Jul 17 2008
The uncertainty principle: when things don’t go according to plan.
In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is the statement that locating a particle in a small region of space makes the velocity of the particle uncertain; and conversely, that measuring the velocity of a particle precisely makes the position uncertain. The term “uncertainty” is used in different fields (law, physics, sociology, engineering, etc) in different ways. In this situation, I am applying it to my experiments in my lab.
I have been creating cultures with Serratia for a few years now, and I have my lab procedures down to a set of steps that yields fairly predictable results. Unfortunately, just as the summer began I was required to move my lab due to construction in my building. I was quite lucky, a colleague offered me a great space that he had no plans to use this summer. So I moved in and set up shop in this new space and ran a few tests in preparation for the launch of this project.
I set up webcams using different software to test the hardware end of things and for good measure, I created a few cultures and left them under the webcams for a couple weeks to test the wetware side of things. All went well and you can see the tests here. Based on these tests, I made the assumption that I could install cultures in my combination fume hood/light box, with webcams trained upon them, for the three weeks I planned to be gone at the ISEA conference. Which I did, but just before leaving I documented the cultures with my high resolution SLR camera. I thought nothing of the small spider I found on my light box (on the outside) that I squashed and killed. Obviously, the ‘not thinking,’ that was a mistake.
About two hours outside of Washington DC, I checked in on my webcams via my phone and noticed small distortions in the image. I though it was evening sunlight shining through the glass cover or some jpeg artifact that I hadn’t noticed before. When I checked back a few hours later, the “distortions” were unmistakably darker, linear and slightly red. This was bad. It meant something dragged, or to be more accurate: tracked, the bacteria from where it was applied to other parts of the dish. I was torn between feeling upset and amused. The little spider had friends, and they were “attacking” my culture like little insurgents.
The upset part: artists who use living materials always face more scrutiny that scientists. I can assure you I have been in research labs that look nothing like the sterile, beautifully lit labs of CSI and other crime shows. The labs I’ve seen are full of mostly male college students. This is a big generalization, but as a group, they are not known for their thoroughness, cleanliness or consideration when it comes to using shared spaces. I’ve seen labs that were complete pigsties with old pizza boxes and fast food containers everywhere. I took pictures, I have proof. They are anything but sterile. However none of this excuses the fact that I let my cultures get contaminated though knowing my own limitations on space and materials, I’ve only used a mostly harmless bacteria that one might find in soil, trash or even less than clean bathrooms. (You know, that red ring you may have seen in a toilet or tub could be Serratia marcescens. Mold makes me more sick than this stuff.)
The amused part: In a way, this is what I always wanted out of these visualizations. The idea of using a living form to represent the infrastructure of war, map globalization or visualize the effects of an ideology was to use the properties of living materials for their inherent unpredictability. I’ve made maps using Serratia with the hope that the bacteria would travel beyond the site of application. In this particular situation, I have to admit the spiders where there in the space first, I invaded their space. It fits the theme of this project quite well.
I’ve made a time-lapse video which shows the development of one of these cultures, the Balad Airbase culture, over a few days. You’ll notice I moved them around a bit while I photographed them in the early stages. On July 10th around noon I remove the lid of the dish so that condensation wouldn’t fall back on the culture and destroy the pattern I’ve established. If you look closely at around 3:30 AM on July 11th, you will see a couple dots that appear and disappear. Those are the spiders. there may have been only one.
click here for Windows Media Player compatible version.
