Fabric: Satin
06.06.2022 Growth of A and B
08.06.2022 Final day
B I really like the result of this one.
A
As seen, for the moment to take the pictures, a part of the organism has already started going black. And the thickness of the rest has been reduced. It started dying.
Scoby
For this Experiment I was following this guide. After prepearing and mixing I took it home to observe the bacterias growth.
https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/GMU:Home_Made_Bioelectronics/Other_resources
The 1 and 2 show the same behaviour. Small dots grow all over the petri dish just mass/coverage is decreased. In the dished 3 , 4 and 5 a different growth structure is visible. In these a serried growth from the edge to the middle is visible. Additionally small dots appear in 3 there are few dots than in 1:1000 and no rhytms in the growth from the side. Comparing 4 and 5 to the rest: Both show structure and rhythm in the growth from the side, the rest doesn´t. This might occur due to the mold growing inside which grew on accident. Comparing 4 and 5 to another the difference in the thickness and mass of the dots and patterns, rhythmsis visible. 4 has more dots than 3 and 5 which goes againt the "theory" the dots decreasing. Also in the reference dish 6 a small space is covered in bacteria which should not have happend.
I can not explain why the behaviour, patterns changes nor why the intesity changes from 4 and 5.
References
- https://class.textile-academy.org/2020/loes.bogers/files/recipes/bacterialdye/
- https://www.lampoonmagazine.com/article/2021/08/06/vienna-textile-lab-bacterial-dyes-karin-fleck/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-environments-new-clothes-biodegradable-textiles-grown-from-live-organisms/
- https://www.uni-weimar.de/kunst-und-gestaltung/wiki/GMU:Different_Worlds/Anna_Wissmueller
Artists
- https://annadumitriu.co.uk/
- https://www.realitydisfunction.org/?page_id=182
- https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_deDE984DE984&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=decalcomanie+max+ernst&fir=JEWjxFlDBH3bvM%252ClXvJO1Yxdkt9OM%252C_%253B4l-9SSiGcDMGoM%252CTrYvdNcSjDY75M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kQer15CgRlQzDt5OwKB9GQyfMWeew&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjuw9qXsZb4AhXgSvEDHZC2ASsQ7Al6BAgaEAI&biw=1368&bih=761&dpr=2
Old Concept/Experiment with Martin Howse sensor